Aitask Pick

Workflow

Step 0a: Select Execution Profile

Execute the Execution Profile Selection Procedure (see .claude/skills/task-workflow/execution-profile-selection.md).

Step 0b: Check for Direct Task Selection (Optional Argument)

IMPORTANT: Step 0a (profile selection) MUST complete before Step 0b begins. Step 0b's behavior depends on the profile (e.g., skip_task_confirmation). Do NOT parallelize these steps.

If this skill is invoked with a numeric argument:

Format 1: Parent task (e.g., /aitask-pick 16):

• Parse the argument as the task number
• Find the matching task file and check for children in a single call:

  ./.aitask-scripts/aitask_query_files.sh resolve <number>
  

  Parse the output: if first line is NOT_FOUND, the task file does not exist (fall through to error). If first line is TASK_FILE:<path>, use that path. If second line is HAS_CHILDREN:<count>, the task has children — proceed to Step 2d. If NO_CHILDREN, proceed normally.
  • If it has children → proceed to Step 2d (Child Task Selection)
  • If no children:
    • Show task summary and confirm:

      • Read the task file content

      • Generate a brief 1-2 sentence summary of the task description

      • Profile check: If the active profile has skip_task_confirmation set to true:

        • Display: "Profile '<name>': auto-confirming task selection"
        • Skip the AskUserQuestion below and proceed directly to Step 3 (Task Status Checks)

        Otherwise, use AskUserQuestion:

        • Question: "Is this the correct task? Brief summary: <1-2 sentence summary of the task>"
        • Header: "Confirm task"
        • Options: "Yes, proceed" (description: "This is the correct task, continue with aitask-pick workflow") / "No, abort" (description: "Wrong task, cancel the selection")

      • If "Yes, proceed" → proceed to Step 3 (Task Status Checks)

      • If "No, abort" → fall back to normal task selection (proceed to Step 1)

Format 2: Child task (e.g., /aitask-pick 16_2):

• Parse as child task ID (parent=16, child=2)
• Find the matching child task file:

  ./.aitask-scripts/aitask_query_files.sh child-file <parent> <child>
  

  Parse the output: CHILD_FILE:<path> means found (use that path), NOT_FOUND means not found.
• If found:
  • Set this as the selected task
  • Read the task file and parent task for context
  • Gather archived sibling context in a single call:

    ./.aitask-scripts/aitask_query_files.sh sibling-context <parent>
    

    Parse the output: lines prefixed ARCHIVED_PLAN: are archived sibling plan files (primary context source for completed siblings). Lines prefixed ARCHIVED_TASK: are fallback for siblings without archived plans. Lines prefixed PENDING_SIBLING: are pending sibling task files. Lines prefixed PENDING_PLAN: are pending sibling plans. If output is NO_CONTEXT, there are no sibling context files. Read the files listed in the output.
  • Show task summary and confirm:

    • Generate a brief 1-2 sentence summary of the child task description, mentioning the parent task name for context

    • Profile check: If the active profile has skip_task_confirmation set to true:

      • Display: "Profile '<name>': auto-confirming task selection"
      • Skip the AskUserQuestion below and proceed directly to Step 3 (Task Status Checks)

      Otherwise, use AskUserQuestion:

      • Question: "Is this the correct task? Brief summary: <1-2 sentence summary of the child task> (Parent: )"
      • Header: "Confirm task"
      • Options: "Yes, proceed" (description: "This is the correct task, continue with aitask-pick workflow") / "No, abort" (description: "Wrong task, cancel the selection")

    • If "Yes, proceed" → proceed to Step 3 (Task Status Checks)

    • If "No, abort" → fall back to normal task selection (proceed to Step 1)

If no file is found:

• Display error message
• Fall back to normal task selection (proceed to Step 1)

If no argument is provided, proceed with Step 1 as normal.

Step 0c: Sync with Remote (Best-effort)

Before listing tasks, do a best-effort sync to ensure the local task list is up to date (prevents picking a task that another PC already started) and clean up stale locks:

./.aitask-scripts/aitask_pick_own.sh --sync

This is non-blocking — if it fails (e.g., no network, merge conflicts), it continues silently.

Step 1: Label Filtering (Optional)

Before retrieving tasks, ask the user if they want to filter by labels.

