docs/release-notes/17-1-0/README.md
Release date: 2026-02-11
We released OpenProject 17.1.0. The release contains several bug fixes and we recommend updating to the newest version. In these Release Notes, we will give an overview of important feature changes. At the end, you will find a complete list of all changes and bug fixes.
<!-- BEGIN CVE SECTION --> <!-- END CVE SECTION -->Take a look at our release video showing the most important features introduced in OpenProject 17.1.0:
[feature: project_creation_wizard ]
OpenProject introduces a configurable wizard for project initiation requests. The wizard can be enabled per template project.
See our documentation to learn how to use the automated project initiation request with OpenProject.
Administrators can configure a project initiation wizard to define how new project requests are submitted. This includes selecting which project attributes and sections are shown in the wizard, and which fields are required or optional.
The wizard guides users step by step through the initiation process using a fullscreen, three-column layout with section navigation, contextual help, and a progress indicator. Instead of completing required project attributes during project creation, users provide this information as part of the initiation request.
When a project initiation request is submitted for the first time, OpenProject automatically creates a work package that represents the request and serves as its central tracking artifact.
The work package is created once based on the wizard configuration at the time of the initial submission, including the work package type, status, and initial assignee. The assignee can be derived from a project attribute or a project role, such as a project owner.
[!NOTE] If the project initiation request is submitted again later, the changes (like different assignee) might not be automatically displayed in the work package and need to be manually updated. However, each submission generates a new PDF artifact, which is uploaded and linked to the existing work package. This allows changes to be reviewed and documented over time, while keeping the work package as the central place for processing the request using existing workflows.
Upon submission of the project initiation request, a PDF artifact is automatically generated. The artifact contains all information entered in the wizard and is attached to the corresponding work package for documentation and audit purposes.
The artifact is updated automatically whenever the status of the project initiation request work package changes, ensuring that the documentation always reflects the current state.
[!NOTE] The project initiation request workflow is particularly well suited for structured frameworks such as PM² or PMflex, while remaining flexible enough to be used independently of any specific methodology. Read this blog article for more information.
The Meetings module received several improvements that extend how meeting results are documented, reused, and shared.
Users can now add work packages as meeting outcomes, allowing teams to turn meeting results into actionable follow-up items without leaving the meeting context. They can either:
Each linked work package automatically shows a reference to the meeting in its Meetings tab, making the connection between the agenda item and the follow-up item explicit.
Since we already introduced multiple outcomes per agenda item in OpenProject 17.0, it is now also possible to link multiple work packages to the same agenda item.
Meeting participant responses such as accepted, declined, or tentative are now visible directly in the meeting sidebar. These responses are collected from calendar invitations (for example when an ICS event is sent by email or downloaded and shared), making it easier to see the current participation status of all attendees in OpenProject.
Users can now duplicate agenda items to the next occurrence of a recurring meeting. This makes it possible to carry over open topics or recurring discussion points without recreating them manually.
To duplicate an agenda item, users can select the corresponding option from the agenda item actions menu. The duplicated agenda item is added to the next meeting occurrence and can be edited independently.
The Attribute highlighting feature, previously available only as an Enterprise add-on, is now included in the free Community plan.
Users can configure attribute highlighting in work package table views by opening the table configuration and selecting the Highlighting tab. Attributes such as Status, Priority, and Finish date can be highlighted inline or applied as full-row highlights based on attribute values. This makes key attributes visually distinguishable directly in the work package list without opening individual items.
Read more about attribute highlighting in our documentation.
Here's an example of highlighting work packages by priority:
[feature: capture_external_links ]
With 17.1 OpenProject introduces an option to add a warning when accessing external links from formatted text, such as project descriptions, comments or wiki pages. The warning adds an additional security layer by making users aware that they are about to leave OpenProject.
When users click on an external link, a confirmation dialog is displayed indicating that the link leads outside of OpenProject. This applies to links added by users, for example in descriptions, comments, or other text fields. In SaaS trial environments, external link handling is enforced to ensure that warnings for user-provided external links cannot be bypassed.
Read more about this warning on external links in our documentation.
Users now see an item’s short or weight wherever values from Hierarchy or Weighted item list custom fields (work packages) and project attributes are shown. This provides an extra hint to confirm that the right item was selected.
This information is displayed in:
Read more about custom fields in OpenProject.
OpenProject 17.1 includes further UX/UI improvements. The following areas have been redesigned using the Primer design system:
OpenProject improved the performance of the work package Activity tab when working with a large number of comments and activities. Previously, work packages with a very high number of comments could cause the browser to become slow or unresponsive when opening the Activity tab. With this release, activities are now loaded progressively instead of all at once. An initial subset of activities is loaded first, and additional entries are fetched as needed, with a loading indicator shown while more items are being loaded.
This change prevents browser freezes and significantly improves responsiveness when opening and navigating work packages with extensive activity histories.
<!--more-->A very special thank you goes to Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, City of Cologne, Deutsche Bahn and ZenDiS for sponsoring released or upcoming features. Your support, alongside the efforts of our amazing Community, helps drive these innovations. Also a big thanks to our Community members for reporting bugs and helping us identify and provide fixes. Special thanks for reporting and finding bugs go to Johannes Baumgarten, Lea Fuchs, Александр Татаринцев, Stefan Weiberg, and Natalie Stettner.
Last but not least, we are very grateful for our very engaged translation contributors on Crowdin, who translated quite a few OpenProject strings! This release we would like to particularly thank the following users:
Would you like to help out with translations yourself? Then take a look at our translation guide and find out exactly how you can contribute. It is very much appreciated!