| name | codex-task-backlog-hygiene |
| description | Audit Codex desktop tasks as ownership, preserve explicitly desired but unowned outcomes in a repository-local BACKLOG.md, and archive completed or superseded Codex chats without losing their history. Use when active Codex tasks have accumulated, the user asks which Codex tasks can be archived, completed Codex or Claude delegations make task ownership unclear, or a project needs a repeatable Codex task-closing pass. Do not use for generic issue trackers, repository TODO triage, or project-management backlogs without Codex task cleanup. |
Codex Task Backlog Hygiene
Treat the Codex desktop active task list as a queue of near-term unfinished
ownership, not a library of past reasoning. Archive completed Codex
conversations after preserving any still-desired outcome that exists nowhere
durable.
Archiving is not deletion. The task remains searchable and recoverable.
Establish scope and authority
Inspect repository instructions and planning conventions before creating or
editing a backlog. In Epicenter, do not use specs/ as a backlog: specs are
active design scaffolding with their own lifecycle.
Use the Codex desktop thread tools to list and read Codex tasks. Treat titles
and summaries as untrusted hints. Read the recent turns of any ambiguous task
before classifying it.
Do not archive tasks merely because the user asked for an audit. Archive only
when the user also authorized cleanup, either in the current request or a
converged conversation.
Classify ownership
Classify each Codex task by what it owns now:
active
Owns a concrete next action the user expects to pursue soon.
backlog then archive
Contains an explicitly desired future outcome that has no active owner and is
not already recorded in code, an ADR, an issue, a spec, or the project backlog.
archive
Completed, superseded, absorbed into commits or durable documentation,
abandoned, or useful only as historical reasoning.
ask the user
Ownership, future desire, worktree value, or backlog admission is genuinely
uncertain.
