9 Best Project Timeline Software Tools in 2026

Last quarter, one task slipped on a timeline I’d spent all day building, and nothing else moved with it. I re-dragged every task behind it by hand, and half the dates were wrong again by the time I finished. That was the day I went looking for software that could hold a schedule together on its own.

Turns out Harold Kerzner called it decades ago: skip systematic planning, and you get reactive, crisis-driven management.

So I tested nine tools the same way: build a real plan, move one task, and watch whether the rest of the schedule follows. I compared them in terms of how they handle dependencies, whether they show a critical path, what you really get at each tier, pricing, and how far their AI goes.

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Project Timeline Software at a Glance

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What Is Project Timeline Software?

Project timeline software is a tool that maps tasks, durations, dependencies, and milestones across a calendar so a team can plan, sequence, and track work against fixed dates. It answers one question continuously: what is happening when, and what moves if something slips?

Don’t confuse project timeline software with a simple calendar or a spreadsheet. For instance, a calendar shows due dates. Meanwhile, project timeline software shows the relationships between dates and keeps them accurate as the work changes. The project schedule in this case is a whole new ball game. Meaning you can defend it to a stakeholder in real time as work evolves, which doesn’t always hold true for a plain calendar or spreadsheet.

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What Should You Look for in Project Timeline Software?

Match the tool to the work, not to the longest feature list. The right project timeline software should help you plan, adjust, and explain the schedule without turning every change into manual cleanup.

• Dependency handling: Check whether the tool supports the main dependency types, including finish-to-start, start-to-start, finish-to-finish, and start-to-finish. Plus, if dependent tasks don’t reschedule automatically, you are managing a drawing, not a working project model
• Critical path and slack: Look for critical path visibility, plus some way to see which tasks have buffer. Without this, every task looks equally urgent, which is how teams end up chasing the wrong fire. Critical path analysis helps separate tasks that affect the project’s finish date from tasks that have room to move
• Free-tier and pricing reality: Do not judge the tool by the pricing page headline. Many platforms reserve timeline views, dependencies, workload management, or critical path features for higher tiers. Check the exact plan where each feature unlocks before you build your shortlist
• Baseline reporting: A strong timeline tool should let you save the original plan and compare it against actual progress. That planned-versus-actual view is what helps teams spot schedule drift early, before it shows up as a missed deadline or a tense client call
• AI assistance: AI can help flag at-risk tasks, summarize schedule changes, draft status updates, or answer questions like “What is blocked this sprint?” Useful, but not the main event. Treat AI as a tiebreaker after the tool proves it can handle dates, dependencies, and reporting properly

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9 Best Project Timeline Software Tools

I tested nine project timeline software tools for this list: ClickUp, monday.com, Asana, Wrike, Smartsheet, TeamGantt, GanttPRO, Microsoft Project, and Jira.

And the key takeaway: some tools are better for live dependencies and critical paths, while others fit visual planning, spreadsheet-style control, or software delivery.

1. ClickUp (Best free project timeline software)

ClickUp earns the top spot because it maintains a schedule that automatically recalculates as work changes. It’s a full AI-powered work and project timeline software with a built-in scheduling engine. Meaning the timeline here sits next to the tasks it tracks. And it puts dependencies, drag-to-reschedule, and a live critical path.

If you’re a team of 5 to 200+ who plan work in parallel (project managers, marketing leads, and IT teams) with several projects under your hood, then this one’s for you. The ClickUp Gantt View handles all four dependency types (finish-to-start, start-to-start, finish-to-finish, start-to-finish). Plus, with Reschedule Dependencies on, one dragged date ripples down the whole chain.

Critical Path highlights the tasks that push your finish date, and Slack Time shows where you still have buffer. You also get a dedicated Timeline view plus more than 15 views in total, so the same work reads as a calendar, board, or list whenever the project calls for it.

All of this connects to ClickUp Brain, the native AI layer, which reads the Gantt directly, so a quick question comes back answered from the live plan. ClickUp Super Agents further watch the timeline, flag a task the moment it slips, nudge the owner, and draft the update while the change is fresh.

