[feature]: Allow created_at to be specified when creating or updating work items via API

[jordent]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

Summary

The API should support explicitly setting the created_at timestamp when creating or updating work items.

This is especially important for imports and migrations from other project management systems. When migrating historical work items, the original creation date is important context. Currently, migrated items appear as if they were created at the time of import, which makes timelines, reporting, sorting, auditing, and project history less accurate. It also would help allow third party systems written by users to integrate with Plane.

Ideally, the API would allow created_at to be passed when creating a work item:

{
  "name": "Imported Work Item",
  "state": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000",
  "created_at": "2023-12-18T14:30:00Z"
}

It would also be useful if created_at could be updated later by users or API tokens with the appropriate permissions:

{
  "created_at": "2023-12-18T14:30:00Z"
}

Why should this be worked on?

Supporting explicit created_at values would make the API more useful for migrations and historical imports.

When moving from another system into Plane, users often need to preserve the original metadata of work items, including when they were created, updated, and completed. Without the ability to set created_at, imported work items lose historical accuracy and can appear misleading in the UI, reports, and activity timelines.

This would help with:

• Preserving accurate project history during migrations
• Keeping imported work items in the correct chronological order
• Improving reporting and analytics for historical projects
• Avoiding misleading activity timelines where all imported work appears newly created
• Making Plane a better destination for teams migrating from other tools
• Making Plane easier to integrate with for third party systems or systems written by users

[makeplane]

Synced with Plane Workspace 🔄

[GIT-176] [feature]: Allow created_at to be specified when creating or updating work items via API

[jordent]

This actually appears to be working, it is just not documented in the API docs.

If you create a work item with POST, you can supply created_at. The POST response will reply with created_at as the current date. However, if you then GET that created work item, you will see the created_at is correct with respect to what was supplied in the original POST request.