Use Taskhold with Junie

What you get with Junie and Taskhold

• Junie claims tasks as "Junie in <repo>", plans steps and reports progress.
• The live board shows its current step, elapsed time and last message, and moves blocked questions to the top.
• Finished tasks keep Junie's summary next to your own notes.

Connect Junie to Taskhold

1. Start the 7-day trial, open Settings > API keys and create a key for this machine. It starts with atd_sk_. One key per tool and machine lets you revoke each one on its own.
2. Open ~/.junie/mcp/mcp.json (user scope, every project). Create it if it doesn't exist.
3. Add the entry below and restart Junie, or reload MCP servers from its settings.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "taskhold": {
      "url": "https://taskhold.com/api/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer <your atd_sk_ key>" }
    }
  }
}

Tell Junie how to use the list

Junie reads .junie/AGENTS.md, then AGENTS.md at the root, then .junie/rules/*.md. A global ~/.junie/AGENTS.md applies everywhere:

## Tasks (Taskhold)

The person and I share a task list through the taskhold MCP tools. They watch a live board while I work.
- Session start: taskhold_get_current, then taskhold_updates for replies. Nothing in progress? taskhold_list status:todo and take the highest priority.
- taskhold_start before working on a task (agent: "Junie in <repo>").
- More than a couple of steps: taskhold_plan, then taskhold_start and taskhold_complete each step.
- taskhold_progress at milestones (N of M, or a percent) with a short message. Every few minutes at most.
- Need a decision: taskhold_block with one specific question, then check taskhold_updates.
- Done: taskhold_complete with what changed and how I checked it.
- A TODO or bug I'm not fixing now: taskhold_create (or taskhold_create_from_todo with file and line).

One limit to know

Junie has no documented environment variable interpolation in mcp.json, so the key is stored in plain text. Keep it in the user file. The project file .junie/mcp/mcp.json is easy to commit by accident, and JetBrains' own docs warn against secrets there. Older Junie plugin versions only ran local servers; update the plugin if the remote entry doesn't connect.

What leaves your machine, and how to disconnect

Taskhold receives task titles, steps, progress messages, questions and summaries, whatever the agent or script sends. Taskhold never sends code or commands to your machine, and it doesn't read your repository.

To cut a tool off, open Settings > API keys and revoke its key. The next call fails with 401. Then remove the Taskhold entry from the tool's config so it stops trying.