Pricing:

Ratings:

• G2: 4.7/5 (12,900+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.6/5 (4,000+ reviews)

A G2 reviewer pointed to the timeline as a standout:

Where it taps out: The depth that helps a cross-team plan is more than you need if you’re a solo user with a short list. And there’s a broad feature set that takes a little longer than a lighter tool would. Also, the free plan includes limited usage of Gantt and Timeline views; heavy users of these features may need to upgrade.

2. monday.com (Best for visual, board-first planning)

When I tried monday.com, what stood out was that it builds the timeline from the board outward. I set work up as colorful items first, then flipped them into a Timeline or Gantt view. Halfway through, scheduling started to feel more like arranging blocks than a project grid. If your team thinks visually, this would be a great match. I’d point operations, marketing, and creative teams of roughly 5 to 100 here first.

Once I set dependencies in the Gantt view, it handled the chain properly, including lead and lag times. Critical path is available too, currently as an open trial feature rather than a settled part of any plan. Meaning monday flags that it may become paid later and hasn’t said which tiers will include it.

The AI is where monday has moved fast, and I felt it. Its Sidekick assistant reads across boards and docs to draft content and answer questions. And with Agent Factory, you can spin up AI agents (monday calls it a “digital workforce”) that monitor a board and execute routine steps on their own. In practice, it leans toward suggesting tasks and automating updates rather than reading the critical path for risk, the way I’d want in a pure scheduler. But, again, for a board-first team, it fits the workflow naturally.

Pricing:

• Free (up to 2 seats)
• Basic: $9/seat/month billed annually (no Gantt view)
• Standard: $12/seat/month billed annually (Gantt view unlocks here)
• Pro: $19/seat/month billed annually
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

Ratings:

• G2: 4.7/5 (15,000+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.6/5 (6,000+ reviews)

A G2 reviewer pointed to the timeline and scheduling as the draw:

Where it taps out: Its timeline is excellent for visualizing a schedule, but lighter on the deeper scheduling analytics some project managers expect.

3. Asana (Best for collaboration-led teams)

The polish is what separates Asana from many other tools. Its Timeline and Gantt views map dependencies, durations, and phases. If you’ve got a cross-functional team of roughly 5 to 50 already using Asana, this would be your perfect match.

Dragging a connector between two tasks sets a dependency, and I can pick the type from a dropdown or chain an entire sequence in bulk by multi-selecting. Auto-scheduling saved me real setup time: new tasks land on consecutive dates instead of stacking on day one. I also color-coded the bars by a custom field, so at a glance I could see which team owned what and where the high-priority work sat.

Asana also supports the critical path, so you can see which tasks drive the finish date. Baselines let me snapshot the original plan and lay it over live progress, with the hashed bars showing where the project drifted. All of it needs a paid plan, though.

I also tested out the AI. Asana AI drafted my project status updates and summarized progress and risks straight from the timeline and task activity, which pulled real weight off my reporting. AI Studio builds no-code workflows, and AI Teammates are prebuilt agents that sit inside your projects to handle intake, routing, and follow-ups. If you spend half your week chasing status, I think that layer pays for itself.

Pricing:

• Personal: Free (up to 10 users)
• Starter: $10.99/user/month billed annually (Timeline/Gantt unlocks here)
• Advanced: $24.99/user/month billed annually
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

Ratings:

• G2: 4.4/5 (13,700+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.5/5 (13,000+ reviews)

A G2 reviewer pointed to the timeline and dependencies for staying ahead of delays:

Where it taps out: The scheduling I actually wanted lives behind the paywall. The free plan has no Timeline at all, so any real timeline work means paying.

4. Wrike (Best for enterprise portfolios)

Wrike is great for managing several projects simultaneously across a large organization. When I loaded up parallel workstreams, its Gantt chart kept them all readable on one screen. Large teams, agencies, and enterprise operations groups are the natural fit, and the top tiers add the resource planning and governance a PMO needs.

Where Wrike pulls ahead is in sharing and reporting at scale. Public Snapshots let me hand a client a read-only, watermarked Gantt through a link, no login, and an expiry date I set. Real-time dashboards roll up status across every project, so a program lead can see the whole portfolio without pinging anyone.

