Filters & Refinement

Filters & Refinement

BetterBoard's filter bar lets you narrow the board to exactly the work items you care about. Filters are composable and support 25+ operators across all field types.

Opening the filter bar

Click the Filter button in the board toolbar. The filter bar expands below the toolbar, showing any active filters and an Add filter button.

Adding a filter

  1. Click the Filter button in the toolbar to open the filter bar
  2. Choose a field from the dropdown (e.g. Assignee, Sprint, Priority, Labels)
  3. Choose an operator (e.g. is, is not, contains, is empty)
  4. Select or enter a value — the board updates immediately
  5. Click the blue Save button in the toolbar to persist the filter with the board

Multiple filters are combined with AND logic: an work item must match all active filters to appear on the board.

You can apply filters without saving them — useful for a temporary view. Unsaved filters are visible only to you in your current session and are not shared with others viewing the board.

Filter operators

Operators available depend on the field type:

Option fields

For option fields (Priority, Status, Labels, single/multi-select):

  • is — exact match (one value)
  • is any of — matches one or more values
  • is not — excludes a value
  • is none of — excludes multiple values
  • is empty / is not empty

User fields

For user fields (Assignee, Reporter):

  • is — assigned to a specific person
  • is any of — assigned to any of several people
  • is not / is none of
  • is empty (unassigned) / is not empty
  • is current user — dynamic: filters to whoever is viewing the board

Date fields

For date fields (Due Date, Created, Updated):

  • is before / is after — absolute date
  • is on — exact date
  • is within — relative range (e.g. "the last 7 days")
  • is empty / is not empty

Text fields

  • contains / does not contain
  • is / is not

Number fields

  • =, ≠, >, ≥, <, ≤

Sprint filter

The Sprint filter has dedicated options:

  • is active sprint — shows work items in any currently active sprint
  • is — pick a specific named sprint
  • is any of — pick multiple sprints
  • is backlog — work items not in any sprint

Blockers filter

The synthetic Blockers field lets you filter by blocking relationships:

  • has blockers — shows work items with at least one "is blocked by" link
  • is blocking — shows work items that are blocking other work items

Current user filter

The is current user operator on the Assignee filter is dynamic — it resolves to whoever is currently viewing the board. On a shared board, setting Assignee is current user means each person sees only their own work items without needing separate boards.