# Steps & rich instructions

Learn how to add, order, and write instructions for checklist steps, plus how attachments and due dates work for BASIC and DRIP checklists.

Steps are what an athlete actually works through inside a checklist: a name, instructions, and a due date or cadence. You manage them from the **Steps** tab, the default landing tab when you open any checklist from [Manage](/docs/checklists/creating-a-checklist).

## Add a step

From **Checklists → Manage**, open a checklist to land on its **Steps** tab. Click **Add Step** to open a modal for configuring the step's instructions and cadence.

Every step needs a **Name**. What else you see depends on the checklist's type — BASIC or DRIP — set back when the checklist was created and locked in after that. See [Creating a checklist](/docs/checklists/creating-a-checklist) for how type gets chosen.

- **BASIC** checklists show a single **Due Date** picker — an absolute calendar date, the same for every athlete on that checklist.
- **DRIP** checklists show four fields instead: **Trigger After Value** and **Trigger After Units** (Minutes / Hours / Days) control when the step becomes active relative to enrollment or the prior step's completion, and **Due In Value** / **Due In Units** control how long the athlete has once it triggers. Zero is valid in either field. It just means no delay.

For the full mechanics of how trigger and due times are calculated, see [Due dates](/docs/checklists/due-dates).

## Write instructions

**Instructions** is a rich text field (up to 5,000 characters), so you can format with headings, bold, italic, lists, and links, not just plain text.

Use a link when a step needs the athlete to go somewhere else: a form, a shared doc, a video. There's no way to embed a video player or image directly inside the instructions text, so for supporting files, use attachments instead (below). Write instructions the way you'd explain the step out loud: what exactly does the athlete need to do before they can mark it complete?

## Reorder and delete steps

Once a checklist has two or more steps, a **Re-order** toggle appears above the list. Click it to drag steps into a new order, then click **Done re-ordering** when you're finished.

Deleting a step removes it for good, and it's worth pausing on the blast radius before you do it: if any athletes are already partway through the checklist, deleting a step also wipes their progress record for that step, including any that were already marked complete. There's no separate warning beyond the standard delete confirmation, so double-check before removing a step that's in active use. Reordering, on the other hand, is safe at any time and doesn't affect athlete progress.

> **Edits go live for athletes already working through the checklist**
>
> Athletes read your steps directly rather than getting a copy at enrollment, so there's no versioning and nothing is grandfathered. Rewrite a step's instructions or change its timing and everyone currently on that checklist sees the new version, not just future enrollments. If a change would confuse athletes mid-flight, build a new checklist instead of editing the live one.

## Attachments live on the checklist, not the step

Files — a PDF, a form, a reference doc — attach to the whole checklist under its **Attachments** tab, not to an individual step. You can add up to 5 files per checklist, 7 MB each. Every athlete enrolled in the checklist sees the same set of attachments, in their own read-only **Attachments** tab, where they can view and download but not add or remove anything.

## What's next

- Understand how trigger and due times actually get calculated in [Due dates](/docs/checklists/due-dates).
- See how these steps and instructions look from the athlete's side in [The athlete view](/docs/checklists/athlete-view).
- Check who's on track and who's stuck in [Tracking completion](/docs/checklists/tracking-completion).

Source: https://productiverecruit.com/docs/checklists/steps-and-instructions