--- title: Tasks Overview description: Plan projects and track tasks next to your notes, with statuses, priorities, labels, subtasks, cycles, and links back to the notes they came from. --- Tasks gives your workspace a place to plan work. You group tasks into projects, track their status and priority, break them into subtasks, and link them to the notes they came from. Tasks live in your workspace as plain files, so they sync and back up with your notes, and you can manage them from the [command line](/cli/tasks-and-projects) or let [Ask Octarine](/working-with-ai/ask-octarine#tasks-and-projects) work with them. > Tasks is a Pro feature. Without a license, the **Tasks** button stays in the sidebar, but opening or creating a task asks you to activate Pro. See [Pro License](/getting-started/pro-license). ## Opening Tasks - Click **Tasks** in the left sidebar. It opens a Tasks tab on the first active project's **Issues** tab. - Press `Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + T` from anywhere to create a task. - Open the [Command Bar](/core-concepts/command-bar-and-shortcuts#tasks) with `Cmd/Ctrl + K`, then use **New Task**, **Open Task**, or the **Tasks** tab to find a task by ID or title. With no projects yet, the Tasks tab shows **Create your first project**. Click **New project** to begin. See [Projects](/tasks/projects). The **Tasks** button is on by default. To hide it, open **Workspace actions → Customise sidebar**. See [Settings](/customisation/settings). ## The Tasks Sidebar While a Tasks tab is focused, the left sidebar shows the Tasks tree instead of your files: - **Cycles** lists the active and upcoming [cycles](/tasks/cycles) with their dates and open counts. It appears only when cycles are turned on. - **Projects** lists every active project with its icon and open-task count. Click **+** to create a project. Click the filter button, or press `/`, to filter the list. - **No project** opens the tasks that don't belong to a project. It appears only when such tasks exist. - **Archived** opens archived projects. It appears only when there are some. Right-click a project for **Open in new tab**, **Edit project**, **Pin project**, **Mark project completed**, and **Archive project**. Pinned projects also appear in the sidebar's [Pinned](/note-management/pinned) section. Use the arrow keys, `Home`, and `End` to move through the tree. ## What A Task Has | Field | Details | | --- | --- | | **ID** | A project key plus a number, such as `WEB-24`. See [Task IDs](#task-ids). | | **Title and description** | The description uses the full editor, including slash commands, `[[wikilinks]]`, and `#tags`. | | **Status** | Built-in statuses are **Backlog**, **Todo**, **In progress**, **In review**, **Done**, and **Cancelled**. You can add your own in [task settings](/tasks/task-settings#statuses). | | **Priority** | **Urgent**, **High**, **Medium**, **Low**, or **No priority** (the default). | | **Labels** | Any number. New workspaces start with **Bug**, **Feature**, and **Improvement**. | | **Bucket** | At most one bucket: a lane such as **Now**, **Next**, or **Later**. | | **Due date** | Optional. Overdue tasks are marked **Overdue**. | | **Cycle** | The [cycle](/tasks/cycles) the task is planned in, when cycles are on. | | **Parent and subtasks** | Subtasks go one level deep and always share their parent's project. | | **Resources** | Notes, files, and links kept with the task. See [Resources](/tasks/projects#resources). | | **Activity** | Comments and a history of changes. | A status's **category** decides whether its tasks count as open or closed. **Done** and other completed statuses, plus **Cancelled**, are closed. Octarine records when a task was completed or cancelled. ## Task IDs Each project numbers its tasks under its own key: `WEB-1`, `WEB-2`, and so on. Tasks without a project use the workspace key, **TASK** by default, which you can change in [task settings](/tasks/task-settings#task-ids). When a task moves to another project, it takes the next number there, and its old ID keeps finding it. Search, the Command Bar, links, and the CLI all accept old IDs. IDs are otherwise stable, so they're safe to mention in notes, chats, and commit messages. ## Creating Tasks Press `C` in a task list, click **New task** in a project header, click **+** on a group or board column, or press `Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + T` from anywhere. The new-task dialog has: - A title field (**What needs to be done?**) and a description. - Chips for status, **Priority**, **Bucket**, **Labels**, and **Cycle**, plus the project chip in the header. - A **Template** picker. If the project has a [default template](/tasks/projects#default-template), it is applied when the dialog opens. - A **Create more** toggle that keeps the dialog open for the next task. Octarine remembers it. Press `Enter` in the title or `Cmd/Ctrl + Enter` to create the task. New tasks pick up context from where you create them. In a list grouped by status, a group's **+** creates a task with that status, and the same goes for board columns, cycles, and labels. Outside Tasks, the dialog starts in the last project you added a task to, and a **Created WEB-12** toast offers **Open**. ### From a note Select text in a note and use the Tasks button in the [bubble menu](/editor/bubble-menu): - **Convert to Task** appears when the cursor is in a checkbox. The checkbox text becomes the title, nested items become the description, and a checked box creates the task as **Done**. - **Create Task from Selection** turns the selected text into the description of a new task. Either way, the original text is replaced by a [task link](/tasks/linking-and-deep-links), so the note keeps pointing at the task. ## Tasks And Checkboxes Markdown checkboxes in notes (`- [ ] Item`) are still plain text in the note and work as before. Tasks are separate items with their own fields, history, and IDs. Use **Convert to Task** when a checkbox grows into real work. ## Where Tasks Are Stored Tasks live in your workspace under `.octarine/tasks`. Each task, project, cycle, status, label, bucket, template, and saved filter is a small Markdown file with YAML frontmatter, and a task's description is the file's body. Comments and history live in `.octarine/tasks/activity`. Archived items move into `.archive` folders. Because they are plain files in the workspace, tasks are included when you [sync or back up](/core-concepts/storing-data#sync-and-backup-implications) the workspace. Octarine watches the folder, so changes from the [CLI](/cli/tasks-and-projects), a sync service, or another device show up in an open window on their own. If a task changes elsewhere while you're editing it, Octarine shows **This task changed elsewhere. Your edits here aren't saved yet.** Choose **Keep mine** to save your version, or **Discard mine** to take the other one. #### Quick Answers ### Does Octarine have task management? Yes. Tasks lets you organize tasks into projects with statuses, priorities, labels, buckets, due dates, subtasks, templates, saved filters, and optional cycles. It is a Pro feature. ### Where are Octarine tasks stored? As Markdown files with YAML frontmatter under `.octarine/tasks` in your workspace. They sync and back up with the rest of your notes. ### Can I turn a checkbox in a note into a task? Yes. Put the cursor in the checkbox and choose **Convert to Task** from the bubble menu. The checkbox is replaced by a link to the new task. ### Why did a task's ID change? It moved to another project and took the next number there. Its old ID still finds it. ### What is the shortcut for a new task? `Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + T` from anywhere, or `C` in a task list.