The Chart
A Gantt that knows when it's wrong.
The Chart is Narcove's timeline view. Bars represent work, but each card renders twice — the target you committed to, and the projection where the schedule actually puts it now. Critical path is outlined in the brand accent. UK bank holidays stripe out. Cursor-anchored zoom from hour to month. The schedule that maintains itself.
What it does
Four jobs a normal Gantt can't do
Show the gap. Most Gantts have one bar per card — wherever it's scheduled today. The Chart has two. The solid bar is the target you committed to; the translucent bar is the current projection. The visual difference is the size and direction of your slip or your gain. You see at a glance which cards are tracking and which aren't.
Replan itself. Drag a bar. Mark a card done. Bump a duration. The Tide cascade walks the dependency graph forward and recomputes every downstream card's projection. Pull-forwards apply automatically. Push-backs over a threshold surface for review. The Chart is never out of date because the data is the schedule.
Highlight the critical path. Cards whose slip directly slips the project end glow cobalt. Cards with slack are dim. The critical path recomputes after every change — so the cobalt set is today's, not last week's. You stop spending Friday afternoon re-analysing a chart your tool should have analysed for you.
Respect working time. UK bank holidays stripe out by default. Working hours are 09:00–17:30 Mon–Fri unless configured otherwise. Bars don't span across non-working time, durations don't count it, and the resource leveller never schedules two cards on the same person to overlap.
How it works
Six steps from open to read
- 1
Open the timeline tab
Every project has a Timeline (Chart) view next to the Board. The Chart loads with all open, public-or-private cards positioned on the date axis.
- 2
Set targets
Give each card a due_at — that's the target. The solid bar on the Chart represents that commitment. Targets are stable; they don't move when you reschedule.
- 3
Watch the projection track
As work happens, narcove computes a projection — the date a card actually finishes given dependencies, working hours, and resource constraints. The translucent overlay shows the projection. Gap between target and projection is the slip or gain.
- 4
Read the critical path
Cards on the critical path glow cobalt. These are the cards where every hour of slip costs an hour of the project's end date. Cards off the path have slack — they can move without consequence.
- 5
Zoom with the cursor
Ctrl+scroll to zoom Hour → Day → Week → Month. The cursor anchors the zoom — the bar you're looking at stays under the cursor. Click any axis date to jump to that day at hour-level zoom.
- 6
Drag to reschedule
Drag a bar to reschedule. The Tide cascade fires automatically; downstream cards move with safe rules (pull-forwards apply, big push-backs surface for review).
Use cases
Four ways the Chart pays off
Agencies
Spotting a hot week before it hits
Three projects, twelve cards, two designers. The Chart at week-zoom shows everyone's load on a single timeline. On Tuesday afternoon you see two cards stacked on the same designer for Friday — the resource leveller couldn't help because both had hard targets. You move one back a day, and the cascade emails the affected client portal. They notice the Tide log entry before the slip becomes a problem.
Product teams
Communicating the cost of a scope change
Your founder wants to add a feature mid-sprint. You drag the new card onto the Chart and watch the cascade ripple — three downstream cards turn coral because their target is now after their projection. The visual is the conversation: 'this slips three things by two days each.' The decision is faster and the founder owns it.
Solo / freelance
Knowing what's safe to delay
It's Wednesday. You're behind on three things. The Chart's critical path tells you which two will land you in trouble at the deadline and which one has four days of slack — so that one waits. The Tide log auto-generates a 'projected for Friday instead of Thursday' entry on the affected card. Your client gets the heads-up via email without you typing it.
Operations
Bank holidays that don't surprise you
You plan a five-day kickoff sprint that crosses the early May bank holiday. Most tools count it as five business days; the Chart skips Monday, stripes it, and re-anchors the rest. The target end date moves to Tuesday automatically. Nobody works on a Sunday because they were given five working days that didn't actually exist.
Why this matters
Spreadsheets vs schedules vs systems
A spreadsheet is a snapshot — true once, then drifts. A traditional Gantt is a snapshot too, just prettier. You update both by hand, and you stop trusting them about a fortnight in. The Chart is a system: it consumes the same events your kanban does, recomputes after every change, and renders the result. There's no "updating the chart" because there's nothing to update.
That matters most when stakes are high. Investors ask about runway. Clients ask about ETA. Your team asks whether they should context-switch. With a stale chart you guess; with a live chart you point. The conversation changes from "let me check and get back to you" to "here, look — these two cards are tracking ahead, this one is tracking three days behind because the upstream API doc never landed." You answer faster. You sound more credible. You spend less time managing perception and more time managing work.
The target-vs-projection split is the second piece. Every other PM tool collapses both into one bar — wherever the card is scheduled today. That hides whether you're actually tracking. The Chart shows commitment and current state at the same time, so the question "are we tracking?" is a glance, not an analysis.
FAQ
Chart questions
Is The Chart a normal Gantt?
It looks like one and reads like one — bars, dependencies, critical path, today line. The difference is what happens between renders. Most Gantts are a snapshot. The Chart is a live system: bars move when work moves, the critical path recomputes, and the difference between target and projection is visible at a glance.
What's the target vs projection visual?
Each card on the Chart has two pieces: a solid bar showing the target (the date you committed to) and a translucent translucent overlay showing the current projection (where the schedule actually puts it now). When the two diverge, the gap is the size and direction of your slip or your gain — instantly readable, no spreadsheet required.
How does zoom work?
Cursor-anchored. Ctrl+scroll on the Chart and the timeline zooms in or out around the cursor — Hour, Day, Week, or Month. The card you were looking at stays under the cursor. Click any axis date to jump straight to an hour-level view of that day.
What's resource levelling?
Two cards assigned to the same person never overlap on the Chart. If the dependency-respecting schedule says both should run Tuesday morning, we automatically cascade one to start when the other finishes — within their working hours, skipping bank holidays. You see one person doing one thing at a time.
How do bank holidays work?
UK bank holidays are excluded from working time by default — bars don't span across them, durations don't count them, and the Chart stripes them so the gap is visible. Configure other regions in workspace settings.
What's the critical path?
The critical path is the chain of dependent cards that determines the project's end date. Narcove highlights it in cobalt — these are the cards where every hour of slip costs an hour of project end. Cards off the critical path have slack and can move without consequence.
Can clients see the Chart?
Yes — the public client portal lets visitors switch between the Kanban (Harbour) view and the Chart view. They see the same target-vs-projection bars and the same critical path highlighting. Cards you've marked private are excluded from both views.
Related
How the Chart fits with the rest of Narcove
The Tide
Cascade replan
Every change to the Chart fires the Tide cascade. Downstream cards update; the projection bar follows.
AI planning
Plan with AI
Drop a backlog, get a Chart. Plan-with-AI infers dependencies and produces a working schedule you can review.
Client portals
Public timeline
Clients see the same Chart with the same target-vs-projection bars. Private cards are excluded.
Free for one project. Full timeline view included.