| name | ts-task-active |
| description | Set a task to active — updates status, moves to active/, runs housekeep. Also resumes paused tasks (paused/ → active/ or active/ with closed prerequisites). |
ts-task-active
Invoked as /ts-task-active TASK-NNN (or a partial ID like 47).
Who triggers this. Either the user explicitly, or — per the project's
"Auto-activate tasks when work begins" rule in CLAUDE.md — the agent itself
the moment it begins making repo-state-changing edits for TASK-NNN. The
agent triggers ahead of the first edit, not after. Pure reading / planning
does not count as "starting work".
This skill has three modes depending on where the task currently lives:
- Activating an open task (file is in
open/): standard
open → active transition.
- Resuming a paused task (file is in
paused/, status: paused):
flip status: back to active, clean up any closed prerequisites:,
and let housekeep move the file to active/.
- Legacy resume of a pseudo-paused task (file is in
active/ with
one or more closed prerequisites: — pre-paused-folder model): no
move needed; just clean up the stale prerequisite entries and the
## Paused body section.
Steps:
-
Run /check-branch to verify the current branch is not main.
-
Find the matching file in docs/developers/tasks/open/,
docs/developers/tasks/paused/, or docs/developers/tasks/active/
whose name contains the given ID. If not found, report the error
and stop.
-
Branch-mismatch nag (soft). If the task's frontmatter has an
epic: field, locate the matching epic file under
docs/developers/tasks/{open,active,closed}/ (filename
epic-NNN-<name>.md, frontmatter name: <epic-name>) and read its
branch: field. Compare to the current git branch.
-
If the task has no epic:, or the epic has no branch:, or the
epic's branch: matches the current branch — silently proceed
to step 3. Make no diff to the epic file.
-
On mismatch, prompt the user (one message, two options):
This task's epic (<epic-name>) suggests branch `<epic-branch>`,
but the current branch is `<current-branch>`.
[s]witch — git checkout <epic-branch>
[c]ontinue — keep <current-branch> and rewrite the epic's
`branch:` to <current-branch>
- [s]witch — run
git checkout <epic-branch>. If the branch
does not exist locally, ask once whether to create it with
git checkout -b <epic-branch>; on yes, create and switch; on
no, abort the activation. After a successful switch, continue
with step 3 on the new branch.
- [c]ontinue — use
Edit to rewrite the epic file's
branch: line to the current branch. Leave the change
unstaged — housekeep in step 3 picks up the new value, and the
user commits it together with the task activation.
This check composes with /check-branch — do not suppress either.
On main with a mismatched epic, both warnings fire in order.
-
Branch by current folder:
- In
open/: update status: from open to active. Do not
add a closed: line. Run python scripts/housekeep.py --apply
— this moves the file to active/ (via git mv) and regenerates
OVERVIEW / EPICS / KANBAN. Report: "TASK-NNN is now active."
- In
paused/: update status: from paused to active.
For each ID in prerequisites:, check whether the corresponding
task is in closed/. Remove every closed ID from
prerequisites: (drop the field entirely if the list becomes
empty). Optionally shorten the ## Paused section in the body
to a one-line history note, or delete it. Run
python scripts/housekeep.py --apply — this moves the file from
paused/ to active/. Report:
"TASK-NNN resumed — cleared prerequisites: <list>."
- In
active/ with closed prerequisites (legacy pre-paused-folder
model): clean up closed prerequisites: and the ## Paused body
section as above, but no folder move is needed. Run
python scripts/housekeep.py --apply. Report:
"TASK-NNN resumed — cleared prerequisites: <list>."
- In
active/ with no closed prerequisites: report "already
active" and stop. (Either the task was never paused, or its
blockers are still open.)
Do not commit. The status change rides along with the first real
commit for the task — whether that commit is made by the user or by
the agent doing the work.
When that first commit happens, the OVERVIEW/EPICS/KANBAN regen
this skill triggered is part of it. Housekeep regenerates those
three files as a side-effect of the status change, so under the
"commit only your own work" rule in CLAUDE.md they count as the
agent's own output for this transition. Stage them alongside the
renamed task file (and the task's source-code changes) in that first
commit. Other in-flight sessions' regen lines may be intermixed —
that is fine; the index reflects current on-disk state.
Rename pathspec — both sides. Housekeep does git mv old → new
(e.g. open/task-NNN.md → active/task-NNN.md). The pathspec list
passed to /commit must include both the old and new paths;
naming only the destination commits the addition but leaves the
source-side deletion orphaned in the working tree as a D entry.
This is the bug TASK-347 fixed end-to-end. The wrapper now accepts
rename sources, but it can only commit the deletion side if you name
it.
Config note: when tasks.active.enabled: false (TASK-217), this
skill should not be invoked. The config system will handle
registration; if the skill is still invoked, treat active as open
and warn the user. When tasks.paused.enabled: false, the
paused-folder branch is unreachable (no files live there); the legacy
active-with-prerequisites branch still applies.
Escape hatch (rare)
Active or paused → open is manual — there is no --to-open flag.
If you genuinely need to revert (e.g. "I activated this by mistake"),
edit status: back to open, git mv the file to open/, and run
python scripts/housekeep.py --apply. Document the reason in the body.
