/gobby tasks - Task Management Skill

This skill manages tasks via the gobby-tasks MCP server. Parse the user's input to determine which subcommand to execute.

Session Context

IMPORTANT: Pass your session_id from SessionStart context when creating or closing tasks for tracking.

Look for Gobby Session Ref: or Gobby Session ID: in your system context:

code

Gobby Session Ref: #5
Gobby Session ID: <uuid>

Note: All session_id parameters accept #N, N, UUID, or prefix formats.

Task ID Formats

Tasks can be referenced by:

•#N - Short number (e.g., #1, #47)
•path - Hierarchical path (e.g., 1.2.3)
•UUID - Full task ID

Core Subcommands

`/gobby tasks create <title>` - Create a new task

Call create_task with:

•title: (required) The task title
•session_id: (required) Your session ID from SessionStart context
•description: Detailed description
•task_type: "task" (default), "bug", "feature", or "epic"
•priority: 1=High, 2=Medium (default), 3=Low
•parent_task_id: Optional parent task
•blocks: List of task IDs this task blocks
•depends_on: List of task IDs this task depends on (must complete first)
•labels: List of labels
•category: "code", "config", "docs", "refactor", "test", "research", "planning", or "manual"
•validation_criteria: Acceptance criteria

Auto-claim: When both session_id AND claim=true are provided, the task is automatically claimed (status set to in_progress, assignee set to your session). Default: claim=false.

Example: /gobby tasks create Fix login button → create_task(title="Fix login button", session_id="<your_session_id>") Example: /gobby tasks create Add OAuth support --type=feature → create_task(title="Add OAuth support", task_type="feature", session_id="<your_session_id>") Example: /gobby tasks create Integrate API --depends-on=#1,#2 → create_task(title="Integrate API", depends_on=["#1", "#2"], session_id="<your_session_id>")

`/gobby tasks show <task-id>` - Show task details

Call get_task with:

•task_id: (required) Task reference

Displays full task details including description, status, validation criteria, dependencies.

Example: /gobby tasks show #1 → get_task(task_id="#1")

`/gobby tasks update <task-id>` - Update task fields

Call update_task with:

•task_id: (required) Task reference
•title, description, status, priority, assignee, labels, validation_criteria, category, etc.

Example: /gobby tasks update #1 status=in_progress → update_task(task_id="#1", status="in_progress")

`/gobby tasks claim <task-id>` - Claim a task for your session

Call claim_task with:

•task_id: (required) Task reference
•session_id: (required) Your session ID from SessionStart context
•force: Override existing claim by another session (default: false)

Atomically sets assignee to your session_id and status to in_progress. Detects conflicts if already claimed by another session.

Conflict behavior:

•If task is unclaimed: claims successfully
•If claimed by same session: succeeds (idempotent)
•If claimed by another session: returns error unless force=true

Example: /gobby tasks claim #1 → claim_task(task_id="#1", session_id="<your_session_id>") Example: /gobby tasks claim #1 --force → claim_task(task_id="#1", session_id="<your_session_id>", force=true)

`/gobby tasks list [status]` - List tasks

Call list_tasks with:

•status: Filter (open, in_progress, review, closed, or comma-separated)
•priority: Filter by priority
•task_type: Filter by type
•assignee: Filter by assignee
•label: Filter by label
•parent_task_id: Filter by parent
•title_like: Fuzzy title match
•limit: Max results (default 50)
•all_projects: List from all projects

Example: /gobby tasks list → list_tasks(status="open") Example: /gobby tasks list in_progress → list_tasks(status="in_progress")

`/gobby tasks close <task-id>` - Close a task

Call close_task with:

•task_id: (required) Task reference
•reason: "completed" (default), "duplicate", "already_implemented", "wont_fix", "obsolete", "out_of_repo"
•changes_summary: Summary of changes (triggers validation)
•commit_sha: Git commit SHA to link
•skip_validation: Skip LLM validation (requires justification)
•override_justification: Why skipping validation
•session_id: Your session ID for tracking

IMPORTANT: Commit changes first, then close with commit SHA.

