Basecamp to-dos can't show priority or status. Fix that.
Add tags, statuses, and custom fields to any Basecamp to-do, then see it all as a Kanban board. One Chrome extension, inside Basecamp, with nothing new for your team to learn.
Free 7-day trial · No credit card · Works with Basecamp 5
The problem
Basecamp is calm and simple. Sometimes too simple.
A to-do is just a name and a checkbox. No priority, no status, no way to see what's urgent at a glance, and no board to watch work move through. So the real status ends up in your head, in side spreadsheets, or in your inbox.
Everything looks the same
You can't tell what's urgent, what's blocked, or what's nearly done. Every to-do is just another line.
No board, just lists
Work lives in long, flat to-do lists. There's no Kanban view to see what's moving through the pipeline.
Status lives everywhere else
In your head, a spreadsheet, or a "what's the update?" email. Never on the to-do itself, where you need it.
Voice note transcription
Turn voice notes into text everyone can read.
Basecamp 5 records voice notes but never transcribes them, so a two-minute note takes two minutes to hear, can't be skimmed, and is invisible to search. Assistant adds a Transcribe button under every note.
- ✓ One click, on your notes or anyone else's
- ✓ Posted as a comment, so people without Assistant read it too
- ✓ A summary and action items on longer notes
- ✓ 6,000 transcription minutes a month, included
Tags, statuses & custom fields
Give every to-do the fields it's missing.
Tags and Status come built in. Add Priority, Estimate, Version, Category, or any other field you need, each with its own color-coded options. Now one glance tells you what matters.
- ✓ Color-coded tags & statuses, ready to use
- ✓ Add any custom field: priority, estimate, version, category
- ✓ Shows up right on the to-do, inside Basecamp
Kanban board
Turn your to-do lists into a board.
Every to-do list becomes a column automatically. Open one list, a whole project, or every project in your account on a single board, then drag cards across and group and filter by status, assignee, tag, or priority.
- ✓ Drag-and-drop board on any Basecamp project
- ✓ One board for a single list, a project, or every project at once
- ✓ Group by status, assignee, tag, or priority
- ✓ Pivot view: one field across the top, another down the side
Automations
Stop doing the busywork by hand.
Set rules that tag, assign, and set fields for you. A new to-do tagged "Feature Request" can auto-assign the right person and set its priority the moment it's created, without anyone touching it.
- ✓ When/then rules on tags, statuses, and fields
- ✓ Auto-assign people and set values
- ✓ Runs quietly in the background
Unread highlight
See what changed since you were last in.
Jump back into a project and the new and updated items are highlighted for you, so you're not scrolling back through everything to spot what moved while you were gone.
Docs & Files grid
The grid view Basecamp 4 users miss.
Flip any Docs & Files page from list to grid: folder cards you can peek into and scroll, image thumbnails, and Basecamp color labels you can set right from the card. Drag to file items into folders, or back out of them.
- ✓ Folder cards with scrollable previews
- ✓ Your custom-field pills on every card
- ✓ Drag to reorder or file items in and out of folders, with live drop hints
Per-project custom fields
Every project gets exactly the fields it needs.
Turn custom fields on or off per project, straight from Basecamp's project settings. A client project stays lean while your dev board runs Priority, Category, and Version.
- ✓ One toggle in the project's own settings
- ✓ Uncheck fields you don't need there. Values are kept
- ✓ New fields stay visible everywhere by default
External links as dock cards
Give external links a real place on the project.
Basecamp squeezes a project's external links into a small flat strip. Assistant turns each one into a full dock card you can position next to any other tool, right where your team expects it.
- ✓ Full-size cards on the project home
- ✓ Move them next to Docs & Files, the Message Board, anywhere
Card table duplication
Duplicate a whole card table in one click.
Pick "Duplicate this table", name the copy, and Assistant rebuilds the columns and clones every card using Basecamp's native copy. Comments, attachments, original authors, and timestamps all carry over.
- ✓ Every card copied with its comments and attachments
- ✓ Live progress with pause and resume
- ✓ Close the tab mid-copy and it picks up where it left off
And the rest of the toolkit.
Small things that add up across a busy week.
Group & filter
Slice any board by status, assignee, tag, or priority, then search and sort.
Card table copy & move
Duplicate a whole card table in one click, or move and copy columns across tables.
Runs inside Basecamp
No new app to learn. Anyone who doesn't install it sees Basecamp unchanged.
One price, whole team
One admin pays. Everyone in the account gets it. Unlimited users, no seats.
Multi-line subtasks
Subtasks written across several lines keep their line breaks, and links in them stay clickable.
Links in new tabs
Optionally open links that leave Basecamp in a new tab. Basecamp's own navigation stays untouched.
How teams use it
Six jobs it does every week.
None of these need a new process. Each one is your existing Basecamp project, read a different way.
Agencies waiting on clients
Knowing what is blocked on someone outside the team
Set up: A status field with an "Awaiting client" option, then filter the board to it.
Saves: The Monday hunt through every project for things that stalled on a reply.
