Master boards: one board for many sources

A master board pulls work from many places — boards in Jira, Azure DevOps, monday.com, GitHub and GitLab, plus native Laya boards — into one Laya-native view. The product describes it simply: “Combine connected boards into one Laya-native view.” It is the board to reach for when one team's work is scattered across tools, or when a lead needs one picture of everything.

Create a master board

1. Start a new board and pick Master boardFrom the workspace, create a new board and choose the Master board tile. You land on a dedicated builder page headed Build one master board.
2. Choose your sourcesThe left panel, Your boards, lists what can be layered in — mirrored boards from each connected tool, plus your native Laya boards. A connected tool with nothing mirrored yet shows an empty lane with a shortcut into its choose-boards step; a tool that isn't connected shows a Connect chip.
3. Pick Create new or Use existing, then name itOn the right, choose Create new or Use existing, set a Name (e.g. “All work”), an Estimation scale and a Board type (Kanban or Scrum chips). An optional Customise (Board Studio) section lets you restyle it before launch.

On creation, Laya attaches your sources and starts one import job per source in the background — you can open the board straight away and watch items stream in. Up to 50 sources can be attached in one go.

How a master board earns two-way sync

A master board is a normal Laya board underneath. Items from external sources are not just displayed — they are materialised as real Laya cards through the import pipeline, each one linked back to its external item. That is what makes true two-way sync possible: editing a card on the master board pushes to the source tool exactly like any imported card, and changes in the source flow back. See How two-way sync works.

Native Laya source boards behave differently: they are live-aggregated on every read, and the master board owns nothing — the cards remain the source board's. If you want the master board to take ownership, a fork operation copies a native source's items into master-owned cards and then detaches the source, at which point live aggregation stops.

Reading a master board

A master board opens grouped by Source board, so each origin gets its own swimlane. That is a default, not a lock — you can switch grouping (including None) and your choice is remembered. Cards carry a source badge so you always know where an item lives.

Statuses from every source collapse onto the master board's columns automatically, and the board Settings Status mapping tab (master boards only) lets you pin each source's external status to a specific column, create a column for an unmapped status, and Detach or Duplicate & detach a source. Mapping overrides are display-only — they never change the item's real status in the source tool. See Status and field mapping.

Sync all boards

When a board contains cards from connected tools, its menu gains a Sync all boards action that pulls every present provider in parallel. While running, the label reads Syncing…, and it finishes with one aggregate toast such as “Synced 42 items from 3 boards.”

When to use a master board

• A team's work spans several tools and you want one place to run stand-up.
• A lead or PMO needs a single delivery picture across many teams' boards.
• You want Laya-native powers — swimlanes, Board Studio, saved views — over work that lives elsewhere.