This special report identifies metrics (standard and novel) and analytic approaches to developing trajectories and then describes the conceptual process of using those metrics and approaches to develop restoration trajectories to inform adaptive management in salt-marsh systems. We identify the composite time series trajectory (CTST) approach, in which metrics are measured from restoration sites of different ages within a small spatial range, and the retrospective single-site trajectory (RSST) approach, in which the same restoration metrics are measured over time at one restoration site. In all, we assessed the metrics of 39 studies of salt-marsh restoration in the United States between 1991 and 2019.