The scheduling supports all four dependency types with lead and lag times, a critical path that now spans up to 50 projects in a single view, and stacked baselines with color-coded variance.

Wrike Copilot answers questions about project status in seconds, and its AI Agents watch the work, flag tasks heading for delay based on dependency chains and workload, then take action. The agents sit on the Business plan and up.

Pricing:

• Free
• Team: $10/user/month (Gantt/Timeline unlocks here)
• Business: $25/user/month
• Pinnacle / Apex: Custom pricing

Ratings:

• G2: 4.2/5 (4,000+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.4/5 (3,000+ reviews)

A G2 reviewer pointed to the Gantt chart as a favorite:

Where it taps out: The structure that carries a large operation is more than a small team needs, and that depth carries a real setup cost. The pricing cliff between Team and Business also kicks in the moment you hit 15 users.

5. Smartsheet (Best for spreadsheet-native scheduling)

If your team already lives in spreadsheets, Smartsheet is the timeline tool that asks the least of you. It runs scheduling on a grid of rows and columns. Managers and PMOs of 10 or more who want Gantt and portfolio views layered on that grid are a good fit.

The scheduling sits right on top of the grid. Flip a sheet into Gantt view, set predecessor columns, and it calculates dependencies. Plus, it also adjusts dates down the chain when one moves, highlights the critical path, and tracks a baseline against your live dates. Because everything is a column, I could drive dates and durations with formulas the way I would in a spreadsheet, which is the whole appeal.

The AI plays to that grid identity. Smart Columns run translation, summarization, and sentiment analysis across a sheet as the data changes. Smart Assist answers questions about a sheet, surfaces what’s at risk, and drafts a stakeholder update in seconds.

Smartsheet also lets you connect to external models like Claude, Copilot, or Gemini through its MCP server, so a team can bring in the AI it already uses.

Pricing:

• Pro: $9/user/month billed annually
• Business: $19/user/month billed annually
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

Ratings:

• G2: 4.4/5 (22,000+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.5/5 (3,500+ reviews)

A G2 reviewer pointed to the spreadsheet feel and dependency tracking:

Where it taps out: The grid-and-formula model is powerful, but it carries a learning curve, especially for anyone who expected a lighter visual planner. Setup is more involved than a drag-and-drop timeline.

6. TeamGantt (Best for dedicated Gantt planning)

TeamGantt does one thing well: online Gantt charts for planning and tracking a schedule. There’s no sprawling platform wrapped around it, which is exactly why planners who want a timeline and nothing else reach for it. Small teams and project planners who value speed and clarity are a good fit.

Building a schedule is fast, too. Drag tasks into place, link them to manage handoffs and phases, and, on the Business tier, the critical path recalculates automatically whenever dates or dependencies change. The same schedule shows up as a Gantt, list, board, or calendar, all synced, with baselines and progress tracking alongside.

In terms of the pricing model, you pay per project rather than per seat, and public share links drop clients straight into the plan. The Business plan allows unlimited managers and collaborators, but Basic caps you at one manager and ten collaborators. Either way, it’s the rare planning tool a non-PM can pick up in an afternoon.

TeamGantt’s free AI Gantt Chart Maker spins up a starting timeline you can then manage as a real project, so you skip the blank canvas setup.

Pricing:

• Basic: $240/year (2 projects included; +$120 per additional project/year)
• Business: $1,140/year (5 projects included; +$228 per additional project/year)
• Builder Edition: $1,908/year (10 projects included) (construction-specific tools)

Ratings:

• G2: 4.8/5 (800+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.6/5 (200+ reviews)

A G2 reviewer pointed to the drag-and-drop scheduling and easy setup:

I really like that TeamGantt offers an intuitive drag-and-drop Gantt chart interface, making project scheduling and timeline adjustments super easy. It also enables seamless team collaboration with task assignments, file sharing, and real-time progress tracking. The initial setup was very easy, not painful at all.

Where it taps out: It’s lighter on the broader PM features (reporting depth, integrations, business workflows) that sit outside core timeline planning. And the critical path sitting behind Business means the cheapest paid tier won’t give you a true scheduling readout.

