Manage Tasks

Manage Tasks Skill

Manage implementation tasks with sequential sub-steps within a plan. Each task references deliverables from the solution document and contains ordered steps for execution.

Implementation Details: See design-for-manage-tasks.md for the complete specification including file format, all commands, parameters, and validation rules.

What This Skill Provides

• Individual JSON file storage for each task (TOON output for LLM efficiency)
• Sequential, immutable numbering (TASK-1, TASK-2, etc.)
• Deliverable references (M:N relationship to solution_outline.md)
• Delegation context (skill + workflow for execution)
• Verification commands and criteria
• Step management with status tracking
• Simple execution loop via next query

When to Activate This Skill

Activate this skill when:

• Creating or managing implementation tasks for a plan
• Querying next actionable task/step
• Marking steps as started/completed/skipped
• Tracking implementation progress

Storage Location

Tasks are stored in the plan directory:

{plan_dir}/tasks/
  TASK-001-IMPL.json
  TASK-002-IMPL.json
  TASK-003-FIX.json

Filename format: TASK-{NNN}-{TYPE}.json where TYPE is: IMPL, FIX, SONAR, PR, LINT, SEC, DOC

File Format (Summary)

Tasks are stored as JSON and output as TOON (LLM-optimized):

{
  "number": 1,
  "title": "Update misc agents to TOON output",
  "status": "pending",
  "phase": "5-execute",
  "domain": "plan-marshall-plugin-dev",
  "profile": "implementation",
  "type": "IMPL",
  "origin": "plan",
  "skills": [
    "pm-plugin-development:plugin-maintain",
    "pm-plugin-development:plugin-architecture"
  ],
  "deliverable": 1,
  "depends_on": [],
  "description": "Migrate miscellaneous agents from JSON to TOON output format.",
  "steps": [
    {"number": 1, "title": "pm-plugin-development/agents/tool-coverage-agent.md", "status": "pending"},
    {"number": 2, "title": "pm-dev-builder/agents/gradle-builder.md", "status": "pending"},
    {"number": 3, "title": "pm-dev-frontend/commands/js-generate-coverage.md", "status": "pending"}
  ],
  "verification": {
    "commands": ["grep -L '```json' {files} | wc -l"],
    "criteria": "No JSON blocks remain",
    "manual": false
  },
  "current_step": 1
}

New Fields:

Operations

Script: pm-workflow:manage-tasks:manage-tasks

Add Command (stdin-based API)

The add command reads the task definition from stdin in TOON format. Only --plan-id is passed as a CLI argument.

Why stdin? Complex task definitions with verification commands containing shell metacharacters (pipes, wildcards, quotes) caused permission issues when passed as CLI arguments. The stdin approach avoids shell interpretation of these characters.

Stdin format:

title: My Task Title
deliverable: 1
domain: plan-marshall-plugin-dev
profile: implementation
type: IMPL
phase: 5-execute
origin: plan
description: |
  Multi-line task description here.
  Can include any characters.

skills:
  - pm-plugin-development:plugin-maintain
  - pm-plugin-development:plugin-architecture

steps:
  - First step to execute
  - Second step to execute
  - Third step to execute

depends_on: none

verification:
  commands:
    - grep -l '```json' marketplace/bundles/*.md | wc -l
    - mvn verify
  criteria: All grep commands return 0 (no JSON blocks remain)
  manual: false

Required fields: title, deliverable, domain, profile, skills, steps

Optional fields: phase (default: execute), description, depends_on, verification, origin (default: plan)

Field values:

• deliverable: Single positive integer (one deliverable per task, 1:1 constraint)
• domain: Domain from references.json (e.g., java, javascript, plan-marshall-plugin-dev)
• profile: Profile key from marshal.json (e.g., implementation, module_testing)
• skills: Array of bundle:skill format strings
• phase: One of init, outline, plan, execute, finalize
• depends_on: none or task references like TASK-1, TASK-2
• origin: plan (from task-plan phase) or fix (from verify phase)

List/Next Filters

Quick Examples

Add a task

python3 .plan/execute-script.py pm-workflow:manage-tasks:manage-tasks add \
  --plan-id my-feature <<'EOF'
title: Update misc agents to TOON
deliverable: 1
domain: java
description: |
  Migrate miscellaneous agents from JSON to TOON output format.

steps:
  - file1.md
  - file2.md
  - file3.md

verification:
  commands:
    - mvn verify
  criteria: Build passes
EOF

Add a task with dependencies

python3 .plan/execute-script.py pm-workflow:manage-tasks:manage-tasks add \
  --plan-id my-feature <<'EOF'
title: Write integration tests
deliverable: 3
domain: java-testing
description: Add integration tests for new endpoint

steps:
  - Create test class
  - Add test methods
  - Run tests

depends_on: TASK-1, TASK-2

verification:
  commands:
    - mvn verify -Pintegration
  criteria: All tests pass
EOF

