Chat sessions and tasks
A chat session is a task's execution: branch, sandbox, conversation and pull request. A task's card on the Tasks page opens the task modal; Open chat reaches the conversation. A repository's page has no board of its own: it shows the repository's settings. Find a repository's sessions on the Tasks page, filtered by Repository, or in the sidebar.
Statuses
| Status | What it means | How a session gets there |
|---|---|---|
| Backlog | Written down, not started. It holds a prompt but no branch and no sandbox. | Filed by Sensei as Todo, or returned to Todo. |
| Active | The conversation is open. The agent may be working or idle. If the session has a pull request, it is a draft. | Started, resumed, or restored. |
| Under Review | The pull request is marked ready for review. A member's message resumes it, except a sync, and so does Resume. | Marked ready for review in Sensei or on GitHub. |
| Completed | The pull request was merged, or a Todo task was marked done without code work. It cannot move again. | Merged on GitHub, or a Todo task marked done. |
| Archived | Set aside without a merge. Its pull request is closed and its sandbox is gone. | Archived from the menu, or its pull request closed on GitHub. |
On tasks, Backlog reads Todo, Active and Under Review read In progress, Completed reads Done, and Archived stays Archived. The workspace Tasks page has Todo, In progress, Done and Archived columns. It has no Backlog column.
Start a session
Ask Sensei to file a task. There is no New session button, sidebar row, tray item or ⌘J / ⌘⇧J shortcut. ⌘N opens New thread. Tasks sit above Files in the workspace sidebar, in Todo, In progress and Done (last 7 days).
Open a Todo task's modal, pick its Repository in the Run group and press Start: it starts at once. Without a Repository, Start is off and says Pick a repository. A draft is fixed to the repository it was filed for; a task without a session picks a deployed Collaboration repository. Refusals show inline and leave it Todo. Once started, use Open chat.
Work with a Todo task
Open a Todo task to edit its title, description, priority, Assignee, Repository, Sandbox size and App stack. Sandbox size is Small (2 CPU, 4 GB), Medium (4 CPU, 8 GB), Large (8 CPU, 16 GB) or XLarge (16 CPU, 32 GB), and reads the repository's own size until you pick one. App stack is Start, the default, or Don't start, which boots the sandbox without the project's services; the Preview then shows App stack not started and Start app stack, and the Desktop tab works either way. Sensei picks both when it files a task. Once the session starts, all three are fixed. A task with a draft also keeps its existing attachments and artifacts. A task without a session has text and comments only. Mark done from the ⋯ menu when no code work is needed.
Move a session
Cards on the Tasks page do not drag between columns. A session changes status through these actions:
| From | To | How |
|---|---|---|
| Active | Under Review | Ready for review in the chat footer. The pull request is marked ready for review. With no pull request yet, press Open PR, and Sensei asks the agent to open one. |
| Under Review | Active | Resume in the chat, or a message. The pull request goes back to draft. |
| Active or Under Review | Todo | Return to Todo in the task's ⋯ menu. Destructive; see Return to Todo. |
| Archived | Active | Restore. The session is restored and its pull request reopens as a draft. |
| Archived | Todo | Return to Todo in the task's ⋯ menu. The chat history is removed. The prompt, attachments, comments and properties stay. |
Assignee
The Assignee is the member a session is booked to. It says who is expected to carry the work and grants nothing. Any member can open any session, send messages and move it.
Two things follow the Assignee:
- The "Your turn" and "Unread" cues on the card and in the sidebar appear only for them. A session booked to Sensei shows them to every member until someone reassigns it.
- Turns carry the Assignee's Personal Skills and Plugins. Workspace tasks always use workspace Credentials, including tasks booked to Sensei or filed by the Cron Agent. See AI providers.
To reassign a session, click the avatar on its card, or use Assignee in its menu or details. You can reassign in every status except Completed. The transcript records the change, such as "Sam reassigned this session from Alex to Priya". When you are one of the people in it, it names you as "you", as in "You reassigned this session from Alex to yourself". Reassigning a workspace task keeps its workspace Credentials.