Edge cases (no work done): Use reason to close without a commit:

•reason="already_implemented" - Task was already done
•reason="obsolete" - Task is no longer needed
•reason="duplicate" - Task duplicates another
•reason="wont_fix" - Decided not to do it
•reason="out_of_repo" - Changes outside repo (e.g., ~/.gobby/config.yaml)

Review routing: Tasks may route to review status instead of closed when:

•Task has requires_user_review=true, OR
•skip_validation=true with override_justification

Returns routed_to_review: true if task was sent to review instead of closed.

Example: /gobby tasks close #1 → First commit, then close_task(task_id="#1", commit_sha="<sha>")

`/gobby tasks reopen <task-id>` - Reopen a closed or review task

Call reopen_task with:

•task_id: (required) Task reference
•append_description: Additional context for reopening

Works on both closed and review status tasks. Resets accepted_by_user to false.

Example: /gobby tasks reopen #1 → reopen_task(task_id="#1")

`/gobby tasks delete <task-id>` - Delete a task

Call delete_task with:

•task_id: (required) Task reference
•cascade: If true, delete subtasks AND dependent tasks (default: true)
•
unlink: If true, remove dependency links but preserve dependent tasks
- •Note: unlink only takes effect when cascade=false. If cascade=true (default), unlink is ignored.

By default, deletes the task and all subtasks/dependents. If the task has dependents and neither cascade nor unlink is set, returns an error with suggestions.

Example: /gobby tasks delete #1 → delete_task(task_id="#1") (cascade delete, default) Example: /gobby tasks delete #1 --no-cascade --unlink → delete_task(task_id="#1", cascade=false, unlink=true) (preserve dependents)

Expansion & Planning

`/gobby tasks expand <task-id>` - Expand into subtasks

Call expand_task with:

•task_id: (required) Task to expand
•context: Additional context for expansion
•enable_web_research: Use web for research
•enable_code_context: Include code context
•generate_validation: Generate criteria for subtasks
•iterative: Set to true for epics to cascade through all phases
•session_id: Your session ID

For epics with multiple phases, use iterative mode and loop until complete:

python

while True:
    result = call_tool("gobby-tasks", "expand_task", {
        "task_id": "#100",
        "iterative": True,
        "session_id": "<session_id>"
    })
    # Report progress
    print(f"Expanded {result['expanded_ref']}, {result['unexpanded_epics']} remaining")
    if result.get("complete"):
        break

Response includes:

•expanded_ref: The task that was actually expanded (may differ from input in iterative mode)
•unexpanded_epics: Count of remaining unexpanded epics
•complete: True when all epics in tree are expanded

Example: /gobby tasks expand #1 → expand_task(task_id="#1") Example (epic cascade): /gobby tasks expand #1 --cascade → loops with iterative=True

When user runs /gobby tasks expand on an epic:

•Check if the task has task_type=epic
•If epic, recommend cascade: "This epic has phases. Would you like me to expand them all (cascade), or just this one?"
•For cascade, use iterative mode and report progress after each phase
•Report progress: "Expanded Phase 1 (#4015), 6 phases remaining..."
•Continue until complete=True

`/gobby tasks suggest` - Suggest next task

Call suggest_next_task with:

•session_id: Required - your session ID (from system context)
•task_type: Optional type filter
•prefer_subtasks: Prefer leaf tasks (default true)
•parent_id: Scope to specific epic/feature hierarchy

Returns the highest-priority ready task, auto-scoped via workflow's session_task variable.

Example: /gobby tasks suggest → suggest_next_task(session_id="<your_session_id>")

`/gobby tasks ready` - List ready tasks

Call list_ready_tasks with:

•priority, task_type, assignee, parent_task_id, limit

Lists tasks with no blocking dependencies.

Example: /gobby tasks ready → list_ready_tasks()

`/gobby tasks blocked` - List blocked tasks

Call list_blocked_tasks to see tasks waiting on dependencies.

