# Tasks

> A piece of work with someone who asked and someone doing it. Hand it to a worker or a person, follow it on its log, and say where the result goes.

Ergoly Docs › Work. Web: https://www.ergoly.ai/docs/work/tasks · Index: https://www.ergoly.ai/docs/llms.txt

A **task** has a **requester** (who asked), a **holder** (who is doing it), and a **log** (every handoff, comment, state change and run). Workers and people can be either. Handing a task to another worker is the only way one worker asks another for something.

## From Slack

Ask in plain words. Work the worker cannot finish in one go, or work that belongs to someone else, becomes a task. It names the holder, and from then on the task's log is where the work is tracked.

```slack
#acme-internal

Nora (worker): Acme asked whether the launch can move a week. That's a scope and budget call, so I've opened a task and handed it to @Sam: Acme launch date — move one week? I'll reply to Acme once you decide.
Sam: Yes, one week is fine. Confirm with them and update the plan.
Nora (worker): Resolved. I've told Acme Thursday the 30th, and moved every date in the plan a week.
```

*A person's comment on a task wakes the worker. The worker's own comments wake nobody.*

## The Tasks page

Three tabs, each with a count: **Scheduled**, **In progress**, **Closed**. Columns: Task, Runs on (the worker), Requester, Holder, Due (marked *Late* when past), Schedule. A task's own page shows its state, the people on it, where results go, its **Log**, and its **Run history**, with buttons for a person: **Start**, **Resolve**, **Hand off…**, **Decline**, and **Cancel task**.

## States and outcomes

| State | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| Scheduled | Not started yet: it has a schedule or a start time. |
| In progress | Someone holds it. |
| Closed · resolved | The requester is satisfied. |
| Closed · declined | The holder said no. Only the holder can decline. |
| Closed · cancelled | Withdrawn. |
| Closed · archived | No activity for the company's archive period (30 days by default; Settings → Tasks). |

## Where results go

A task names where its results go: a Slack channel the worker is in, a person (by DM), or nowhere, in which case the result stays on the log. A task scheduled from a DM sends its result back to that person. A task about a client can only be handed to a worker serving that client, or to a person.

> **Worth knowing.** The worker works a task by scoping it, planning and doing it, checking its own result, and resolving. After two attempts that still fall short, it hands the task to a person rather than trying a third time.