• Read available labels from aitasks/metadata/labels.txt
• Use AskUserQuestion with multiSelect:
  • Question: "Do you want to filter tasks by specific labels? (Select labels to include, or skip to show all)"
  • Header: "Labels"
  • Options: List each label from labels.txt, plus "Show all tasks (no filter)"
• If labels selected, pass them to the task listing command using -l label1,label2

Step 2: List and Select Task

2a: Get Top Tasks

Run the task selection script to get the top 15 prioritized parent tasks:

./.aitask-scripts/aitask_ls.sh -v 15

If labels were selected in Step 1:

./.aitask-scripts/aitask_ls.sh -v -l label1,label2 15

Note: This only shows parent-level tasks, not children. Parent tasks with pending children will show as "Has children" and can be selected to drill down into child tasks.

The output format with -v is:

t<number>_<name>.md [Status: <status>, Priority: <priority>, Effort: <effort>]

2b: Generate Task Summaries

For each task returned by the script:

• Read the corresponding task file from aitasks/<filename>
• Check if it has children:

  ./.aitask-scripts/aitask_query_files.sh has-children <number>
  

  Parse the output: HAS_CHILDREN:<count> means it has children (include the count), NO_CHILDREN means none.
• Generate a brief summary including child count if applicable
• Present each task in this format:

<filename> [Priority: <priority>, Effort: <effort>, Status: <status>]
<brief summary of task content>
Children: <N children pending> (or "None")
___________

2c: Ask User to Select Task

Note: This sub-step is skipped if a task number was provided as an argument in Step 0b.

Since AskUserQuestion supports a maximum of 4 options, implement pagination to show all available tasks:

Pagination loop:

• Start with current_offset = 0 and page_size = 3 (3 tasks per page + 1 "Show more" slot).

• For the current page, take tasks from index current_offset to current_offset + page_size - 1.

• Build AskUserQuestion options:

  • For each task in the current page slice: option label = task filename, description = brief summary with metadata
  • If there are more tasks beyond this page: add a "Show more tasks" option (description: "Show next batch of tasks (N more available)")

• Present options via AskUserQuestion.

• Handle selection:

  • If user selects a task → proceed to Step 2d (if parent with children) or Step 3
  • If user selects "Show more tasks" → increment current_offset by page_size, loop back to building the page options
  • If this is the last page (no "Show more" needed), show up to 4 tasks instead of 3

2d: Child Task Selection (For Parent Tasks with Children)

If the selected task is a parent task with children in aitasks/t<N>/:

• List all child tasks:

  ./.aitask-scripts/aitask_ls.sh -v --children <parent_num> 99
  

• Read each child task file for summaries

• Use AskUserQuestion:

  • Question: "This is a parent task with child subtasks. Select which to work on:"
  • Options:
    • Each ready (unblocked) child task with brief summary
    • "Work on parent directly" (only if all children are complete)

• If child selected:

  • Set child as the working task
  • Gather sibling context (archived + pending) in a single call:

    ./.aitask-scripts/aitask_query_files.sh sibling-context <parent>
    

    Parse the output and read files listed. ARCHIVED_PLAN: files are the primary reference for completed siblings. ARCHIVED_TASK: files are fallback. PENDING_SIBLING: and PENDING_PLAN: are pending sibling context. Include parent task file in context as well.
  • Proceed to Step 3

Step 3: Hand Off to Shared Workflow

At this point, a task has been selected and confirmed. Set the following context variables, then read and follow .claude/skills/task-workflow/SKILL.md starting from Step 3: Task Status Checks:

• task_file: Path to the selected task file (e.g., aitasks/t16_implement_auth.md or aitasks/t10/t10_2_add_login.md for child tasks)
• task_id: The task identifier extracted from the filename (e.g., 16 or 16_2)
• task_name: The full stem from the filename used for branches/worktrees (e.g., t16_implement_auth or t16_2_add_login)
• is_child: true if a child task was selected (from Step 2d or Step 0b with parent_child format), false otherwise
• parent_id: The parent task number if is_child is true (e.g., 16), otherwise null
• parent_task_file: Path to the parent task file if is_child is true (e.g., aitasks/t16_implement_auth.md), otherwise null
• active_profile: The execution profile loaded in Step 0a (or null if no profile)
• active_profile_filename: The <filename> value from the scanner output for the selected profile (e.g., fast.yaml or local/fast.yaml), or null if no profile
• previous_status: Ready (the status the task had before being picked)
• skill_name: "pick"

Notes

• This skill uses the project's aitask_ls.sh script for task prioritization
• Parent tasks with pending children show as "Has children" and are sorted normally by priority/effort
• The --children flag of aitask_ls.sh lists only children of a specific parent
• When invoked with a child task argument (e.g., /aitask-pick 10_2), the skill goes directly to that child task
• For the full Execution Profiles schema, shared workflow notes, and customization guide, see .claude/skills/task-workflow/SKILL.md