Task Management

Overview

Stardust’s task management is built on a simple philosophy: every task has exactly one owner, and ownership drives accountability. No shared tasks. No vague responsibilities. Just clear commitments and outcomes.

Strategic Laziness: The best task managers help you do less work, not manage more tasks.

Task Lifecycle

Every task in Stardust moves through clear states:

Created

Task exists but no work has started yet.Status: todo Visibility: Shows up in “Ready” lists if unblocked

In Progress

Someone is actively working on it.Status: in_progress Visibility: Shows in owner’s active work Health Check: Flagged if stuck >7 days

Blocked

Work can’t continue due to dependency or external factor.Status: blocked Visibility: Surfaces in team blockers view Health Check: Owner gets nudges to resolve

Done

Task is complete and shipped.Status: done Visibility: Hidden from active views, archived

Keep status current: Stardust works best when status reflects reality. Update as you work, not in meetings.

Task Attributes

Title

What: A clear, action-oriented description of what needs to be done. Best Practices:

Start with a verb: “Review”, “Fix”, “Ship”, “Deploy”
Be specific: “Review Q1 roadmap” not “Review stuff”
Keep it short: Under 60 characters

Fix auth token refresh bug
Review Q1 roadmap with leadership
Ship user dashboard to production
Deploy database migration for user roles

Owner

What: The single person responsible for this task’s outcome. Why It Matters:

Accountability: One person owns the result
Focus: Owners know their commitments
Velocity: No coordination overhead

No shared ownership: Stardust enforces one owner per task. If multiple people need to work on something, create separate tasks with dependencies.

Examples:

# Assign to yourself
stardust task create "Fix bug" --owner @me

# Assign to team member
stardust task create "Review PR" --owner alice@example.com

# Assign via API
curl -X POST /api/v1/tasks \
  -d '{"title": "Ship feature", "owner": "user-123"}'

Priority

What: How important this task is relative to other work. Levels:

critical

enum

Production is down. Everything stops.Use for: Outages, security issues, data lossExample: “Fix database connection pool exhaustion”

high

enum

Must be done soon. Impacts key outcomes.Use for: Deadlines, dependencies for other work, customer commitmentsExample: “Ship Q1 roadmap presentation”

medium

enum

Should be done. Normal priority work.Use for: Regular feature work, improvements, most tasksExample: “Add dark mode toggle to settings”

low

enum

Nice to have. Do when time permits.Use for: Polish, optimizations, tech debtExample: “Reorganize file structure”

AI helps: If you’re unsure about priority, use stardust tasks prioritize to get AI recommendations based on context.

Due Date

What: When this task needs to be complete. Best Practices:

Only set due dates for real deadlines
Avoid arbitrary dates just to have a date
Use natural language: “end of week”, “next Thursday”

stardust task create "Review roadmap" --due-date "next Thursday"
stardust task create "Ship feature" --due-date "2025-01-31"

Due dates without consequences are noise. Only set due dates for real deadlines with real stakes.

Dependencies

What: Tasks that must be completed before this one can start. Why It Matters:

Automatically blocks tasks until dependencies are done
Surfaces what’s actually ready to work on
Eliminates manual coordination

Examples:

Linear Dependencies
Parallel Work

Design → Implementation → QA → Deploy

stardust task create "Design dashboard" --owner @alice
stardust task create "Implement dashboard" --owner @bob --depends-on task-100
stardust task create "QA dashboard" --owner @carol --depends-on task-101
stardust task create "Deploy dashboard" --owner @dave --depends-on task-102

       ┌─ API endpoints ──┐
Design ┤                  ├─ Integration ─ Deploy
       └─ UI components ──┘

stardust task create "Design" --owner @alice
stardust task create "API" --owner @bob --depends-on task-200
stardust task create "UI" --owner @carol --depends-on task-200
stardust task create "Integration" --owner @dave --depends-on task-201,task-202

Dependencies are automatically tracked. When task A is marked done, task B becomes ready instantly.

Task Operations

Create

Web UI
CLI
API

Click + button or press Cmd+N
Type your task naturally: “Review roadmap before Thursday”
AI extracts due date, priority, and tags
Click Create

# Simple task
stardust task create "Review roadmap"

# Full details
stardust task create "Review roadmap" \
  --owner @me \
  --priority high \
  --due-date "next Thursday" \
  --tags quarterly-planning

curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/api/v1/tasks \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "X-API-Key: your-key" \
  -d '{
    "title": "Review roadmap",
    "owner": "user-123",
    "priority": "high",
    "due_date": "2025-01-16T17:00:00Z",
    "tags": ["quarterly-planning"]
  }'

Update

Web UI
CLI
API

Click the task to open details
Edit any field directly
Changes save automatically

# Update status
stardust task update task-123 --status in_progress

# Update priority
stardust task update task-123 --priority critical

# Update owner
stardust task update task-123 --owner @alice

# Update multiple fields
stardust task update task-123 \
  --status blocked \
  --description "Waiting on API key from DevOps"

curl -X PATCH http://localhost:8000/api/v1/tasks/task-123 \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "status": "in_progress",
    "priority": "high"
  }'

Delete

Deletion is permanent. Consider archiving instead if you might need the record later.

