---

name: dialogue-manage-tasks description: Always use this skill to manage tasks in .dialogue/tasks/. Each task is a separate YAML file for merge-friendly multi-user workflows. Triggers on "create task", "new task", "next task", "update task", "list tasks", "tasks", "active tasks", "task status", "status", "show status", "what's in progress", "what tasks", "pending tasks", "current tasks".

Skill: Manage Tasks

Manage persistent tasks in .dialogue/tasks/. Each task is stored as a separate YAML file (e.g., FW-008.yaml) for merge-friendly multi-user workflows.

Schema

See schema.md for the complete task schema definition.

When to Use

• Creating new tasks
• Updating task status
• Listing or filtering tasks
• Archiving completed items
• Adding notes to existing items

When NOT to Use

• Session-level task tracking → use TodoWrite tool directly
• One-off tasks that don't need cross-session persistence

Approach

Task management is an editing problem, not a scripting problem:

1. List tasks: ls ${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR}/.dialogue/tasks/
2. Read specific task: ${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR}/.dialogue/tasks/{ID}.yaml
3. Consult schema.md for field definitions
4. Edit using the Edit tool (or Write for new tasks)
5. Validate changes match schema

Quick Reference

Required Fields

Status Values

BACKLOG → READY → IN_PROGRESS → COMPLETED

Also: BLOCKED, CANCELLED

Standard Prefixes

Utility Scripts

The scripts/ directory contains utility scripts for common operations:

list-tasks.sh

List tasks with filtering and sorting options.

Copy# List all active tasks (excludes COMPLETED/CANCELLED by default)
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/dialogue-manage-tasks/scripts/list-tasks.sh

# List in-progress tasks only
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/dialogue-manage-tasks/scripts/list-tasks.sh --active

# List ready tasks only
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/dialogue-manage-tasks/scripts/list-tasks.sh --ready

# Filter by type
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/dialogue-manage-tasks/scripts/list-tasks.sh --type CAPABILITY

# Filter by priority
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/dialogue-manage-tasks/scripts/list-tasks.sh --priority HIGH

# Filter by prefix
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/dialogue-manage-tasks/scripts/list-tasks.sh --prefix FW

# Sort by priority
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/dialogue-manage-tasks/scripts/list-tasks.sh --sort priority

# Include completed/cancelled tasks
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/dialogue-manage-tasks/scripts/list-tasks.sh --all

# Output formats: table (default), brief, json
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/dialogue-manage-tasks/scripts/list-tasks.sh --format json

count-tasks.sh

Count tasks with optional grouping.

Copy# Total count (active tasks)
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/dialogue-manage-tasks/scripts/count-tasks.sh

# Count by status
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/dialogue-manage-tasks/scripts/count-tasks.sh --by status

# Count by type
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/dialogue-manage-tasks/scripts/count-tasks.sh --by type

# Count by priority
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/dialogue-manage-tasks/scripts/count-tasks.sh --by priority

# Count by prefix
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/dialogue-manage-tasks/scripts/count-tasks.sh --by prefix

# Count only READY tasks by type
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/dialogue-manage-tasks/scripts/count-tasks.sh --status READY --by type

# JSON output
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/dialogue-manage-tasks/scripts/count-tasks.sh --by status --format json

create-task.sh

Create a new task with auto-generated ID.

Copy# Minimal: creates BACKLOG task with MEDIUM priority
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/dialogue-manage-tasks/scripts/create-task.sh FW "New feature implementation"

# With options
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/dialogue-manage-tasks/scripts/create-task.sh FW "Implement caching" \
  --status READY \
  --type CAPABILITY \
  --priority HIGH \
  --description "Add caching layer to improve performance" \
  --objective "Response times under 100ms" \
  --rationale "Current response times are 500ms+"

# With dependencies
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/dialogue-manage-tasks/scripts/create-task.sh FW "Deploy to production" \
  --blocked-by "FW-015,FW-016" \
  --status BLOCKED

# Use specific ID
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/dialogue-manage-tasks/scripts/create-task.sh FW "Specific task" --id FW-099

Output: Prints the created task ID (e.g., FW-018)

next-id.sh

Get the next available ID for a prefix.

Copy# Returns next available ID (e.g., FW-018)
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/dialogue-manage-tasks/scripts/next-id.sh FW

# Works with any valid prefix
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/dialogue-manage-tasks/scripts/next-id.sh SH
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/dialogue-manage-tasks/scripts/next-id.sh DOC

task-summary.sh

Present a task status summary with counts and highlights.

Copy# Show summary (table format)
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/dialogue-manage-tasks/scripts/task-summary.sh

# JSON output
${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/dialogue-manage-tasks/scripts/task-summary.sh --format json

Output includes:

• Counts by status (in-progress, ready, blocked, backlog, completed, cancelled)
• Active and total counts
• List of in-progress tasks with titles
• High-priority ready tasks (HIGH/CRITICAL)
• Blocked tasks

---

Manual Operations

For operations not covered by scripts, edit task files directly:

Update Status

1. Edit the task file: .dialogue/tasks/{ID}.yaml
2. Change status field
3. Update updated timestamp
4. If completing: add completed timestamp
5. Append to notes with context

Add Notes

Copynotes: |
  Previous notes...

  Progress 14 January 2026:
  - What was done
  - What was decided

Relationship to TodoWrite

TMS Alignment

Tasks externalise directory knowledge, allocation, and history—enabling AI to "rejoin" ongoing work across sessions.

Multi-User Workflow

Each task is a separate file, enabling:

• Independent changes to different tasks
• Clean git merges when users work on different tasks
• Conflict isolation to single-task scope

Sharing

Always commit and push immediately after creating or updating a task. This ensures team visibility and prevents conflicts from concurrent work on the same task.

Copygit add .dialogue/tasks/<ID>.yaml && git commit -m "<ID>: <brief description>" && git push