/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:

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

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

Tool Schema Reminder

First time calling a tool this session? Use get_tool_schema(server_name, tool_name) before call_tool to get correct parameters. Schemas are cached per session—no need to refetch.

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, needs_review, approved, closed, escalated, 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: (required) Summary of what was changed and why. For no-work closes, explain why no changes were needed.
• 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/bootstrap.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:

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:

1. Check if the task has task_type=epic
2. If epic, recommend cascade: "This epic has phases. Would you like me to expand them all (cascade), or just this one?"
3. For cascade, use iterative mode and report progress after each phase
4. Report progress: "Expanded Phase 1 (#4015), 6 phases remaining..."
5. 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

Orchestration tools have moved to the gobby-orchestration server.

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

Call orchestrate_ready_tasks on gobby-orchestration

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

Call get_orchestration_status on gobby-orchestration

/gobby tasks poll-agents - Poll agent status

Call poll_agent_status on gobby-orchestration

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 (via gobby-orchestration)
• sync, sync-status