| name | task-abandon |
| description | Abandon current task, capture learnings, salvage useful knowledge. |
/task-abandon [name]
Abandon a task and capture negative knowledge.
Arguments
[name]: optional task name. Defaults to the active task from meta.md.
Steps
- Resolve the task (active task from meta.md, or resolve
[name] via fuzzy matching).
- Ask: "Why is this task being abandoned?" Capture the reason.
- Add
## Abandonment Reason section to status.md with the reason and what was tried.
- Review task knowledge for salvageable findings:
- Read knowledge (knowledge.md if flat file, or knowledge/index.md + relevant topic files if split into directory).
- Negative results ("approach X doesn't work because Y") → offer to promote to branch knowledge
- Verified technical facts → offer to promote to branch knowledge
- Everything else → leave in place
4.5. Compact status.md — if status.md exceeds maintenance.status-final-lines (from directives.md) or has
<!-- maintenance: compact needed --> marker:
a. Copy status.md to status.pre-compact.md as backup.
b. Extract detailed content into knowledge topics. Consolidate "what failed and why" into a negative-results knowledge topic.
c. Rewrite status.md in compact format (same as task-complete).
d. If task knowledge now exceeds maintenance.task-knowledge-split-lines, split into knowledge/ directory.
e. Verify, then delete status.pre-compact.md.
- Update
**Status:** abandoned in status.md.
- Update
**Active Task:** none in meta.md.
- Report: "Task '' abandoned. Reason captured. findings salvaged to branch level."