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Concepts
Tasks#
A task is one line of text with optional detail hung off it. Nothing but the title is required.
| Property | What it is | Values |
|---|---|---|
title | One line: what needs doing | Any text |
notes | The detail | Plain text with light Markdown |
status | Where it is in your process | backlog · draft · todo · doing · done |
project | Optional container | One project, or none |
due_date | A calendar day, not a time | YYYY-MM-DD, or none |
priority | How important it is | low · medium · high, or none |
recurrence | How it repeats | daily · weekdays · weekly · monthly · yearly, or none |
remind_at | The exact moment it rings | An ISO 8601 timestamp, or none |
reminder_kind | How loudly it rings | notify · alarm (urgent), or none |
blocked_by | The one task that must be done first | A task id, or none |
attachments | Links and files | Any number of either |
Tasks also carry who created them — you or an agent — which is what makes drafts and the Added by an agent filter possible.
The five statuses#
| Status | Colour and mark | Means |
|---|---|---|
| Backlog | Dashed circle | Someday. Out of the way but not forgotten. |
| Draft | Dotted circle | A suggestion — almost always from an agent — that you have not committed to. |
| Todo | Empty circle | Committed work. |
| Doing | Half-filled circle, yellow | In progress right now. |
| Done | Filled checkmark | Complete. |
Lists show groups in that reading order: Todo, Doing, Drafts, Backlog, Done. "Open" work — what the Active filter shows and what every count adds up — is Todo + Doing + Drafts.
Projects#
Projects are optional containers, nothing more: a name, a colour and an order. A task belongs to one project or to none; tasks with none live in the general Tasks list. Deleting a project keeps its tasks — they simply stop having a project.
Create one from the sidebar's + on iPhone, or with ⌘K → New project on the Mac. Rename, recolour or delete from the same places.
Drafts: what agents create#
Anything an assistant creates lands in Drafts rather than in your real list. A draft shows the logo of the assistant that suggested it (✦ when the client is unknown) and an Accept button.
- Accept → the task becomes Todo and is yours.
- Dismiss → swipe to delete it.
Agents may delete or edit their own drafts. Once you have accepted a task, an agent will not delete it — it has to ask you. This is the one rule that makes it safe to let a model plan your week.
Attachments: links and files#
A task takes two kinds of attachment, and they behave the same everywhere:
- Links — a page on the web. Cotask fetches the page once and stores its title and the site's favicon, so a link reads as "Meeting notes — Notion" rather than as a URL.
- Files — a photo, a video, a PDF, a CSV, anything. Stored in Cotask's own storage, shown with a thumbnail (or a glyph for its type) and its size.
Both carry a plain https URL that needs no credentials, so a link you attached and a report an agent produced are equally fetchable by the next agent that picks the task up. Attachments live in the task editor, never in the list.
See Files for limits and housekeeping.
Blocked by#
A task names at most one task that has to be done first. That is deliberately narrower than a dependency graph: one blocker, in one direction, which is enough for "print the badges after sending the invitations" and never turns into project-management software.
A blocked task shows a hand mark in the list. With dependency chains on — the default — it also sits indented under its blocker, so a run of dependent work reads as one thread. The task editor shows both sides: what blocks this task, and the tasks this one blocks.
Repeats#
Set a repeat and completing the task files a done copy for the record and moves the original forward to its next occurrence. Your history keeps every instance; your list keeps one live task.
Reminders, and the urgent one#
A due date is a day. A reminder is a moment: set one and the task rings at it.
There are two kinds, and they are not the same thing wearing different labels.
| Kind | What happens |
|---|---|
| Remind me | A notification. A banner, the usual sound, silenced by Focus like anything else. |
| Urgent | An alarm. It takes over the screen and rings through the silent switch and Focus, until you stop it — exactly like the alarm in the Clock app. |
Urgent uses AlarmKit, so it is an iPhone alarm in the real sense, not a louder notification. It asks for its own permission the first time you choose it (Settings → Notifications → Urgent reminders shows where that stands, and there is nothing to switch on for ordinary reminders beyond notifications themselves). Say no and urgent reminders still arrive — as ordinary notifications.
The alarm carries the task's title and its project, shows on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island while it rings, and offers Done next to Stop: one press completes the task and ends the ring together.
Nothing on a server fires a reminder. Your iPhone schedules it from the synced task, so it rings with no network and no push, and it un-schedules itself the moment the task is done, the time is cleared, or the reminder has passed. Reminders ring on the iPhone; the Mac sets them and they sync across. Reminders, urgent ones and blockers are part of Pro.
An agent can set either kind for you — "remind me in 45 minutes", "wake me at 6 tomorrow, urgent" — through set_reminder; see Reminders, for agents.