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An assignment is a record that links one volunteer to one shift slot. The Assignments page shows every shift for an event, the volunteers currently filling each slot, and any scheduling conflicts or understaffing warnings.

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Manual assignment

1

Open the Assignments page

Navigate to your event and click Assignments in the sidebar.
2

Find the shift

Use the search bar to filter by shift name, date/time, or assigned volunteer name. Shifts with conflicts or unfilled slots are automatically sorted to the top.
3

Select a volunteer

In the shift card, open the + Add Volunteer dropdown and select a name. The volunteer is assigned immediately and the card updates without a page reload.
4

Fill from a group (optional)

Use the Fill from group dropdown beside each shift to automatically assign available volunteers from a specific group up to the shift’s required headcount. Only volunteers without a time conflict are added.
The app prevents assigning the same volunteer to the same shift twice. If you attempt a duplicate, an error message is shown and no record is created.

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Swapping assignments

To swap two assigned volunteers between shifts:
  1. Click Swap next to the first volunteer. Their row is highlighted in blue.
  2. Click Swap next to the second volunteer in any shift. The two volunteers exchange positions.
The swap is rejected if either volunteer’s group does not meet the group requirements of the target shift.

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Removing assignments

  • To remove a single volunteer from a shift, click Remove next to their name.
  • To remove all volunteers from one shift, click Unfill shift in the shift card header.
  • To clear all assignments across every shift in the event, click Clear All in the page toolbar.
All destructive actions require confirmation before executing.

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Auto-Assign

Auto-Assign sends your event’s full volunteer and shift data to the external Go Scheduler API, which returns an optimized assignment plan in milliseconds.

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How it works

Click the Auto Assign button. The app:
  1. Fetches all volunteers and shifts for the event from Supabase.
  2. Builds a JSON payload and sends it to POST /api/schedule.
  3. Deletes all existing assignments for the event.
  4. Inserts the new assignments returned by the API.

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Request payload

{
  "volunteers": [
    { "id": "vol_1", "name": "Alice", "group": "Delegates", "max_hours": 10 },
    { "id": "vol_2", "name": "Bob",   "group": "Adults",    "max_hours": 12 }
  ],
  "unassigned_shifts": [
    {
      "id": "shift_101",
      "start": "2025-12-01T08:00:00Z",
      "end":   "2025-12-01T10:00:00Z",
      "required_groups": { "Delegates": 2, "Adults": 2 }
    }
  ],
  "current_assignments": []
}
Volunteers without a max_hours value are sent with max_hours: 999, which the API treats as unlimited.

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API response

{
  "assigned_shifts": {
    "shift_101": ["vol_1", "vol_2"]
  },
  "unfilled_shifts": ["shift_103"],
  "fairness_score": 0.12,
  "conflicts": [
    {
      "shift_id": "shift_103",
      "group": "Delegates",
      "reasons": ["Volunteer vol_1 already reached max_hours (10.0)"]
    }
  ]
}
Response fieldDescription
assigned_shiftsMap of shift_id → [volunteer_ids] for all filled slots.
unfilled_shiftsList of shift IDs that could not be fully staffed.
fairness_scoreWorkload distribution score (see below).
conflictsReasons why specific shifts could not be filled.

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Fairness score

After Auto-Assign completes, a Schedule Fairness panel appears at the top of the Assignments page showing the fairness_score returned by the API. The fairness score is a variance-based metric where lower is better — a score near 0 means every volunteer has been assigned roughly equal hours, while a higher score indicates an uneven workload distribution. The UI renders the raw score as an equivalent percentage (0–100%) for readability:
Score rangeRating
> 90%Excellent — workload is perfectly balanced.
70–90%Good — minor variations.
50–70%Fair — some volunteers are working significantly more.
< 50%Imbalanced — review assignments immediately.

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Conflict insights

Any conflicts entries returned by the API are displayed in the Global Scheduling Insights panel alongside the fairness score. Similar reasons (e.g. multiple “max_hours” violations) are aggregated and de-duplicated into a compact list.

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Viewing assignments by shift

The Assignments page groups all assignments under their parent shift cards, sorted by:
  1. Shifts with scheduling conflicts (highest priority)
  2. Partially filled shifts
  3. Completely empty shifts
  4. Chronological order, then alphabetical by shift name
Each shift card shows the shift time window, date, group requirements (with headcount badges), and the full list of assigned volunteers.

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Conflict detection

The page performs client-side conflict detection on every render:
  • Double-booking: if a volunteer appears in two shifts whose time windows overlap, both shift cards show a yellow warning with the volunteer’s name and the word “Overlap”.
  • Max hours exceeded: if a volunteer’s cumulative assigned hours across all shifts exceeds their max_hours, all shifts they are assigned to show a warning with their name, actual hours, and limit.
Auto-Assign clears all existing assignments before inserting new ones. If the API call fails partway through, some shifts may be left unassigned. Use Clear All and run Auto-Assign again to recover.

Volunteers

Manage volunteer profiles, groups, and max hours.

API overview

Technical details on the Go Scheduler API, authentication, and endpoints.

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