7. GanttPRO (Best Gantt-first scheduling tool)

GanttPRO is built around professional scheduling, and it suits managers who want to plan tasks, set dependencies and milestones, and manage resources in one focused tool. The learning curve is gentle enough that people newer to formal scheduling can get going quickly. Project managers and planners who want Gantt-first planning are the fit.

Where it earns attention is in migration and speed. It imports projects from Excel, MS Project, and Jira, so moving off a spreadsheet takes minutes. And the pre-made templates give you a running start, too.

The scheduling itself covers the essentials well: task dependencies, milestones, auto-scheduling, critical path, and baselines. Workload and resource management sit on the Business tier for teams that need to balance who’s doing what.

GanttPRO’s AI Gantt Chart Maker turns a plain description into a structured timeline in seconds, so you don’t struggle with a blank chart. It’s built to speed up planning rather than to run risk analysis across your schedule, which fits a tool this focused.

Pricing:

• Core: $7 per user per month / billed annually
• Advanced: $10 per user per month / billed annually
• Business: $17 per user per month / billed annually
• Enterprise: $20 per user per month / billed annually

Ratings:

• G2: 4.8/5 (500+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.8/5 (500+ reviews)

A G2 reviewer pointed to the visual timeline and dependency tracking:

What I like best about GanttPRO is its intuitive interface and clear visual project timelines. The Gantt chart layout makes it easy to organize tasks, set dependencies and track progress in a structured way. I also appreciate how simple it is to assign tasks and manage deadlines, which helps keep projects well organized and easy to follow.

Where it taps out: It’s a scheduling tool, not an end-to-end execution platform, so the work, docs, and conversations that surround a plan live elsewhere. Teams wanting a single tool for scheduling and delivery will feel that gap.

8. Microsoft Project (Best for Microsoft 365 organizations)

Microsoft Project is the long-standing classic for formal scheduling, with Gantt charts, task dependencies, critical path analysis, and resource management built in. It’s the natural fit for larger organizations already invested in Microsoft 365 that want their scheduler inside that ecosystem. Program managers and PMOs in enterprise settings are the audience.

It handles dependencies and the critical path natively and produces detailed reports on progress, resource usage, and timeline performance. The real depth (advanced dependencies, baselines, and critical path) starts at Plan 3, while the cheaper Plan 1 is closer to lightweight task tracking.

The AI arrives via Microsoft Copilot, so you don’t need a separate scheduling assistant. Copilot inside Project can generate a task plan, assess schedule risk, and draft status reports. The newer Copilot Cowork can build a full Gantt (owners, dates, work tracks) from something as loose as meeting notes. For a team already living in Microsoft 365, that intelligence lands where they already work.

Pricing:

• Planner Plan 1: $10 user/month, paid yearly
• Planner and Project Plan 3: $30 user/month, paid yearly

Perpetual desktop licenses (one-time):

• Project Standard 2024: $679.99 one-time purchase
• Project Professional 2024: $1,129.99 one-time purchase

Ratings:

• G2: 4/5 (1,500+ reviews)
• Capterra: Not enough reviews

A G2 reviewer pointed to its portfolio and Gantt depth inside the Microsoft stack:

The ability to manage projects (primarily portfolios, resources, and costs), generate Gantt charts, assign programmers to projects, along with the native integration with other Microsoft tools is great (Power BI). Additionally, I can group several municipal Smart Cities initiatives into a single unified vision.

Where it taps out: Project is powerful but can be complex, and the interface is heavier than occasional planners need. It’s a little expensive for small teams and carries licensing weight as you add users. The real scheduling also lives on Plan 3 and up.

9. Jira (Best for software and agile teams)

Jira anchors this list for engineering teams because its timeline ties directly to sprints, issues, and epics. Software teams and agile shops of any size already running on Jira are a natural fit.

Its timeline and Plans visualize epics and dependencies across sprints, and it supports all four dependency types within a dev-centric workflow. For a team whose “project” is a product backlog, that tie between the schedule and the actual issues being built is the whole point. Where it’s less natural is anything outside that model: the schedule speaks in epics and stories, not classic Gantt bars.

