Filters and date ranges
An Intelligence widget's number is shaped by four controls, layered in a fixed order: the board's period picker, the widget's own config, which sources this board has connected, and which slice of each source the board is scoped to. Here's how each one changes what gets counted.
The board period picker — visible only when a widget on this view actually uses it.
The board period picker
Above the grid you'll see 7d / 14d / 30d / 90d presets plus Custom (two date inputs). It only appears when at least one widget on the current view is time-aware — a static widget like Status Distribution doesn't need it, so it doesn't clutter the view. The choice is written into the URL (?period=30d, or ?from=…&to=…), so a filtered view is a link you can share or bookmark, and it survives a page refresh.
Clearing the picker (the × next to an active selection) removes the override entirely — every time-aware widget falls back to its own default range.
How it combines with a widget's own range
Every widget also has its own default range, set with the gear icon on its header (Configure Widget) — typically a Range field of 4, 8, or 12 weeks depending on the widget. When the board period picker is on, it overrides that per-widget default for every time-aware widget on the view; when it's cleared, each widget's own saved config applies again. A widget with no configurable options shows "This widget has no configurable options" in that dialog instead of empty fields.
Server-side, an explicit from/to pair always wins over a day count, and a widget with neither falls back to its own documented default (commonly the last 30 days).
Which sources a widget needs
Opening + Add Widget groups the catalog by what it reads — Pull Requests, Issues, Commits, Board State. A widget that needs a source this board hasn't connected is shown greyed out with a reason, e.g. "Needs GitHub." — you can still see it, but adding it is disabled until the source is attached. A widget you already added, whose required source was later removed, renders the empty-state card described in How a widget gets its number rather than a blank tile.
Which slice of the source — the board's own filters
A board source carries two settings: which system to connect to, and which slice of it this board is about. Both now reach the Intelligence widgets and the Team Focus tab, so a widget counts what the board is scoped to rather than the whole project.
| Source setting | Narrows | Applied to widgets? |
|---|---|---|
| Jira — JQL filter | Which issues in the project belong to this board | Yes. Sync resolves the JQL to a set of issue keys and widgets filter on it |
| Jira — issue types | Which types become board rows | No — deliberately. It shapes the board, not the analytics population |
| Azure DevOps — area paths | Which work items belong to this board | Yes, matched by prefix |
| Azure DevOps — repositories for code metrics | Which repos' PRs, commits and deployments count | Yes |
| GitHub / GitLab | Repository or project path | Yes — these have always been repo-level |
A JQL filter that currently matches nothing is treated as matching nothing, not as "no filter" — an important distinction, because both leave the resolved key set empty and the two must not collapse into each other.
"Include code in Intelligence" does not gate work items
The per-source Use for code intelligence flag gates that source's code — GitHub pull requests and commits, and Azure DevOps pull requests and commits. It does not gate Azure DevOps work items, because an ADO source supplies both and one checkbox governing both meant unticking it silently removed 368 work items from a board's widgets.
Filtering into a single value
Some widgets (developer tables, PR scatter plots) let you click a row or point to narrow the same query to that single value — see Drilling into a person or a ticket for exactly where that click takes you.
If it looks wrong
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Period picker is missing entirely | No widget on this view is time-aware | Expected — add a trend/time-based widget to see it |
| Changing the period picker doesn't change a specific widget | That widget isn't time-aware, or its own config already sets an explicit from/to | Check the widget's own Configure dialog |
| A widget I want to add is greyed out | Its required source isn't connected to this board | Connect the source named in the reason text, on the Sources tab |
| A widget counts far more than the board shows | The source has no slice filter — a JQL filter or an ADO area path | Set one on the board's source; see Azure DevOps scoping |
| Work-item widgets emptied after unticking a code toggle | Should not happen — that flag gates code only | Check the source's area paths and JQL filter instead |
Related
- How a widget gets its number — why a widget reads zero even inside the right window.
- Drilling into a person or a ticket — where a filtered click takes you.
- Comparing boards side by side — the same period picker, applied across boards.
- Team Focus — a second analytics tab, scoped by the same source filters.
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