Tasks

A task is one thing that waits on you: a question nobody answered, a request, a promise you made. This page helps you keep those things from getting lost in your chats. After reading it, you can ask your agent for today's agenda, turn a message into a task, link the messages that belong to it and close it when it is done. Tasks stay on your computer, in the local store of tg, max and memo. Nothing on this page sends a message.

The sections marked Planned describe work that is designed but not available yet: categories, tags on tasks, keys per type, claiming and the duplicate check. How tasks work gives the technical detail.

Where tasks come fromCopy Anchor Link

• Rules find them in messages. A question that nobody answered becomes a task of type question. A message that mentions you becomes a mention task; the messenger must mark the mention, a typed name alone is not seen. An auto-reply rule with the task action opens a request task for each matching message (Telegram, MAX). The rules run when your agent reviews your chats and while the tool runs in the background (review and serve).
• Your agent or you add them. A promise ("I will send the contract on Monday") or a request that no rule caught is added by hand, with type promise or request.
• Project tasks live in a project and have a key: the project's key and a number, such as HRB-12. Their types are chore, bug and feature. You make them with memo; see Tasks and reminders in Memo.

A rule closes a question or mention task when you answer it in the chat. Adding a task for a message that already has one gives back the existing task.

Ask your agentCopy Anchor Link

Use tg CLI. Sync my chats, then show my task agenda: what is overdue, what is due today and which chats wait for my answer. For each task, show the messages it came from. Don't send anything.

You should get a short list: open tasks with their due dates, and chats where someone wrote last. Each task points to its messages, so you can check why it exists. For MAX, write "max CLI".

Use tg CLI. In my chat with Bob Sample, I promised to send the signed contract by Friday. Add a promise task for that message, due Friday, with a clear title. Link the earlier messages where we agreed the price.

One task, many messagesCopy Anchor Link

A task starts from one message, its source. Later messages about the same thing are linked to it, so the task holds the whole story. A link has a kind: related-to (the default), evidence (the message shows the task is real) or created-from. A task can also point to a chat, a person, a document, a note or a web address.

A chat can hold many tasks. Three different questions from Alice Example in one group are three tasks. A task is about one thing, not about one chat or one person.

CommandsCopy Anchor Link

tg personal tasks agenda
max personal tasks agenda

tg personal tasks list 'chat:"Renovation" state:open'

tg personal tasks add msg:telegram/1/77/42 --type promise --title "Send Bob Sample the signed contract" --due 3d
tg personal tasks plan <task> --description "Done when Bob confirms he has it." --check 2d

tg personal tasks link <task> msg:telegram/1/77/45 msg:telegram/1/77/51 --kind evidence
tg personal tasks show <task>

tg personal tasks close <task> --as done --reason "contract sent"
tg personal tasks close <task> --as dismissed --reason no-reply-needed

• agenda lists tasks that are overdue, due soon or due for a check, then chats where you owe an answer and chats where you wait for one. It warns when the store has not saved anything for a while.
• plan sets the title, the description, the due date and the next check. The next check is when your agent should look at the task again; it does not remind you.
• link adds messages, chats, people, documents, notes or addresses to a task.
• show prints one task with its plan and everything linked to it.
• close closes a task as done or dismissed. A closed task stays closed.

Relations between project tasksCopy Anchor Link

One project task can wait for another (blocked-by), continue another (follow-up-of) or simply relate to it (related-to). Only you apply these relations; an agent can suggest them. Today they work between project tasks in memo: see What to do first.

How your agent works with tasks after a syncCopy Anchor Link

1. Your agent fetches new messages (messages sync).
2. It runs a review, so the rules open and close tasks.
3. It reads the agenda and checks each new task against its messages.
4. It sets a title and a due date, links the messages that belong together, and closes what is done.
5. It shows you what it changed and asks before anything leaves your computer.

Planned: sync itself will run the rules, from where the last run stopped, and report how many tasks it opened, attached to an existing task or sent to the review list.

Planned: no duplicate tasksCopy Anchor Link

The same request often comes in several messages: "can you send the invoice?", then "the invoice for 15 000, please", then a reminder two days later. These must stay one task. The tool will check each new task before it creates it:

• Sure it is the same task: this happens only when the same rule already made a task for the same message. Nothing new is made, and the answer says which task and why.
• Not sure: the tool does not guess. When your agent adds the task, the tool refuses and lists up to five similar tasks with the reasons ("same person, same amount"). The agent chooses to attach the message to one of them or to make a new task. When a rule finds the task, the pair goes to a review list for your agent or you.
• Clearly different: a new task is made.

The check compares words (including other forms of a word and typos), the person, the amount of money, the due date, the category, replies and the time. A chat alone never makes two tasks "the same". The tool never merges tasks on its own. Some similar tasks, such as a gift for mum and a gift for dad with the same amount, differ in one word's meaning, so your agent or you decide.

On the review list you merge a pair or mark it as different. A merge moves the messages to the kept task and closes the other one as a duplicate. A merge can be undone, and nothing is deleted.

tasks duplicates
tasks merge REQ-23 --into REQ-22
tasks duplicates reject REQ-23 REQ-22
tasks unmerge REQ-23

Planned: categories, tags and keysCopy Anchor Link

• A category says what a task is about: money, documents, meeting, delivery, access, personal or other. The list is fixed in the settings, so "finance" and "payments" never live side by side. A rule picks the category from the words of the message; your agent corrects it.
• Tags such as urgent or waiting-for-them work on tasks too: the existing tags commands and filters apply to tasks. Tags are for filtering only; the duplicate check ignores them.
• Keys per type: a task found in a message gets a short key, such as Q-15 for a question, REQ-22 for a request, M-7 for a mention or PR-4 for a promise. A key never changes, so you can quote it in a chat or a note. Older tasks keep their current key, such as IN1A2B3C4D-17; both kinds of key and the full id keep working.

tasks add msg:telegram/1/77/42 --type request --category money
tasks categories
tasks agenda --category money

Planned: claiming a taskCopy Anchor Link

When two agents, or an agent and you, work at the same time, one of them claims a task first. The claim ends by itself after 30 minutes, so a stopped agent never blocks a task. Closing a task ends its claim. The agenda hides tasks that someone else claimed.

tasks claim REQ-22 --for 30m
tasks release REQ-22

Related pagesCopy Anchor Link

• How tasks work: the data, the keys, claiming and the duplicate check step by step.
• Tasks and reminders in Memo: project tasks, assignees and reminders.
• Searching: find the messages a task is about.