The AI is where Jira has moved fast. Atlassian’s Rovo agents are now generally available in Jira: you can assign work items to them, @mention them in comments, and embed them in workflow statuses so they trigger automatically as work progresses. You can even bring in third-party agents like GitHub Copilot or Cursor, which fits a tool built around the software-delivery lifecycle. Every agent action is logged with an audit trail, so a lead stays in control.

Pricing:

• Free (up to 10 users)
• Standard: $900 per year (User tier: 1-10)
• Premium: $1,850 per year (User tier: 1-10)
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

Ratings:

• G2: 4.3/5 (7,800+ reviews)
• Capterra: 4.4/5 (15,000+ reviews)

A G2 reviewer pointed to tracking project progress on the timeline:

Where it taps out: Jira is built around software development, so non-technical teams often find its model heavier than their work requires. If your projects aren’t software delivery, the sprint-and-issue framing gets in the way.

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How to Choose the Right Project Timeline Software

Start with how your team plans work today. The best project timeline software is not always the tool with the most views, dashboards, or AI features. It is the tool that matches your work without making the team update the same plan twice.

Three questions do most of the sorting.

How often do your dates move? If the answer is “constantly,” dependencies, auto-rescheduling, and baseline tracking stop being nice-to-haves; they’re the whole point.

Where does your team already live? A board-first team, a spreadsheet team, and an engineering team will each fight a tool built for one of the others.

How much platform do you actually want? More views and dashboards aren’t better if you’ll never open them; a focused Gantt beats a suite you half-use.

One more fork before you shortlist: some people don’t need a platform at all, just a timeline they can build fast and share. If that’s you, a full PM tool is overkill. A free Gantt chart maker or timeline maker lets you sketch tasks, set dependencies, and export to PNG or CSV in the browser, no signup.

Excel and Google Sheets can do a static timeline too, but they don’t recalculate: move one task, and you’re fixing every downstream date by hand. And PowerPoint (or an add-in like Office Timeline) is for presenting a plan to leadership, not running it. The rule: build and manage the schedule in real software, then export a snapshot when you need a slide.

Use this quick filter before you build your shortlist:

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Timeline View vs. Gantt Chart: What’s the Difference?

A timeline view and a Gantt chart are like cousins wearing the same shirt, but they do not do the same job. A timeline view plots tasks on a calendar by start and end date. It gives teams a visual way to see what happens when. A Gantt chart further connects tasks through dependencies, shows how delays affect later work, and may highlight the critical path.

Many tools market any horizontal date-based view as a Gantt chart. But without dependency management, automatic rescheduling, and critical path visibility, it is closer to a visual calendar than a true scheduling engine.

Run this test before you buy. Build a sample project with 20 tasks, add five dependencies, then push one early task back by three days. If the dependent tasks move with it and the affected path becomes clear, the tool supports real schedule planning. If you have to drag every later task by hand, the Gantt view will likely create more manual work as the project grows.

One setup detail also catches teams early. In many tools, a task needs both a start date and a due date to appear as a timeline bar. A task with only a due date may sit in the sidebar instead of showing on the chart.

Dependencies can behave the same way. Some tools only shift dates that already exist. If your dependent tasks have no start or end dates, the chain may not move until all tasks have valid start or end dates.

Here’s a quick video roundup of the best Gantt tools (some of which are explored above in this blog post) and how they stack up:

Timeline vs. Gantt Chart vs. Roadmap vs. PERT Chart

Pick the format based on the question your project plan needs to answer.

The simple rule: use a timeline to show sequence, a Gantt chart to manage the schedule, a roadmap to align strategy, and a PERT chart to shape the plan before execution starts.

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How to Build a Project Timeline

Building a project timeline involves five steps: list work, estimate durations, map dependencies, schedule tasks, and set milestones and baseline to track progress. The process is the same whether using software or a spreadsheet.

