Why your to-do list should be a tree

Aug 2026 · Launch note · 4 min read

Every project I've ever planned started the same way: a bubble in the middle of a page with branches coming off it. Marketing over here, build over there, ops somewhere at the bottom. Then I'd open my task manager and flatten that living shape into a single column of checkboxes — and lose the map I just drew.

LatticeRun exists because the flat list is the wrong default. It's the launch note for what we built instead.

Lists hide the shape of your work

A flat list answers one question: what's next? It can't answer the questions that actually decide whether a project ships:

In LatticeRun, every task is a bubble on a tree, and every bubble carries a progress ring that fills as its sub-tasks complete. Crucially, it also drains — un-complete a sub-task, add new ones, and the ring honestly slides back. Your plan changing shouldn't break your progress tracking; it should update it.

Six execution views, one tree

Different moments need different surfaces. Planning wants a canvas. Execution wants a checklist. Reviews want a board. Audits want a grid. Most tools make you pick one and pay a tax forever.

LatticeRun keeps six execution views — Mind map, List, Table, Kanban board, Gantt Timeline and Sprint board — pointed at the same underlying tree. Edit a name in the table and the bubble renames. Drag a sticky between Kanban columns and the branch moves. There is no "sync" button because there's nothing to sync: it's one structure with six execution views.

Plan the shape, keep the memory

The Visual Project Plan lets a founder, an agent, or both draw and edit a flowchart. Plan Mode is optional; approval and release create or link executable tasks, and progress rolls back up through the tree. Project Memory keeps durable decisions, guardrails, architecture, checkpoints and handoffs with the project for whoever picks up next.

Branches you can hand to someone else

My favourite feature fell out of a real need: delegating part of a project without sharing all of it. Any task in LatticeRun can spin off into its own linked project with two-way sync. The parent tree shows a live shell of the spin-off; the spin-off is a full project of its own. On team plans you can invite a collaborator to just that branch — they never see the rest of your tree.

Local-first, because your plans are yours

The free tier needs no account: everything lives in your browser, exportable as JSON or SVG anytime. Cloud sync is an opt-in upgrade, not a ransom. That's a deliberate stance — a tool that holds your plans shouldn't hold them hostage.

LatticeRun is built in public by a tiny team at Sequel AI Ltd. If you've ever sketched a project as branches on paper, go plant your first tree — it takes about ten seconds.