Tasks are durable units of work inside an Istok project.
For non-trivial work, an agent can find an existing task or create a new one before implementation begins. The task then becomes the shared record of what is being worked on and what has happened so far.
Why tasks are durable
A coding task often lasts longer than a single conversation.
An implementation may require several attempts, become blocked by another change, or move to a different coding agent. Keeping the task outside the conversation makes its state available throughout that process.
A task can preserve information such as:
- what needs to be done;
- acceptance criteria;
- current progress;
- dependencies and blockers;
- execution history;
- validation associated with the work.
The agent can update this state while it works.
Finding existing work
Before starting non-trivial work, an agent should first check whether a relevant task already exists.
This prevents multiple sessions or agents from creating separate records for the same work.
If a suitable task exists, the agent can continue from it. If not, it can create a new task.
You normally do not need to perform this step yourself when your agent is configured to use Istok.
Claiming work
When an agent begins implementing a task, it claims the task.
Claiming establishes the active attempt to work on it and gives the agent the context Istok has assembled for that work.
From there, progress and execution can be associated with the same task.
Progress and blockers
Important changes in the state of the work can be recorded as the agent proceeds.
For example:
- a significant part of the implementation is complete;
- an architectural decision was made;
- another task must be completed first;
- a dependency or unexpected blocker was discovered;
- validation uncovered additional work.
This information remains with the task rather than disappearing into one conversation.
Dependencies
Tasks can depend on other tasks.
Dependencies help agents distinguish work that is ready to start from work that is waiting for something else to be completed.
This becomes especially useful when several pieces of work are being handled across multiple sessions or agents.
Small requests do not need tasks
Not every interaction needs durable task state.
Simple questions, code reading, short investigations, or small changes can often be handled directly.
Tasks are most useful when the work is substantial enough that preserving its state, progress, or validation would be valuable later.
Completing a task
A task should represent actual completed work, not only an agent reporting that it is finished.
Istok can associate validation evidence with the work before completion, making it possible to inspect how the result was checked.
You will learn more about this in Runs and validation.
Next
Continue with Context to see how Istok keeps useful project knowledge and retrieves relevant repository information for agent work.