Find Code Tasks

Overview

This skill finds and displays all code tasks (.code-task.md files) in the repository, showing their frontmatter status and metadata. Use it to get a quick overview of pending work, find tasks by status, or check the state of the task backlog.

When to Use

• Starting a work session to see what tasks are available

• Checking status of tasks before/after running code-assist

• Finding tasks by status (pending, in_progress, completed)

• Getting a summary of task backlog

• Exporting task data for reporting

Parameters

filter (optional): Filter tasks by status

• pending

• Show only pending tasks

• in_progress

• Show only in-progress tasks

• completed

• Show only completed tasks

• (none) - Show all tasks

format (optional, default: "table"): Output format

• table

• Human-readable table with status symbols

• json

• JSON array for programmatic use

• summary

• Counts by status only

tasks_dir (optional, default: ".ralph/tasks/"): Directory to search for tasks

Usage Examples

Show all tasks in table format

/find-code-tasks

Show only pending tasks

/find-code-tasks filter:pending

Get JSON output for tooling

/find-code-tasks format:json

Quick summary of task counts

/find-code-tasks format:summary

Search custom directory

/find-code-tasks tasks_dir:tools/

Steps

1. Run Task Status Script

The script is colocated with this skill at .claude/skills/find-code-tasks/task-status.sh .

Execute it with appropriate arguments:

Default: table format, all tasks

.claude/skills/find-code-tasks/task-status.sh

With filter

.claude/skills/find-code-tasks/task-status.sh --pending .claude/skills/find-code-tasks/task-status.sh --in_progress .claude/skills/find-code-tasks/task-status.sh --completed

With format

.claude/skills/find-code-tasks/task-status.sh --json .claude/skills/find-code-tasks/task-status.sh --summary

Custom tasks directory

TASKS_DIR=tools/ .claude/skills/find-code-tasks/task-status.sh

2. Present Results

Display the output to the user. For table format, the output includes:

Symbol Status

○ pending

● in_progress

✓ completed

■ blocked

3. Suggest Next Actions

Based on the results, suggest relevant actions:

• If there are pending tasks: "Run /code-assist .ralph/tasks/<task-name>.code-task.md to start a task"

• If there are in_progress tasks: "There are tasks already in progress - consider completing those first"

• If all tasks are completed: "All tasks are done! Use /code-task-generator to create new tasks"

Output Examples

Table Format (default)

TASKS STATUS ════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════ TASK STATUS DATE ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── ○ add-task-frontmatter-tracking pending 2025-01-15 ○ enhance-headless-tool-output pending - ● fix-ctrl-c-freeze in_progress 2025-01-14 ✓ replay-backend completed 2025-01-13 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Total: 4 tasks

Summary Format

Task Summary ──────────── ○ Pending: 10 ● In Progress: 2 ✓ Completed: 5 ──────────── Total: 17

JSON Format

[ {"task": "add-task-frontmatter-tracking", "status": "pending", "created": "2025-01-15", "started": null, "completed": null}, {"task": "fix-ctrl-c-freeze", "status": "in_progress", "created": "2025-01-14", "started": "2025-01-14", "completed": null} ]

Frontmatter Schema

Tasks with frontmatter tracking have this structure:

status: pending | in_progress | completed | blocked created: YYYY-MM-DD # Date task was created started: YYYY-MM-DD # Date work began (null if not started) completed: YYYY-MM-DD # Date work finished (null if not done)

Tasks without frontmatter are shown as pending with null dates.

Integration with Other Skills

• code-task-generator: Creates new tasks with frontmatter

• code-assist: Updates task status when starting/completing work

• ralph-code-assist: Runs tasks through Ralph orchestrator

Troubleshooting

No Tasks Found

If no tasks are displayed:

• Verify the tasks directory exists: ls .ralph/tasks/

• Check file extension is .code-task.md

• Try specifying directory: /find-code-tasks tasks_dir:./

Script Not Found

If the task-status.sh script is not found:

• Ensure you're in the repository root

• Check the script exists: ls .claude/skills/find-code-tasks/task-status.sh

• Make it executable: chmod +x .claude/skills/find-code-tasks/task-status.sh

Frontmatter Not Parsed

If dates show as - for tasks with frontmatter:

• Ensure frontmatter starts with --- on line 1

• Check YAML syntax is valid

• Verify field names match: status , created , started , completed