20 min × 1/week = 20 min/week
Daily standups
Saying what everyone is working on without reading lists aloud
Set up: Open the board grouped by assignee; each column is one person's work.
Saves: Ten minutes of round-robin updates that everyone forgets by lunchtime.
5 min × 5/week, for everyone (×10) = 4.2 h/week
Dev and product teams
Moving work through stages without maintaining a second tracker
Set up: Your to-do lists are already the stages (Backlog, In progress, QA, Done), so the board exists the moment you open it.
Saves: Keeping Basecamp and a separate board in sync, and the drift when someone forgets.
10 min × 2/week = 20 min/week
QA testing a release
Testing only the work that went into the build in front of you
Set up: A "Version" field on every card. QA filters the board to v2.4.1 and works that list against that build.
Saves: Reading down a long backlog to work out which fixes belong to this release and which shipped weeks ago.
25 min × 1/week = 25 min/week
Anyone running a weekly review
Finding what slipped before it becomes a problem
Set up: Stack the overdue and due-this-week filters with an assignee or tag.
Saves: Opening each list to work out what actually needs attention.
15 min × 1/week = 15 min/week
Content and marketing teams
Tracking pieces through draft, review, and published
Set up: Run the board over a Card Table, group by status, and read each brief in the split-view panel.
Saves: Losing your place on the board every time you open a brief.
10 min × 2/week = 20 min/week
Roughly 2.7 hours a day across a team of 10 on our assumptions. Modelled, not measured. Every input is listed on the pricing page, and you can change all of them.
See the numbers →Lives inside Basecamp
An add-on, not a replacement.
Assistant isn't a new tool to migrate to or train your team on. It adds the board, fields, and statuses onto the Basecamp pages you already use every day, so everything works the way it always has, just with the pieces you were missing.
What we store, and what we don't.
Installing an extension that reads your projects is a big ask. Here's exactly how we treat it.
Runs on your pages
Assistant adds its UI to the Basecamp pages you already use. Your team doesn't migrate, and there's no second app to adopt.
We store only what you add
The tags, statuses, fields, saved views, WIP limits, and rules you create live on our servers, keyed to the Basecamp items they belong to. Your messages, to-dos, and files stay in Basecamp.
Official OAuth, revocable
You connect through Basecamp's own sign-in. Revoke access from Basecamp any time, in one click.
We built Assistant because we needed it. We run our own projects in Basecamp every day, and we kept hitting the same wall: no board, no priorities, no statuses. So we added them, right inside Basecamp. It's the tool we wanted for our own team, and we figured you'd want it too. If something's missing that you need, email me. I read every message.
How it works
Set up in three steps.
Install the extension
One click from the Chrome Web Store. Works on Chrome, Edge, Brave, and every Chromium browser.
Connect your Basecamp
Open the extension and sign in once with Basecamp OAuth. That's when your 7-day trial starts. Secure and revocable anytime.
Open a project
Head into any Basecamp project and the Kanban, tags, and custom fields light up. Everyone in your account gets it. No seats to assign.
Pricing
One flat price for your whole team.
$29/month or $290/year. Unlimited seats, every feature. One admin pays, and everyone in that Basecamp account gets it.
Monthly
Unlimited seats · all features · cancel anytime
Yearly
$24.17/mo · unlimited seats · ~2 months free
Already have an account? Sign in.
FAQ
Common questions.
Does this replace Basecamp?
No. It enhances it. Assistant runs on the Basecamp pages you already use, so nobody moves to a second app. Your messages, to-dos, and files stay in Basecamp; we add a layer of tags, statuses, fields, and views on top.
Do I need to change how my team uses Basecamp?
Not at all. The extension adds UI directly onto Basecamp pages. People who don't install it still see Basecamp exactly as before.
What data do you store?
We store what Assistant adds: tags, statuses, custom field definitions and their values, saved views, WIP limits, and automation rules, keyed to the Basecamp items they belong to. Also the OAuth tokens needed to call Basecamp's API, and the transcript, summary, and action items for voice notes someone chooses to transcribe. Your messages, to-dos, and files are read live from Basecamp in your browser, not copied into our database. Voice note audio is never stored. Full detail in the privacy policy.
Does Assistant transcribe Basecamp voice notes?
Yes. Basecamp 5 records voice notes but doesn't transcribe them. Assistant adds a Transcribe button to every voice note: one click and the transcript is posted as a comment on the thread, with a one-line summary and any action items, readable by your whole team with or without Assistant.
Is there a free trial?
Yes. 7 days, no credit card, full access for your whole team. After the trial, one admin subscribes for $29/month (or $290/year) and everyone keeps access.
How does pricing work?
One flat price: $29/month or $290/year for your whole team. Unlimited seats and every feature. One admin pays, with no per-seat charges.
Who connects the Basecamp account?
A Basecamp admin connects each account once and pays. After that, everyone in that Basecamp account gets the extension automatically. No seat assignments, no access requests.
Add the fields and board Basecamp is missing.
Install the free extension. 7-day trial on all paid features. No credit card.