Collaborative Editing
Multiple team members can edit the same project simultaneously. Plenar manages concurrent changes through a queue-based system that prevents conflicts.
How concurrent editing works
When you make a change — edit an estimate, add a task, reassign work — it enters a queue. Plenar tracks two queues per user:
Your changes
Edits you made that have not yet been applied:
- Estimate changes you entered
- Tasks you added or removed
- Dependencies you modified
- Scope or assignment changes you made
These appear in the Schedule panel under Your Pending Changes. You review them, see the preview diff, and decide to apply or discard.
Incoming changes
Edits from teammates and integrations that were applied after your last refresh:
- A teammate changed an estimate
- Someone added tasks via Claude Code
- A calendar sync pulled in new time off
- A Jira integration updated task status
These appear in the Schedule panel under Incoming Changes. You review what changed and how it affects the schedule.
Preview before commit
All changes go through the change impact preview, regardless of who made them. Before applying your pending changes, you see a full diff:
- Which tasks moved and by how much
- Goal ETA changes
- Assignment shifts
- Quality comparison (better, worse, or equivalent)
This means you always know the impact before committing. See Preview & Apply for details on the change impact preview workflow.
No merge conflicts
Plenar does not have merge conflicts in the traditional sense. Changes are aggregated, not merged:
- If Alice changes an estimate from 3 to 5, and Bob later changes it from 5 to 4, the result is 4.
- If Alice adds a dependency and Bob removes a different dependency, both changes apply independently.
- If Alice adds a task and Bob changes an estimate on a different task, both apply.
Each change is applied in order. The final state reflects all applied changes. There is no “conflict resolution” step because changes apply to the plan, not to a shared document.
Integration changes
Changes from external integrations (Google Calendar, Jira) appear as incoming changes:
- Calendar sync — New time off from calendar events appears as an availability change
- Jira sync — Status updates from Jira appear as task status changes
- SCIM — New or removed team members appear as team changes
Integration changes go through the same change impact preview. You see the impact before the schedule updates.
Best practices
Review incoming changes regularly. When you open the Schedule panel, check for incoming changes first. A teammate may have made changes that affect your work.
Communicate large changes. If you are about to add 20 tasks or restructure dependencies, let your team know. The change impact preview handles it gracefully, but context helps teammates understand why the schedule shifted.
Use preview to verify impact. Before applying a batch of changes, review the combined diff carefully. Multiple small changes can compound into a significant schedule shift.
Stack changes, then apply once. Make all your edits (estimates, dependencies, assignments), then review the combined preview and apply in one batch. This is more efficient than applying after every individual edit.