tasks

A full task board built into the TUI. Tasks have three states — pending, in-progress, and completed — with bidirectional dependency tracking (blocks/blockedBy). Blocked tasks automatically become ready when their dependencies complete.

Tasks persist across sessions via the filesystem. Comments provide handoff context between sessions or agents. Team-based sharing lets multiple agents coordinate through a shared task board with file-system watching for real-time updates.

Toggle visibility with ctrl+shift+t. Manage via /tasks command or the manage_tasks tool.

Why it matters: Multi-step work spanning multiple conversation turns needs tracking. Without persistent tasks, the agent loses track of what’s done and what’s next — especially across session restarts or when coordinating between team agents.

Responsive layout

The task widget adapts to terminal width:

Wide terminals (120+ columns) — side-by-side layout. Tasks on the left, running agents and background tasks on the right, separated by a vertical rule. The right column is bottom-aligned so agents appear next to the most recent tasks.
Narrow terminals (under 120 columns) — stacked layout. Tasks first, then agents, then background tasks, each separated by a spacer line. All content truncates to fit the available width.

Both layouts cap visible tasks at 10 with a ”… and N more” overflow indicator. Task titles, agent task previews, and background command strings all truncate independently based on available column width.

Relationships with other extensions

The tasks widget is the central dashboard — it doesn’t just show tasks, it unifies the display of several independent features into one responsive view.

subagent

When subagents are running (foreground or background), the tasks widget shows them alongside the task list. Each agent gets a colored @name with a spinner, its assigned task preview, and a live activity line showing what tool the agent is currently executing. In-progress tasks display (@agent-name) attribution when an agent claims ownership.

In the status bar, a separate agent bar appears: @main @alice @bob · 2 teammates — with each name colored to match the agent’s identity in the task widget.

background-tasks

Running background bash commands appear in the same widget, below the agent section. Each shows the truncated command string and elapsed duration. The widget caps at 5 visible background tasks with an overflow indicator.

The footer’s (sub) indicator shows the active subagent count. Combined with the agent bar from the tasks extension, you get two layers of agent visibility: the footer for a glance count, the widget for full detail.

Combined display

When all three features are active simultaneously — tasks with dependencies, multiple agents with live activity, and background commands — the widget composes them into a unified view:

Wide (120+ cols):

Tasks (2/5)                          │  3 agents launched
├─ ◐ Writing unit tests (@alice)     │  ├─ ⠋ @alice (Foreground) · 12s
├─ ◐ Refactoring auth (@bob)         │  │    Writing tests for auth module
├─ ☐ Update documentation            │  ├─ ⠋ @bob (Background) · 8s
│  └─ blocked by @alice, @bob        │  │    Refactoring auth middleware
└─ ✓ Explore codebase                │  └─ ⠋ @carol (Background) · 3s
                                     │       Running type checker
                                     │
                                     │  Background Tasks (1)
                                     │  └─ ● npm run test:watch (45s)

Narrow (under 120 cols):

Tasks (2/5)
├─ ◐ Writing unit tests (@alice)
├─ ◐ Refactoring auth (@bob)
├─ ☐ Update documentation
│  └─ blocked by @alice, @bob
└─ ✓ Explore codebase

3 agents launched
├─ ⠋ @alice (Foreground) · 12s
│    Writing tests for auth module
├─ ⠋ @bob (Background) · 8s
│    Refactoring auth middleware
└─ ⠋ @carol (Background) · 3s
     Running type checker

Background Tasks (1)
└─ ● npm run test:watch (45s)

The layout decision is automatic — no configuration needed. Everything adapts to whatever terminal width you have.