Coven Task Manager

Use this skill when asked to manage, refresh, audit, triage, or summarize Coven tasks, or when a scheduled automation asks for task-board freshness.

Sources

Start with the Cave task board from the skill directory:

node ./task-manager.mjs report

The helper reads ~/.coven/cave-board.json and writes ~/.coven/task-manager/freshness-report.md by default.

If the canonical repo path is different, run the helper from this skill directory:

node ./task-manager.mjs report --coven-home ~/.coven

Workflow

1. Load the task board and build a freshness report.
2. Inspect the report sections in this order: Stale Running, Needs Human, Ready For Review, then Next Actions.
3. Read Thread Coordination before touching individual cards. Treat it as the concurrency control surface for simultaneous sessions.
4. For every active/review/blocked thread, build a small ledger: card id/title, familiar, session id, repo/branch/worktree if known, last evidence checked, current state, and one next action.
5. Resolve collisions before dispatching new work:
   • If multiple cards share a session, resume that session once and update all linked cards from the same evidence.
   • If one familiar has multiple active lanes, choose the primary lane and mark the rest as waiting, review, or blocked with a reason.
   • If multiple lanes touch the same repo or branch, verify branch/worktree ownership before allowing parallel writes.
   • Prefer resuming a viable linked session over starting a new thread; start a fresh thread only when no current session can be resumed.
6. For each task that needs action, gather concrete evidence before changing state: linked sessions, git branches, PRs, CI, user messages, or task notes.
7. Keep task state fresh:
   • Move stale running work only when evidence shows it is blocked, ready for review, done, or abandoned.
   • Keep blocked tasks explicit: include the blocker, owner, and smallest next unblock action.
   • Move review tasks only after the actual review/CI state is checked.
   • Mark work done only when merge, delivery, or acceptance evidence exists.
8. Update the freshness report after meaningful changes.

Guardrails

• Do not delete, archive, or bulk-close tasks unless the user explicitly asks.
• Do not invent blockers or progress.
• Do not mark a task done from memory alone; verify current state first.
• Preserve user-written task notes. Append concise evidence instead of replacing useful context.
• If evidence is missing, leave the task in place and write the missing check as the next action.
• Do not spawn parallel work for the same repo/branch/session just because several cards look stale; reconcile the existing thread ledger first.

Default Automations

Install the default Codex automation set with:

node ./task-manager.mjs install-default-automations --status PAUSED

The templates are:

• coven-task-freshness-daily — daily sweep of stale, blocked, review, and active work.
• coven-task-blocked-escalation — weekday blocked-task escalation.
• coven-task-weekly-cleanup — weekly summary and cleanup recommendations.

Use --status ACTIVE only when the user wants the automations enabled immediately.

Local Market Install

To make the skill visible to the local Cave Skills market, symlink it into Coven home:

node ./task-manager.mjs install-local --status PAUSED

The Cave market reads ~/.coven/skills/*/metadata.json through the Coven daemon.