Create a work item type

POST/api/v2/workspaces/{slug}/projects/{project_id}/work-item-types/

Add a work item type to a project — Bug, Spike, Chore, whatever your team actually tracks. The new type is immediately selectable on work items, and becomes the target you attach custom properties to.

Call Enable work item types first. Creating a type in a project where the feature has never been turned on leaves you with a type nobody can pick.

Keep the id from the response. Every later step — attaching properties, reading the schema, creating a work item of this type — is keyed on it.

This write requires project mode

If the workspace manages types at the workspace level, this returns 409 work_item_types_managed_at_workspace. Create the type on the workspace surface instead, then import it into the project. See Work item type modes.

Path Parameters

slug:requiredstring

The workspace slug. It appears in your Plane URLs — in https://app.plane.so/my-team/projects/, the slug is my-team.

project_id:requiredstring (uuid)

The project to add the type to.

Body Parameters

name:requiredstring

Display name for the type, for example Bug. Maximum 255 characters.

description:optionalstring

What this type is for. This is not decoration: it is returned as type_description by the schema endpoint, which is how an integration or agent decides between Bug and Task without a human in the loop.

is_active:optionalboolean

Whether the type can be assigned to new work items. Create it inactive if you are staging a configuration and want to attach its properties before anyone can select it.

external_id:optionalstring

Your system's identifier for this type, for sync and import correlation. Maximum 255 characters, nullable.

external_source:optionalstring

The system external_id came from, for example github or jira. Maximum 255 characters, nullable.

is_default, is_epic, level and logo_props are not accepted here

is_default moves through mark-default. is_epic and level are read-only. logo_props is generated by Plane when the type is created — the response tells you what it picked.

Response shaping

fields:optionalstring

Comma-separated list of fields to return. Unrequested keys are omitted from the response, not returned as null, so absent means "not requested" and null means "actually null". id always comes back whether or not you name it.

Pass all for every requestable field. An unknown name is a 400 that lists the valid set and suggests the closest match, so a typo can't silently cost you the saving.

Requestable here: created_at, description, id, is_active, is_default, is_epic, level, logo_props, name.

See Sparse fields.

Scopes

projects.work_item_types:write

Errors

Status	Code	Cause
400	invalid_request	Missing name, or a field over its 255-character limit.
401	unauthorized	Missing or invalid credentials.
402	payment_required	The feature this endpoint belongs to isn't enabled on your plan, or is switched off.
403	forbidden	Your role or token scope can't create work item types.
404	not_found	No such workspace or project, or it's outside your tenant.
406	not_acceptable	The Accept header asks for a representation the API can't produce.
409	conflict	A type in this project already uses this external_id and external_source pair.
413	payload_too_large	The request body is over the size limit.
415	unsupported_media_type	The Content-Type isn't one this endpoint accepts.
429	rate_limited	Throttled. Honor the Retry-After header before retrying.

Create a work item type

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.plane.so/api/v2/workspaces/my-team/projects/4af68566-94a4-4eb3-94aa-50dc9427067b/work-item-types/" \
  -H "X-Api-Key: $PLANE_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
  "name": "Bug",
  "description": "Something is broken and needs a fix",
  "is_active": true
}'

import requests

response = requests.post(
    "https://api.plane.so/api/v2/workspaces/my-team/projects/4af68566-94a4-4eb3-94aa-50dc9427067b/work-item-types/",
    headers={"X-Api-Key": "your-api-key"},
    json={
        "name": "Bug",
        "description": "Something is broken and needs a fix",
        "is_active": True,
    },
)
print(response.json())

const response = await fetch(
  "https://api.plane.so/api/v2/workspaces/my-team/projects/4af68566-94a4-4eb3-94aa-50dc9427067b/work-item-types/",
  {
    method: "POST",
    headers: {
      "X-Api-Key": "your-api-key",
      "Content-Type": "application/json",
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      name: "Bug",
      description: "Something is broken and needs a fix",
      is_active: true,
    }),
  },
);
const data = await response.json();

Response201

{
  "id": "d1e7a4c9-2b58-4f36-9a0e-7c3b5d81f240",
  "name": "Bug",
  "description": "Something is broken and needs a fix",
  "is_active": true,
  "is_default": false,
  "is_epic": false,
  "level": 0,
  "logo_props": {
    "in_use": "icon",
    "icon": {
      "name": "AlertCircle",
      "background_color": "#EF5974"
    }
  },
  "created_at": "2026-01-14T09:24:03.117482Z"
}

Response409

{
  "type": "conflict",
  "code": "work_item_types_managed_at_workspace",
  "detail": "Work item types are managed at the workspace level for this workspace."
}

Reuse external_id to stay idempotent

external_id alone is not unique — the pair (external_id, external_source) is, within a project. Send both when you are syncing from another system so a repeated import surfaces as a clean 409 conflict instead of a duplicate type.