Web UI
CLI
API

Open task details
Click Delete button
Confirm deletion

stardust task delete task-123

curl -X DELETE http://localhost:8000/api/v1/tasks/task-123 \
  -H "X-API-Key: your-key"

Smart Views

Ready Tasks

Shows only tasks that are:

Not blocked by dependencies
Not already in progress
Assigned to an owner
Not completed

# All ready tasks
stardust tasks ready

# My ready tasks
stardust tasks ready --owner @me

# High priority ready tasks
stardust tasks ready --priority high

This is your work queue. Start here every morning to see what you can actually work on.

Blocked Tasks

Shows tasks stuck waiting on something:

# All blocked tasks
stardust tasks list --status blocked

# My blocked tasks
stardust tasks list --status blocked --owner @me

Common blockers:

Waiting on dependencies
Waiting on external teams
Waiting on decisions
Technical blockers

Review blocked tasks daily. Many blockers can be resolved faster than you think.

In Progress

Shows active work:

# All in-progress tasks
stardust tasks list --status in_progress

# My active work
stardust tasks list --status in_progress --owner @me

Limit WIP: If you have more than 3 tasks in progress, you’re probably context switching too much. Finish something first.

Overdue

Shows tasks past their due date:

# All overdue
stardust tasks list --overdue

# My overdue
stardust tasks list --overdue --owner @me

Stardust doesn’t nag you about arbitrary deadlines. Overdue tasks are flagged, but AI prioritization considers real urgency.

Batch Operations

Filter and Update

# Mark all high priority tasks for review
stardust tasks list --priority high --format json | \
  jq -r '.[] | .id' | \
  xargs -I {} stardust task update {} --tags needs-review

Bulk Reassign

# Reassign all tasks from one person to another
stardust tasks list --owner @alice --format json | \
  jq -r '.[] | .id' | \
  xargs -I {} stardust task update {} --owner @bob

Export and Analyze

# Export to JSON for analysis
stardust tasks list --format json > tasks.json

# Export to CSV for spreadsheets
stardust tasks list --format csv > tasks.csv

Best Practices

One Owner

Every task must have exactly one owner. No exceptions.

Update Status

Keep status current. Update as you work, not in meetings.

Use Dependencies

Model real blockers. Don’t start work that’s actually blocked.

Delete Liberally

If it’s been sitting for weeks, question whether it matters. Delete if not.

Limit WIP

Finish tasks before starting new ones. 1-3 in progress is ideal.

Trust AI

Use AI prioritization when overwhelmed. It sees patterns you miss.

Next Steps

AI Triage

Learn how AI helps you prioritize work

Integrations

Connect with Slack, GitHub, and more

Common Workflows

See how teams use Stardust in practice

API Reference

Build custom integrations

Core Features

Desktop App

CLI

Integrations

Overview

Task Lifecycle

Task Attributes

Title

Owner

Priority

Due Date

Dependencies

Tags

Task Operations

Create

Update

Delete

Smart Views

Ready Tasks

Blocked Tasks

In Progress

Overdue

Batch Operations

Filter and Update

Bulk Reassign

Export and Analyze

Best Practices

One Owner

Update Status

Use Dependencies

Delete Liberally

Limit WIP

Trust AI

Next Steps

AI Triage

Integrations

Common Workflows

API Reference

Core Features

Desktop App

CLI

Integrations

​Overview

​Task Lifecycle

​Task Attributes

​Title

​Owner

​Priority

​Due Date

​Dependencies

​Tags

​Task Operations

​Create

​Update

​Delete

​Smart Views

​Ready Tasks

​Blocked Tasks

​In Progress

​Overdue

​Batch Operations

​Filter and Update

​Bulk Reassign

​Export and Analyze

​Best Practices

One Owner

Update Status

Use Dependencies

Delete Liberally

Limit WIP

Trust AI

​Next Steps

AI Triage

Integrations

Common Workflows

API Reference

Overview

Task Lifecycle

Task Attributes

Title

Owner

Priority

Due Date

Dependencies

Tags

Task Operations

Create

Update

Delete

Smart Views

Ready Tasks

Blocked Tasks

In Progress

Overdue

Batch Operations

Filter and Update

Bulk Reassign

Export and Analyze

Best Practices

Next Steps