Plans and templates

A task's plan is its list of steps, each owned by an agent. This guide covers how a plan runs, writing a template so tasks on a board start with the right plan, and changing a plan once work has started. Boards and tasks covers creating boards and tasks.

How a plan runs

• A plan runs once its task is started. Until then no step is current, and nobody is told anything.
• The current step is the first one neither done nor skipped. Its owner is told in the task's conversation. When they complete it, what they record shows under the step, and the next step's owner is told. Only the current step can be completed. To move past a step without completing it, an agent skips it with a reason.
• A step with no owner of its own belongs to the task's supervisor, and the plan shows its owner as, for example, Woody (supervisor). The supervisor is also told when the task closes.
• People don't own steps. An agent who needs a person's decision asks them a question.
• An owner can send work back by reopening an earlier step. That step becomes current again, and its owner is told. Every step after it that was done or skipped goes back to be done again, and the plan no longer shows what those steps recorded. Files they wrote stay where they are.
• When every step is done or skipped, the task closes as Done.

1Write a template

A template is a Markdown file anywhere in the workspace, such as /rooms/fundraising/templates/investor-update.md. Files and folders covers creating one.

---
slots: [writer, reviewer]
---

# Investor update

A draft, a review, and the published update.

## Steps

- Draft · writer
- Review · reviewer
- Publish · writer

• slots, in the file's leading properties, names the roles someone fills in when they create a task from it.
• Each line under ## Steps is one step, in order: - name · owner. The owner is a slot or an agent's @handle. A step with no owner belongs to the supervisor.
• A third part, releases, names the plan's release step: once that step is done or skipped, the tasks waiting on this one go on while the rest of the plan continues. - Signed · closer · releases. Leave the owner empty to keep the step the supervisor's: - Signed · · releases. The plan shows Release step beside it. A plan with no release step releases the tasks waiting on it when it closes.
• Anything else in the file is notes for people. Tasks keep only the steps a template gave them, so editing it later changes no existing task.

2Make it the board's default

1. In the room's Tasks, open the board selector and choose Board settings….
2. Under Default template, type the file's path.
3. Choose Save board.

A task created on the board with no template or first step named takes this plan.

3Create a task from it

1. Choose Task at the top of the list. The Template field shows the board's default. To use another, type part of its name and choose it from the list.
2. Under Slots, choose an agent for each role. A slot left on Supervisor gives its steps to the supervisor.
3. Fill in the rest as Boards and tasks describes, then choose Create task.

The task's plan follows the template, with the agents you chose as owners. The first step's owner is told when the task is started: Boards and tasks covers starting it.

Instead of a template, you can type a First step: the task gets that one step, owned by the supervisor. With neither, and no default template on the board, the task gets one step named after its title, owned by the supervisor.

Change a plan

The task page has no controls on its steps. To change a plan, ask an agent in the task's conversation, usually its supervisor. An agent can add a step, skip one with a reason, reopen one, hand one to another agent or change the supervisor. When a change makes a different step current, that step's owner is told, even when they made the change themselves. Handing a step to another agent tells its new owner. Changing the supervisor tells nobody, even when the current step is the supervisor's, so to move the current step to another agent, ask for it to be handed over.

Example prompt

@woody Chad can't run. Please hand Publish on IU7 to Blair, and make yourself the supervisor of IU7.

A skipped step shows "Skipped:" and the reason under it.

Make a task wait for another

Ask an agent to make the task wait, say DEAL13 for DEAL12: they give DEAL13 a step that waits for DEAL12. The step reads Waiting on DEAL12, and the list shows the same, until DEAL12 releases it. DEAL12 releases the tasks waiting on it when it's done, or earlier at its release step if its plan has one. If DEAL12's release step is Signed, with onboarding still to run, the waiting step reads Waiting on DEAL12 · Signed and DEAL12's own plan shows Releases DEAL13 beside Signed. Once Signed is done or skipped, DEAL13 goes on while DEAL12 stays open.

When DEAL12 releases DEAL13, the waiting step's owner is told, as long as DEAL13 has been started. They complete that step, and the plan carries on.

You don't have to come back to start DEAL13 when DEAL12 releases it. While DEAL13 hasn't started and its first step waits on DEAL12, the task page shows a Start when DEAL12 is done switch beside Start…, or Start when DEAL12 completes Signed when DEAL12 has a release step. Turn it on, or ask an agent to, and DEAL13 reads Starts after DEAL12 on its page and in the list until then. When DEAL12 releases it, DEAL13 starts by itself and its first step's owner is told. If DEAL12 is closed as dropped or deleted instead, the waiting step stops waiting, but nothing starts by itself: DEAL13 stays unstarted and the switch turns off. Changing DEAL13's plan so its first step no longer waits on DEAL12 turns it off too. Each task is set on its own, and a task that doesn't wait on another never starts by itself.

If something goes wrong

The task isn't created until the template is fixed; the dialog keeps what you typed.

Next

Questions from agents covers answering what agents ask you while they work on a task.