TL;DR
Craft.io supports three main approaches for building your backlog. Each serves a different purpose and works best at different stages.
Create items manually.
Import items in bulk using CSV.
Bring items in from delivery tools via integrations.
Most teams use a combination of these approaches as their setup evolves, often moving toward integrations as their long-term setup.
What does “getting your backlog into Craft.io” mean?
Your backlog in Craft.io represents the work you plan, prioritize, and track over time. Depending on how your workspace is configured, this can include initiatives, epics, features, or stories.
Getting your backlog into Craft.io means:
Creating work items that reflect how your team plans and delivers.
Ensuring items appear consistently across views like Backlog, Table, Roadmaps, and Dashboards.
Laying a foundation that can evolve as your process matures.
💡 Tip: Many teams start by creating a few items manually to test their structure, terminology, and hierarchy. Once things feel right, you can always import more data or connect Craft to your delivery tools.
Creating items manually
Manual creation is the simplest way to start working in Craft.io.
It’s ideal when you’re:
Starting a new workspace.
Exploring how you want your hierarchy to look.
Validating terminology and structure before importing data at scale.
You can create items directly from:
Any table view (such as the Product Backlog)
Roadmaps
The global Create button
💡 Tip: Start with a small set of representative items. This helps you confirm that your item types, hierarchy, and terminology feel right before scaling up.
Importing work items via CSV
CSV import is designed for efficiently bringing an existing backlog into Craft.io. This approach works best when you already have backlog data in another tool or spreadsheet.
CSV imports allow you to:
Upload epics and features (3 dot or 2 dot items).
Map standard and custom fields such as status, owner, priority, or value.
Define parent–child relationships during import.
💡Tip: Start your CSV import with a small test file to validate item types, hierarchy, and field mapping. This helps align your structure, and avoid inactive or historical items adding noise to your backlog before you scale the import.
👉 To learn more about CSV import, see the article: Comprehensive CSV Import of Work Items
Importing via integrations (Recommended)
Integrations connect Craft.io to delivery and execution tools used by engineering teams. This approach is ideal when execution work lives in another system and you want delivery progress reflected automatically in Craft over time.
Integrations allow you to:
Link Craft items to execution items (for example, Craft epics to Jira or ADO epics).
Sync status and progress.
Keep planning and delivery aligned over time.
Think of integrations as an ongoing connection between planning and execution, not a one-time migration.
When importing via an integration, you don’t need to recreate items manually in Craft first. Importing directly from the source system helps avoid duplication and keeps a single source of truth - while still surfacing the work in your Craft backlog.
👉 To learn more about integration import, see the article: Integrations at a Glance
Choosing the right approach for your backlog
Situation | Recommended approach |
Starting from scratch | Manual creation |
Migrating an existing backlog | CSV import |
Ongoing planning & delivery alignment | Integrations (recommended) |
Large migration with refinement | CSV import followed by manual cleanup |
While there are multiple ways to get started, most teams ultimately move toward an integration-based setup.
Integrations enable an ongoing connection between planning in Craft and execution in delivery tools, keeping progress, status, and ownership aligned over time. This reduces duplication, prevents drift between systems, and helps teams maintain a single, trusted planning layer as their backlog evolves.
💡 Tip: For teams working with engineering delivery tools, we recommend using integrations as the long-term setup, as they create a durable, ongoing link between planning and execution.
What comes next?
Once your backlog exists in Craft.io, the next step is structuring it in a way that reflects how your organization plans and delivers work.
In the next article, you’ll learn how to:
Define your product hierarchy
Choose terminology that matches how your team thinks
Set up parent–child relationships that support prioritization and planning
👉 Next: Understanding Your Product Hierarchy & Terminology
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