Add a task with complex verification commands (shell metacharacters)

python3 .plan/execute-script.py pm-workflow:manage-tasks:manage-tasks add \
  --plan-id migrate-json-to-toon <<'EOF'
title: Migrate agent outputs to TOON
deliverable: 1
domain: plan-marshall-plugin-dev
description: |
  Update agents to use TOON format instead of JSON.

steps:
  - Update java-implement-agent.md
  - Update java-verify-agent.md
  - Update gradle-builder.md

verification:
  commands:
    - grep -l '```json' marketplace/bundles/pm-dev-java/agents/*.md | wc -l
    - grep -l '```json' marketplace/bundles/pm-dev-builder/agents/*.md | wc -l
  criteria: All grep commands return 0 (no JSON blocks remain)
EOF

Get next task/step (respects dependencies)

python3 .plan/execute-script.py pm-workflow:manage-tasks:manage-tasks next \
  --plan-id my-feature

Get next task in specific phase

python3 .plan/execute-script.py pm-workflow:manage-tasks:manage-tasks next \
  --plan-id my-feature \
  --phase 5-execute

List ready tasks only

python3 .plan/execute-script.py pm-workflow:manage-tasks:manage-tasks list \
  --plan-id my-feature \
  --ready

Finalize step (mark done or skipped)

# Mark step as done
python3 .plan/execute-script.py pm-workflow:manage-tasks:manage-tasks finalize-step \
  --plan-id my-feature \
  --task 2 \
  --step 3 \
  --outcome done

# Skip step with reason
python3 .plan/execute-script.py pm-workflow:manage-tasks:manage-tasks finalize-step \
  --plan-id my-feature \
  --task 2 \
  --step 3 \
  --outcome skipped \
  --reason "File already exists"

Integration Points

With task-plan-agent

Task-plan agents create tasks during plan refinement using heredoc:

python3 .plan/execute-script.py pm-workflow:manage-tasks:manage-tasks add \
  --plan-id {plan_id} <<'EOF'
title: {task_title}
deliverable: {deliverable_number}
domain: {domain}
steps:
  - {step1}
  - {step2}
...
EOF

With plan-execute

Plan-execute iterates through tasks:

LOOP:
  1. manage-tasks next --plan-id {plan_id}
  2. IF no next: DONE
  3. SPAWN implement agent
  4. CONTINUE

With implement-agent

Implement agents execute steps:

1. manage-tasks get --plan-id {plan_id} --number {N}
2. FOR EACH step: execute → finalize-step --outcome done
3. RUN verification

Deliverable-to-Task Relationship

Tasks reference deliverables from solution_outline.md using the deliverable field in stdin.

Constraint: Each task maps to exactly one deliverable. No aggregation.

1:N pattern: When a deliverable has multiple profiles (implementation + module_testing), it creates multiple tasks - one per profile. Both tasks reference the same deliverable.

Dependency Management

Tasks can depend on other tasks using the depends_on field in stdin:

# Task 3 waits for Task 1 and Task 2 to complete
depends_on: TASK-1, TASK-2

# No dependencies
depends_on: none

Dependency enforcement:

• next command only returns tasks with satisfied dependencies
• Use --ignore-deps to bypass dependency checking
• Use --ready filter to list only ready tasks

Blocked output: When tasks are blocked by dependencies, next returns:

next: null
blocked_tasks[2]{number,title,waiting_for}:
1,Write tests,TASK-3
2,Deploy,TASK-3, TASK-4

Phase Filtering

Tasks belong to plan phases: 1-init, 2-refine, 3-outline, 4-plan, 5-execute, 6-verify, 7-finalize

Filter by phase:

# List execute phase tasks only
--phase 5-execute

# Get next task in verify phase
next --phase 6-verify

# Get next task in finalize phase
next --phase 7-finalize

Phase purpose:

• init: Setup tasks (create directories, configs)
• outline: Solution outline creation
• plan: Task planning and skill resolution
• execute: Implementation tasks (code changes)
• verify: Quality verification tasks (build, lint, tests)
• finalize: Shipping tasks (commit, PR, knowledge capture)

Status Model

Task Status: pending → in_progress → done (or blocked)

Step Status: pending → in_progress → done (or skipped)

Related Documents

• design-for-manage-tasks.md - Complete implementation specification
• design-for-task-planning.md - Task-plan agent workflows
• architecture.md - Core concepts