Task lifecycle

Every task in ./memory/TASKS.json has a status field that tracks where it sits in the build pipeline. Statuses are enumerated in ./src/core/task.ts as TaskStatus.

The construction model is the human mental model; the status is the runtime state. A task should move from idea, to blueprint, to worker slot, to trade work, to inspection, to hard gates, to done.

The eight statuses

Status	Meaning	Who advances it
proposed	Raw ask, not yet surveyed or framed.	Coordinator evaluates; may promote to exploring or drop.
exploring	Site-survey and blueprint work: the spec agent gathers missing facts and questions.	User or spec agent promotes to spec_review.
spec_review	Blueprint is drafted; waiting for coordinator sign-off.	Coordinator approves → ready, or requests revision.
ready	Blueprint is approved and the task is waiting for a worker slot.	Coordinator dispatches -> in_progress.
in_progress	Trade work: a worker agent is implementing against the accepted blueprint.	Worker finishes → review, proposes a change order, or hits a blocker → blocked.
review	Inspection: one or more reviewers evaluate the work against the blueprint and project standards.	All reviewers pass → gate_check; any reviewer rejects → in_progress (revision) or blocked.
gate_check	Deterministic hard gates run (lint, typecheck, tests, custom).	All gates pass → done; any fail → in_progress.
done	Successful completion. Accepted work lands per landing_strategy.	Terminal.

Terminal states:

• done — success.
• shelved — explicitly parked (user action or pre-rejection policy).
• blocked — max revisions exceeded or unresolvable blocker raised.

Stage-appropriate spec fidelity

The spec_completeness lever controls how complete a spec must be at each stage:

• full_upfront — spec must be complete before leaving exploring.
• stage_appropriate (default) — acceptance criteria by ready, test plan by review, etc.
• emergent — high tolerance for incomplete specs; coordinator fills gaps mid-task.

Even in emergent mode, progress should leave a durable artifact. A transcript line that says the agent will write the blueprint later is not enough.

Revisions

When a reviewer rejects, the task returns to in_progress with the review verdict attached. A revision counter increments. When it hits max_revisions, the task is marked blocked and surfaces in the coordinator inbox for human intervention.

If review discovers that the plan itself was wrong, the right next artifact is a change order: what assumption changed, what evidence caused the change, and how scope or sequencing should move.

Pre-rejection

A pre-rejection fires before work starts — e.g. a scope issue flagged at spec_review. The pre_rejection_policy lever controls what happens: terminal shelving, re-queueing with lower priority, or re-queueing with rejection dampening.