• List the deliverables, then break them into tasks: Start with what the project needs to ship. Then work backward into the tasks that make each deliverable happen
• Estimate task duration: Give each task realistic start and end dates. In many tools, a task with only a due date will not show as a timeline bar
• Map dependencies: Mark which tasks need another task to finish before they can start. This is where the plan starts behaving like a schedule instead of a task list
• Plot tasks on a timeline or Gantt view: Lay the work across the calendar so overlaps, handoffs, and gaps are easy to spot. This is also where messy plans tend to reveal themselves, which is useful
• Add milestones and save a baseline: Use milestones to mark key checkpoints, such as kickoff, approval, launch, or delivery. Then save a baseline so you can compare the original plan against actual progress as the project runs

The tool you use changes how much of this work stays manual.

Excel and Google Sheets can create a project timeline, but you still need to maintain the dates yourself. Move one early task, and the later tasks will not shift unless you update them by hand. PowerPoint and Word work better for static timelines you need to present, not timelines you plan to manage every week.

Dedicated project timeline software is different because it keeps dependencies live. When one task moves, the rest of the schedule can move with it.

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Build Your Project Timeline in ClickUp

After testing all nine, I’ll be honest: the choice can start to blur. They all demo well, they all show pretty bars, and on the surface, they start to look interchangeable.

Cut through it with three checks. Run the buyer test from earlier on your shortlist. See where the critical path actually unlocks, since nearly every tool gates it a tier or two up. And think about how your team already works, because a spreadsheet crowd and an engineering team don’t want the same tool.

If you want a place to start, start with ClickUp. The timeline or Gantt you build stays anchored to the tasks, docs, and dashboards around it, with native AI and automation in the same workspace.

Get started with ClickUp for free.

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Frequently Asked Questions about Project Timeline Software

How much does project timeline software cost?

Most paid plans run $7 to $25 per user per month, billed annually. Entry tiers start around ClickUp $7, monday.com $9, Wrike $10, and Asana $10.99 per user per month; TeamGantt bills per project from $240/year. The feature you actually want (critical path, baselines) usually sits one or two tiers above entry, so price the plan that unlocks it, not the headline.

What’s the difference between project timeline software and project management software?

Project timeline software focuses on scheduling: mapping tasks, durations, dependencies, and milestones across dates. Project management software is broader, adding task boards, docs, workloads, and reporting around that schedule. Platforms like ClickUp, monday.com, and Wrike do both, while dedicated tools like TeamGantt and GanttPRO handle timelines alone. Pick the platform when more than one team touches the plan.

Who should not use project timeline software?

You may not need project timeline software if your project has a few tasks, no real dependencies, one owner, and a deadline that does not move. A shared spreadsheet, calendar, or simple Kanban board may be enough. Timeline software becomes worth it when delays cascade, several people own work, stakeholders need visibility, or the plan changes often.

Is there free project timeline software?

Yes, but read the fine print, because most tools reserve the real scheduling for paid tiers. ClickUp’s free plan includes task dependencies and critical path, with capped use of the Timeline and Gantt views. Asana’s free plan has no Timeline view at all, and some “free” Gantt tools cap projects or users. Confirm the specific feature you need is free, not just the account.

Can Asana or monday.com show a true critical path?

Yes, but with different catches. monday.com’s critical path is currently an open trial feature, not tied to a specific plan, and monday notes it may move behind a paywall later. Asana gates the critical path behind its Advanced plan and up. On both, the Gantt view that the critical path depends on already requires a paid tier, so budget for a mid-tier plan and confirm the feature is live before you commit.

Can you create a project timeline in Excel?

Yes. Excel can build a timeline using a stacked bar chart or a Gantt template, and it’s free if you already have Microsoft 365. The catch is that Excel timelines are static: move one task, and dependent tasks won’t shift unless you re-edit every date by hand. It works for a one-off visual or a small fixed plan, not for schedules with dependencies or moving deadlines.

How does AI improve project timeline forecasting?

AI reads the schedule to flag at-risk tasks, predict slippage before it cascades, and draft status updates without a meeting. Newer agents go further, watching the timeline and acting on it. Quality varies widely between tools, so treat AI forecasting as a tiebreaker on top of solid dependency handling, not a replacement for it.

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