Background Task Manager Skill

Expert in the lifecycle of already-launched background tasks in craft workflows. Covers the three post-launch operations: checking status, retrieving output, and cancelling. Does not launch tasks itself — that is done by /craft:orch's orchestrate-dispatch mode and similar backgrounding commands. /craft:refine never launches background tasks: its own Scope note states that a background-execution option was considered and dropped during the ADR-002 consolidation.

When to Use

If a task ID is in the prompt, route directly to the matching operation. If not, default to listing all active tasks (status without args).

Operations

1. Status Check (task-status)

Inspect background task state — running, complete, failed, queued.

Inputs: optional <task_id>; flags --wait, --all.

Modes:

• List all (no args) — table of active and recently completed tasks with elapsed time and estimated duration.
• Specific task (<task_id>) — single-task detail: command, started-at, ETA, current step.
• Wait (--wait <task_id>) — block until completion, then hand off to output retrieval.

Output: scannable table for the list view; for --wait, return only when task transitions to complete/failed. Show top 5 by recency when the list grows long.

2. Output Retrieval (task-output)

Surface results from a completed (or in-progress) background task.

Inputs: <task_id>, or --latest for most recent completion; flag --raw to skip formatting.

Steps:

1. Resolve task — explicit ID, --latest, or prompt the user to pick from the active list.
2. Read stored result — formatted summary (default) or raw stdout (--raw).
3. If task is still running, show partial output and remind user to re-run when complete.
4. Suggest the next action implied by the result (e.g., a brainstorm output may prompt spec capture).

Output: the task's produced artifact (proposal, analysis, refined prompt) plus a one-line "what to do next" footer.

3. Cancellation (task-cancel)

Stop a background task before it completes.

Inputs: <task_id>, or --all to cancel everything active; flag --force to skip confirmation.

Steps:

1. Confirm intent — show task command + elapsed time, ask "Cancel? (y/N)" unless --force or --all.
2. Send termination signal to the task.
3. Preserve any partial output for later retrieval via task-output --raw.
4. Report cancellation outcome and surface any remaining active tasks.

When to suggest: task is taking far longer than its ETA, user asked the wrong question, user wants to retry with different inputs.

Relation to task-analyzer and session-state

These three skills occupy distinct slices of the "task" concept — keep them disjoint:

• task-analyzer (orchestration) — analyzes a natural-language task description and routes to the right craft command sequence before any work is launched. It is a planning/routing skill; it never inspects running processes.
• session-state (orchestration) — persists orchestrator session state (multi-agent coordination, decisions, completed work) so a session can resume after disconnect. Operates on .claude/orchestrator-session.json, not on individual background-task IDs.
• background-task-manager (this skill) — operates after a background task has been launched by an interactive command. Concerned with task IDs, exit status, output buffers, and cancellation — not with task routing or session-level orchestration state.

If the user says "what should I run" → task-analyzer. If they say "resume my orchestrator session" → session-state. If they say "is task abc123 done yet" → this skill.

Integration

Replaces three commands during the v2.34.0 → v3.0.0 migration:

• /workflow:task-status → operation 1
• /workflow:task-output → operation 2
• /workflow:task-cancel → operation 3

Both invocation paths work during the deprecation cycle. The skill auto-fires on task-ID mentions and natural-language match; explicit /craft:workflow:task-* paths continue to function until v3.0.0.

Related Skills

• adhd-workflow — session-level workflow (done, recap, next, focus, stuck). Sibling in skills/workflow/.
• task-analyzer — pre-launch task routing.
• session-state — orchestrator session persistence.