Taskhold

Guides

Break a spec into tasks your coding agent can finish

A long spec pasted into one chat tends to get half-done: the agent runs out of context, skips a step, or reports success on the parts it remembers. Splitting the spec into tasks first, then working them one at a time, gives you a checkpoint after each piece.

Have the agent write the tasks, then you edit them

Ask the agent to read the spec and file one Taskhold task per shippable step with taskhold_create: a short title, a description with acceptance criteria, and a priority. You then reorder, merge or delete tasks in the web app before any code is written, which is the cheapest moment to catch a wrong plan.

Read SPEC.md. Create one Taskhold task per step that can ship on its own:
title under 80 characters, description with "Done when: ...", priority high for
the first three. Don't start any of them yet.

Work the list one task at a time

Each session starts with taskhold_get_current, takes the highest-priority todo, and marks it started. The agent adds notes as it goes and completes the task with a summary of what changed. A task it can't finish gets blocked with a question for you, and the next session moves on to another task instead of stalling.

Where a spec-to-tasks tool fits better

  • Taskmaster AI parses a PRD into dependent tasks stored in your repo, free and open source. Pick it if you want dependency graphs inside git.
  • Backlog.md keeps tasks as markdown files in the repo. Pick it if the whole team works from git.
  • Taskhold fits when you want the list in a browser and on your phone, shared by several agents across repos.

Give your agents a list you can both see.

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Questions

How big should one task be?
Small enough that the agent can finish it in one session and you can review the diff in a few minutes. If a task's summary would need more than a short paragraph, ask the agent to split it into two tasks before starting.
Can the agent add tasks it discovers along the way?
Yes. taskhold_create files new tasks, and taskhold_create_from_todo records a TODO with its file path and line number. New tasks show up in the web app marked as created by an agent.

Related

Updated 2026-10-09