A Todo task can be Unassigned. The first member to start it becomes its Assignee. A started session has one unless its Assignee leaves the workspace.
Priority
Priority helps you sort work. The levels are Urgent, High, Medium, Low and No priority. Click the flag on a card, or use Priority in the task's menu or details. Completed and Archived tasks keep the priority they had.
Labels
Labels group tasks within a project. The agent adds them to a task, and a script can too. The Tasks page has no label filter and no button to add one.
Labels are lowercase, up to 50 characters, and a task holds up to 20. Every task in the project can reuse them. A label stays in the project after you remove it from its last task.
To change a label's color or delete it, open the repository's page and go to Labels, its last settings tab. Click a label's dot to pick a color. Delete lists the tasks that carry the label and removes it from them once you tick the box. See Project settings.
Labels stay in Sensei. Sensei writes no label to GitHub, on the pull request or the repository, and reads none as state.
To label tasks from a script, use kosuke sessions labels set. See Chat sessions.
Comments
Every task has a comment thread in its details, for notes between people. The agent does not read it.
- Type in the comment box at the bottom and press Enter.
- Press Reply on a comment to answer it.
- Edit or delete your own comments from their menu.
The card shows the comment count. Comments stay when a task returns to Todo.
Find tasks
On the workspace Tasks page, press the filter button to narrow the cards.
| Filter | Shows |
|---|---|
| Repository | Tasks of the repositories you pick. |
| Assignee | Tasks assigned to the members you pick. |
| Priority | Tasks with the priorities you pick. |
To filter by title, press the search icon and type. To search tasks in every workspace by title, use the command palette. See Overview, Needs you and Activity. A repository's own page does not list its tasks: the sidebar does, and it has its own filters.
Press the sort button in a column header to order that column by Activity, Created or Priority. Activity and Created put the newest first; Priority puts urgent first, then the oldest created. Press the active option again to reverse it. An arrow marks the active option and its direction, and a dot on the button marks an order other than the default. Each order is saved in your browser.
| Where | What it sorts | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Sidebar, on the Workspaces header | Every project's tasks, with one order for all | Activity |
| Tasks page, on each column header | That column | Activity |
| Sensei, on the Todo group | The Todo group only | Activity |
Task actions
Open a card's menu with its ⋯ button, or right-click the card. On a computer, a card's menu leaves out Priority and Assignee, so set those from the card's flag and avatar. The menu on tasks in the sidebar includes them.
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Open chat | Opens the task's conversation. Use Open chat in the task modal. |
| Start | Todo only. Starts the task in its Repository. |
| Share | Copies a link to the task. A task link opens its modal. Anyone in the workspace can open it. |
| Rename | Opens the "Rename Task" dialog. Type the new title and press Enter. |
| Priority | Sets the priority. Only in the sidebar menu. |
| Assignee | Reassigns the task. Only in the sidebar menu. |
| View on GitHub | Opens the branch or pull request on GitHub. |
| Archive | Archives the task. On an archived task this reads Restore. |
| Delete | Deletes the task for good. |
Archive, restore and delete
Archive sets a task aside. Sensei closes its pull request and removes its sandbox. The branch stays on GitHub.
Restore brings an archived task back. Use it from the card's menu or from the banner in the archived chat. A task that had started returns to Active, and its pull request reopens as a draft. A task that never started returns to Todo.
Delete removes the task and all its messages. It also closes the pull request and removes the sandbox.
- Choose Delete from the task's menu.
- In the "Delete Task" dialog, press Delete Task.
A deleted task cannot come back. When the task is assigned to someone else, the dialog names them.
Return to Todo
Moving an Active or Under Review task back to Todo removes its sandbox, closes its pull request, and deletes its work and chat history. Only the first prompt, its attachments, comments and properties stay. This cannot be undone.
- Choose Return to Todo from the card menu.
- Read the confirmation dialog. It names the task, and the Assignee when that is someone else.
- Press Return to Todo.
Starting the task again creates a new branch and sandbox. From Archived, only the chat history is removed.