Tasks
Tasks
Tasks is where work is written down, given to someone and moved to done (module tasks). A task can belong to a project's board, or stay unfiled on a board of its own.
In the sidebar under Projects → Tasks. Needs: Projects.
Ideas are kept apart from tasks. An idea nobody has agreed to do yet lives in Ideas, and never shows in Tasks, Focus, Sort, overdue lists or team load.
What you see
The screen has five tabs: Tasks, Focus, Sort, Mentions and Team load.
Tasks
A bar of filters sits at the top:
- Search tasks… matches titles.
- A project menu: All projects, No project, Unfiled board, or one project.
- An assignee menu (Anyone or a person) and Mine only.
- A date box to show tasks due on one day, and Today to pick today.
- Mentions: I'm mentioned and Awaiting my reply.
- Missing: No due date, No assignee, No project, No points.
- Made by: People or Agents.
- Clear resets every filter.
Five views show the same tasks in different ways:
- Today: your working set, in three groups: Overdue, Due today, and Planned for today (chosen for today though not due). With nothing waiting it says "Nothing waiting".
- Board (the default): one column per board column, with a count. A new board starts with To do, In progress and Done. Drag a card to another column to move it. Each column has + Add task.
- Days: a row per day, 7, 14 or 30 days at a time from the start of this week, plus Unscheduled for tasks with no due date. This week and the arrows move through the calendar. Drag a card onto a day to change its due date.
- Month: a calendar month of due dates, with This month and arrows to step through months. Cards can be dragged onto a day here too.
- List: a table of Task, Project, Status, Priority, Due and Pts, with Done or Reopen, Edit and Delete on each row.
A card shows the title, priority, due date (red when overdue), points and project. A small mark flags a task where you were mentioned: unread, or waiting for your reply.
A finished task sits in its board's Done column. However a task is completed (on the board, with Done in the list, on the Sort tab, by an agent, or by a readiness check closing it), it moves to the first done column on its board. A reopened task moves back to the first open column. So the board never shows finished work crossed out under To do.
A link such as one from a project's home page or from search opens the task itself.
Focus
Focus keeps your day short.
- Focus projects: pick up to three projects to work on this week. The others are parked: they stay quiet in your morning card, in briefings and in triage, and are still there when you look.
- Today's three: the tasks suggested for today from your focus projects. Keep, swap or drop each one.
- Evening wrap-up: what is planned for tomorrow.
- Brain dump (Everything on your mind): paste one messy text and it becomes separate tasks.
- Settings: Morning card and Evening card times (08:30 and 19:00 to start with), Tasks a day (1 to 5) and Timezone. Send my focus cards turns the cards on.
The same morning and evening cards come to you on Telegram, with buttons to keep a task, show another or drop it.
Sort
Sort clears a pile of overdue and undated tasks one card at a time. Each card is one of your overdue tasks or one of your open tasks with no due date. One key files it and the next card appears:
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| D | Done |
| X | Delete |
| T | Due today |
| M | Due tomorrow |
| W | Due next Monday |
| L | Due on the 1st of next month |
| N | No date |
| P | Move to a project |
| S | Skip |
| Z | Undo the last key |
Every change is saved at once, except a delete. A delete waits until your next key, so Z can still take it back. When the pile is empty it says "All sorted".
Mentions
Comments that named you, newest first, with Include read and Mark all read. You are mentioned when someone names you in a task comment. Each mention also arrives as a notification.
Team load
Open work per person, by count and by points. People with nothing open do not appear. Check it before you hand out more work.
What you can do
Add a task
- Press New task.
- Fill in Title. Optionally pick a Project (leave it empty for an unfiled task), an Assignee, a Priority (None, Low, Medium, High or Urgent; Medium to start with), a Due date (today to start with), Points and Planned for.
- Add Attachments if you like: pick files, drop them in, or paste a screenshot. They upload when you press Create.
- Press Create.
For a quick one, press + Add task at the foot of a board column, type a title and press Add. The task lands in that column, due today (or on the date you filtered by), in the project you filtered by.
You can also add a task from Quick add on the Dashboard, with files or a pasted screenshot. When an agent makes a task from a chat where you sent a screenshot, the screenshot goes onto the task.
