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Overview

Tasks are the core unit of work in Forge. Each task represents a specific piece of work to be executed by AI coding agents in isolated environments.

Creating Your First Task

Via Web UI

1

Open Forge

2

Click 'New Task'

Click the + New Task button in the Kanban board
3

Fill in Details

  • Title: Clear, concise description
  • Description: Detailed requirements and context
  • LLM: Choose your AI agent (Claude, Gemini, etc.)
  • Labels: Add tags for organization
4

Create Task

Click Create - your task appears in the “To Do” column

Via CLI

Via MCP (from your coding agent)


Task Properties

Required Fields

string
required
Clear, action-oriented title
Good: “Add JWT authentication endpoints” Bad: “Auth stuff”
string
Detailed requirements, context, and acceptance criteria

Optional Fields

string
default:"default from config"
AI coding agent to useOptions: claude, gemini, cursor, openai, opencode, qwen
enum
default:"medium"
Task priority: low, medium, high, critical
string[]
Tags for organization and filtering
string
Specific agent profile or team member

Task Types & Templates

Feature Development

Bug Fix

Refactoring

Documentation

Testing


Writing Effective Task Descriptions

Bad Description ❌

Good Description ✅

Tips for Great Descriptions

Be Specific

Bad: “Make it faster” Good: “Reduce API response time from 2s to under 500ms by adding Redis caching”

Include Context

Why is this needed? What problem does it solve?“Users complain about slow dashboard load times. Profiling shows 80% time spent in database queries.”

Define Success

Add acceptance criteria:
  • Dashboard loads in under 1 second
  • Cache hit rate over 70%
  • Tests pass

Attach References

Include:
  • Design mockups
  • API documentation
  • Similar implementations
  • Stack traces (for bugs)

Task Organization

Using Labels

Filtering Tasks


Attaching Context

Code Snippets

Screenshots (Web UI)

  1. Click Attach Files in task creation modal
  2. Upload screenshots, diagrams, or mockups
  3. Reference in description: “See attached mockup.png”

Advanced: Task Dependencies

Tasks with dependencies are blocked until parent completes.

Batch Task Creation

From File

Create tasks.yaml:
Import:

Programmatic Creation


Best Practices

Keep Tasks Small

Bad: “Build entire e-commerce platform” Good: “Add product listing page”Smaller tasks = better AI results

One Thing Per Task

Bad: “Add auth and refactor database” Good: Two separate tasksFocus improves quality

Clear Acceptance Criteria

Define done:
  • Feature works as described
  • Tests pass
  • Documentation updated

Include Examples

Show, don’t just tell:

Troubleshooting

Error: “Failed to create task”Solutions:
  • Check project is selected
  • Verify database is accessible
  • Ensure title is not empty
  • Check LLM is configured
Issue: Task created but not visibleSolutions:
  • Refresh the Kanban board
  • Check filters aren’t hiding it
  • Use search: forge task list --search "your title"
Issue: Same task created multiple timesSolutions:
  • Check for button double-clicks
  • Use unique IDs if programmatic
  • Search before creating: forge task list --search "similar"

Next Steps

Managing Attempts

Run tasks with different AI agents

Comparing Results

Compare outputs from multiple agents

Task Templates

Reusable patterns for common workflows

CLI Reference

Complete CLI command reference