Dependencies

`/gobby tasks depend <task> <blocker>` - Add dependency

Call add_dependency with:

•task_id: (required) The dependent task
•depends_on: (required) The blocker task
•dep_type: "blocks" (default), "discovered-from", or "related"

Example: /gobby tasks depend #2 #1 → add_dependency(task_id="#2", depends_on="#1")

`/gobby tasks undepend <task> <blocker>` - Remove dependency

Call remove_dependency

`/gobby tasks deps <task-id>` - Show dependency tree

Call get_dependency_tree

`/gobby tasks check-cycles` - Detect circular dependencies

Call check_dependency_cycles

Validation

`/gobby tasks validate <task-id>` - Validate completion

Call validate_task with:

•task_id: (required) Task to validate
•changes_summary: Summary of changes
•context_files: Relevant files to check

Auto-gathers context from commits if not provided.

Example: /gobby tasks validate #1 → validate_task(task_id="#1")

`/gobby tasks validation-status <task-id>` - Get validation details

Call get_validation_status

`/gobby tasks validation-history <task-id>` - Get validation history

Call get_validation_history

`/gobby tasks generate-criteria <task-id>` - Generate validation criteria

Call generate_validation_criteria

`/gobby tasks fix <task-id>` - Run fix attempt

Call run_fix_attempt to spawn a fix agent for validation issues.

`/gobby tasks validate-fix <task-id>` - Validate with auto-fix

Call validate_and_fix for validation loop with automatic fixes.

Labels

`/gobby tasks label <task-id> <label>` - Add label

Call add_label

`/gobby tasks unlabel <task-id> <label>` - Remove label

Call remove_label

Git Integration

`/gobby tasks link-commit <task-id> <sha>` - Link commit

Call link_commit

`/gobby tasks unlink-commit <task-id> <sha>` - Unlink commit

Call unlink_commit

`/gobby tasks auto-link` - Auto-link commits

Call auto_link_commits to find commits mentioning task IDs.

`/gobby tasks diff <task-id>` - Get task diff

Call get_task_diff

Orchestration

`/gobby tasks orchestrate <parent-id>` - Spawn agents for ready tasks

Call orchestrate_ready_tasks

`/gobby tasks orchestration-status <parent-id>` - Get orchestration status

Call get_orchestration_status

`/gobby tasks poll-agents` - Poll agent status

Call poll_agent_status

Sync

`/gobby tasks sync` - Trigger sync

Call sync_tasks

`/gobby tasks sync-status` - Get sync status

Call get_sync_status

Response Format

After executing the appropriate MCP tool, present the results clearly:

•For create: Show the new task ID and title
•For list: Table with ID, title, status, priority
•For show: All task fields in readable format
•For close: Confirm closure with task ID
•For expand: List created subtasks
•For suggest: Show suggested task with reasoning
•For validate: Validation result (pass/fail) with feedback

Error Handling

If the subcommand is not recognized, show available subcommands:

•create, show, update, claim, list, close, reopen, delete
•expand, suggest, ready, blocked
•depend, undepend, deps, check-cycles
•validate, validation-status, validation-history, generate-criteria, fix, validate-fix
•label, unlabel
•link-commit, unlink-commit, auto-link, diff
•orchestrate, orchestration-status, poll-agents
•sync, sync-status

/gobby tasks - Task Management Skill

Session Context

Task ID Formats

Core Subcommands

/gobby tasks create <title> - Create a new task

/gobby tasks show <task-id> - Show task details

/gobby tasks update <task-id> - Update task fields

/gobby tasks claim <task-id> - Claim a task for your session

/gobby tasks list [status] - List tasks

/gobby tasks close <task-id> - Close a task

/gobby tasks reopen <task-id> - Reopen a closed or review task

/gobby tasks delete <task-id> - Delete a task

Expansion & Planning

/gobby tasks expand <task-id> - Expand into subtasks

/gobby tasks suggest - Suggest next task

/gobby tasks ready - List ready tasks

/gobby tasks blocked - List blocked tasks

Dependencies

/gobby tasks depend <task> <blocker> - Add dependency

/gobby tasks undepend <task> <blocker> - Remove dependency

/gobby tasks deps <task-id> - Show dependency tree

/gobby tasks check-cycles - Detect circular dependencies