Add tasks from Telegram
Send the bot /t and the task, for example /t call Jason about shipping. It is saved at once, with no agent in between. Put several on separate lines to save one task per line. Send /t undo to take back the last /t.
Move, reschedule and finish work
- Drag a card between columns on the Board. Moving a task into a done column completes it.
- Drag a card onto a day in Days or Month to change its due date.
- Press Done in the List to complete a task, or Reopen to undo that.
- Use the Sort tab to deal with overdue and undated work quickly.
Edit or delete one task
- Click a task, or press Edit in the list.
- Change the project, title, description, assignee, status, priority, points, due date or Planned for (the day someone means to do it, as distinct from the day it is due).
- Add or remove attachments in the same dialog.
- Save, or press Delete task and then Delete permanently.
The dialog says who changed the task last, and through what. Deleting a task removes its comments, attachments and the time logged on it. There is no undo. To close finished work, complete it instead.
Change many tasks at once
- Switch to List and tick the tasks, or tick Select all.
- In the bar that appears, move them to a column, assign them, set a priority, move them to a project, set a due date, Mark done or Reopen.
- Delete asks you to confirm with the number of tasks.
See what is yours today
Choose the Today view. It shows only your own overdue tasks, tasks due today and tasks planned for today. For a shorter list, use Focus.
Who can see a task
You can see a task if you created it, or, unless it is private, if it is assigned to you or it is in a project you can see. A private task is its creator's alone, whatever the project says. An unfiled task is seen only by whoever created it and whoever it is assigned to. Administrators see every task. A caller that does not act for a person sees none. See Sharing and visibility.
Who can do what
| Permission | Label | Lets you |
|---|---|---|
tasks:read | View tasks | Open Tasks and see the tasks visible to you, your mentions and team load |
tasks:write | Create and edit tasks | Create, edit, move, complete and delete tasks, comment, attach files, use Sort and Focus, and change board columns and project task settings |
Only a comment's author, or an administrator, may delete it. The same goes for an attachment and whoever attached it. See People, roles and permissions.
What runs on its own
| Job | When | What it does |
|---|---|---|
nudge-overdue | Every day at 09:00 UTC (0 9 * * *) | Tells the assignee of a late open task (or, with no assignee, whoever created it) three times: the day after it was due, a week after and a month after. Then it stops. |
auto-archive | Every day at 03:00 UTC (0 3 * * *) | For each project whose task settings turn auto-archive on, deletes every done task not touched for that many days. Off unless someone sets it. |
focus-cards | Every 5 minutes (*/5 * * * *) | Sends each person who turned focus cards on their morning and evening card when their chosen local time comes round. |
People are also notified when a task is assigned to them and when someone mentions them in a comment. See Notifications and alerts.
For agents
Agents can list, create, update and complete tasks, comment, keep boards in order, and run your focus loop. A task can be given to an agent rather than a person, and a task an agent made can be found with the Agents filter. Changes go through your approval rules. Deleting a task, a column, a comment or an attachment, and changing a project's task settings (which can turn on auto-archive), are classed as destructive: under the default approval policy a person is asked first. When an agent creates a task from your own message, it is made at once and you get an Undo. See Agents and approvals.
Read: tasks.list, tasks.get, tasks.desk (one person's working set: overdue, due today, planned), tasks.columns, tasks.mentions, tasks.settings, tasks.teamLoad, tasks.triage (overdue, undated and stale work, leaving parked projects out unless asked), tasks.focus (your focus projects and today's pick), tasks.projectDigest (what was done and what is due, per active project).
Change: tasks.create (with attachments), tasks.update, tasks.complete, tasks.undo, tasks.comment (with people to mention, who are notified), tasks.readMentions, tasks.remove, tasks.addColumn, tasks.updateColumn, tasks.removeColumn, tasks.setSettings, tasks.removeComment, tasks.removeAttachment.
Focus loop: tasks.dump (turn one messy text into tasks), tasks.setFocusProjects (at most three), tasks.setFocusSettings (card times, tasks a day, timezone).
A column can be marked as a done column; tasks moved into it count as done. Removing a column leaves its tasks with no column until they are moved.
Over MCP the same tools are named tasks__list, tasks__create and so on. See API keys and MCP access.