Flow-Next Task Management

Quick task operations in .flow/. For planning features use /flow-next:plan, for executing use /flow-next:work.

Preamble

CRITICAL: flowctl is BUNDLED — NOT installed globally. which flowctl will fail (expected). Define once; subsequent blocks use $FLOWCTL:

FLOWCTL="${CODEX_HOME:-$HOME/.codex}/scripts/flowctl"
[ -x "$FLOWCTL" ] || FLOWCTL="<plugin-root>/scripts/flowctl"   # <plugin-root> = the directory two levels above this skill's SKILL.md file (the harness gave you that file's absolute path when the skill loaded); substitute it literally
[ -x "$FLOWCTL" ] || FLOWCTL=".flow/bin/flowctl"

Discover all commands/options:

$FLOWCTL --help
$FLOWCTL <command> --help   # e.g., $FLOWCTL task --help

Quick Reference

# Check if .flow exists
$FLOWCTL detect --json

# Initialize (if needed)
$FLOWCTL init --json

# List everything (specs + tasks grouped)
$FLOWCTL list --json

# List all specs
$FLOWCTL specs --json

# List all tasks (or filter by spec/status)
$FLOWCTL tasks --json
$FLOWCTL tasks --spec fn-1-add-oauth --json
$FLOWCTL tasks --status todo --json

# View spec with all tasks
$FLOWCTL show fn-1-add-oauth --json
$FLOWCTL cat fn-1-add-oauth              # Spec markdown

# View single task
$FLOWCTL show fn-1-add-oauth.2 --json
$FLOWCTL cat fn-1-add-oauth.2            # Task spec

# What's ready to work on?
$FLOWCTL ready --spec fn-1-add-oauth --json

# Create task under existing spec
$FLOWCTL task create --spec fn-1-add-oauth --title "Fix bug X" --json

# Set task description and acceptance (combined, fewer writes; unique per-task temp paths)
$FLOWCTL task set-spec fn-1-add-oauth.2 --description "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/flow-desc-fn-1-add-oauth.2.md" --acceptance "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/flow-accept-fn-1-add-oauth.2.md" --json

# Or use stdin with heredoc (no temp file):
$FLOWCTL task set-description fn-1-add-oauth.2 --file - --json <<'EOF'
Description here
EOF

# Start working on task
$FLOWCTL start fn-1-add-oauth.2 --json

# Mark task done (unique per-task temp paths)
echo "What was done" > "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/flow-summary-fn-1-add-oauth.2.md"
echo '{"commits":["abc123"],"tests":["npm test"],"prs":[]}' > "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/flow-evidence-fn-1-add-oauth.2.json"
$FLOWCTL done fn-1-add-oauth.2 --summary-file "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/flow-summary-fn-1-add-oauth.2.md" --evidence-json "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/flow-evidence-fn-1-add-oauth.2.json" --json

# Validate structure (one spec; repo-wide through a counts-and-errors projection)
$FLOWCTL validate --spec fn-1-add-oauth --json
$FLOWCTL validate --all --json | jq '{valid, total_specs, total_tasks, total_errors, total_warnings, root_errors, failing: [.specs[] | select(.errors | length > 0) | {spec, errors}]}'

Common Patterns

"Add a task for X"

1. Find relevant spec:

   # List all specs
   $FLOWCTL specs --json
   
   # Or show a specific spec to check its scope
   $FLOWCTL show fn-1 --json
   

2. Create task:

   $FLOWCTL task create --spec fn-N --title "Short title" --json
   

3. Add description + acceptance (combined):

   # Unique per-task temp paths — written + consumed in this one block
   cat > "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/flow-desc-fn-N.M.md" << 'EOF'
   **Bug/Feature:** Brief description
   
   **Details:**
   - Point 1
   - Point 2
   EOF
   cat > "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/flow-accept-fn-N.M.md" << 'EOF'
   - [ ] Criterion 1
   - [ ] Criterion 2
   EOF
   $FLOWCTL task set-spec fn-N.M --description "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/flow-desc-fn-N.M.md" --acceptance "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/flow-accept-fn-N.M.md" --json
   

"What tasks are there?"

# All tasks, projected (add --spec fn-1-add-oauth for one spec)
$FLOWCTL tasks --json | jq -c '[.tasks[] | {id, title, status, spec}]'

# Ready tasks for a spec
$FLOWCTL ready --spec fn-1-add-oauth --json

"What's next?"

$FLOWCTL brief

brief is orientation only: it omits blocked and dependency-waiting tasks, so never answer a task listing from it.

"Show me task X"

$FLOWCTL show fn-1-add-oauth.2 --json   # Metadata
$FLOWCTL cat fn-1-add-oauth.2           # Full spec

(Legacy fn-1.2 / fn-1-xxx.2 still works.)

Create new spec (rare - usually via /flow-next:plan)

$FLOWCTL spec create --title "Spec title" --json
# Returns: {"success": true, "id": "fn-N-spec-title", ...}

Close a spec as won't-do

$FLOWCTL spec close fn-1-add-oauth --retire superseded --by fn-2-sso --json

Pick the reason that is true: superseded (another spec replaced it), delivered-elsewhere (it shipped under another spec or pull request) or moot (it is no longer needed, including a decision not to build it). Name each successor with --by. Its never-run tasks read retired, not done.

Before closing any spec: read references/declined.md; it decides whether the close earns a .flow/memory/declined/ file.

ID Format

• Spec: fn-N-slug where slug is derived from title (e.g., fn-1-add-oauth, fn-2-fix-login-bug)
• Task: fn-N-slug.M (e.g., fn-1-add-oauth.1, fn-2-fix-login-bug.2)

Legacy formats fn-N and fn-N-xxx (random 3-char suffix) are still supported.

Notes

• Run $FLOWCTL --help to discover all commands and options
• Every write goes through a flowctl subcommand, except the .flow/memory/declined/*.md file above, which has no flowctl verb. A session that edits .flow/ JSON or task markdown by hand has broken this.
• Every read comes from .flow/ state, via --json (detect, list, specs, tasks, show, ready) or cat for markdown. An answer assembled from files skimmed by hand has broken this.
• A task marked complete is closed with flowctl done carrying both --summary-file and --evidence-json. A bare status flip has broken this.
• Requests that need real planning or execution are handed off, to $flow-next-plan and $flow-next-work. Improvising them here has broken this.