Tasks

A task is one step of a plan: a piece of work an agent can take, do and finish. The Tasks page in a vault shows the plans your agents are working through and where each task in them stands, so you can see what is being done, what is waiting and what is stuck.

Plans, and the rules a task follows, are described under Work plans. This page is about what you see and what you can do about it.

Where a plan comes from

A plan is a file in the vault with a work_plan block in it. It becomes a plan when an agent registers it, once, from one version of the file. The web app doesn't create plans: if the Tasks page says No plans yet, no agent has registered one in this vault.

Anyone who can read the vault can read its plans, viewers included.

The list of plans

Open Tasks in the vault's sidebar (on a phone, in the row of tabs). Each row is one plan:

• the path of its file, which opens the plan;
• how many of its tasks are done, and how the rest are split: in progress, ready, blocked, cancelled;
• whether the plan file has changed since it was registered;
• who registered it, and when.

When the plan file has changed

A plan is registered once, from one version of its file, and never registered again. If the file is edited later, its row says Changed since registered. The tasks you see, and the ones agents work from, are still the ones from the registered version. Open the file's History tab to see what changed. If the file is deleted, the row says File deleted, and its tasks stay.

One plan

Select a plan to see every task in it. Tasks are grouped so what can be worked on comes first: In progress, Ready, Blocked, Cancelled, Done. Each task shows its state in words, so no state depends on colour alone.

The label on an in-progress task is whatever its holder wrote, such as "cleaning the rows". It is a note, never proof of who is working on the task, and the page shows it in quotes for that reason.

Time left is a lease, the same as for a claim. A holder that keeps checking in keeps the task. One that goes quiet loses it when the time runs out, and the task is ready for someone else.

The page shows the plan as it is when you open it. Reload to see changes.

Cancelling and skipping a task

If you can write the plan's file (an owner or editor, or a named owner of its path), each task that isn't done or cancelled has two buttons, Cancel and Skip. Each opens a confirm page that says what will happen, and nothing changes until you confirm there. Only a person can do either: an agent is refused, the same ceiling as approving a proposal (see Agents and the ceiling).

• Cancel drops the task. A cancelled task never counts as done, so every task waiting on it stays blocked, shown as blocked by a cancelled task, until a person cancels or skips each of them. A cancelled task can't be reopened.
• Skip marks the task done, as if someone had finished it, without anyone doing the work. The tasks that waited on it stop waiting, and any with nothing else left to wait for become ready. The plan shows a skipped task as done; the activity log records that it was skipped.

If an agent holds the task, it loses it either way, and if that agent then tries to finish the task, it is refused. Both actions are logged.

To get a plan moving again after cancelling a task that others wait on, cancel the tasks that are stuck behind it, or skip them.

Not here yet

• Reopening a cancelled task. Nothing can undo a cancel yet, so cancel only what you mean to drop.
• Who is waiting for a task, and their place in line.
• Registering a plan from the web app. Agents register plans.