Tasks and programs: work that lasts longer than a chat

Most requests finish in one conversation. Some don’t: you’re waiting on someone, there’s a deadline next week, or the work will take days. In Lowkey that kind of work becomes a task, so it keeps moving without you having to remember it.

Chats, tasks and programs

A chat is a temporary, one-off conversation: ask something, get it done, move on.
A task is lasting, scoped work. It has an owner, a next date it wakes on, and its own chat where results land, so it keeps moving after you close the window.
A program speaks across a group of related tasks: one plan, one chat and a regular review for the whole effort.

If something won’t finish now or waits on someone, it belongs in a task with a date rather than as a to-do left in a chat. The rest of this page explains each one.

What a task is

A task is a chat with its current state attached:

Now — a short paragraph saying where things stand.
Owner — the agent (or person) answerable for it.
Whose move — yours, the agent’s, someone else’s, or parked until a date.
Next date — when it should be looked at again.
Due date, blockers, and a freeform plan, when they’re useful.

Every open task always has a next date. That’s the whole trick: nothing depends on anyone remembering to check.

Making one

Just say so: “Make this a task and follow up on Friday.” The agent turns the conversation you’re in into a task, keeping its history, and tells you when it will look again. You can also ask for a fresh one: “Track the passport renewal as a task.”

Agents also suggest it themselves when they notice work that won’t finish today, or when you say things like “remind me”, “follow up on…”, or “chase them if they haven’t replied”.

The clock: tasks wake themselves

When a task’s next date arrives, Lowkey’s clock wakes the task in its own chat with its Now, plan and latest activity. The agent does the work there and writes back what changed and when it’ll look next. The clock also notices tasks that are close to their due date, or that have gone quiet while it’s the agent’s move.

So you don’t have to check back. If a task needs you, it says so: its move becomes yours, and if it can’t wait, you get a page (see Pages and notifications).

Finding your tasks

A project’s sidebar has two tabs: Chats and Tasks. The Tasks tab lists open work with whose move it is and its next date. Open a task to see its page in the focus pane: its state, plan, schedules, workers and history.

Finished work isn’t deleted. Mark a task Done (and Reopen it if needed), or Retire to records when it’s no longer worth tracking but worth keeping. Both live under Show done and retired at the bottom of the list.

Completing a chat and finishing a task are separate: closing the conversation never marks its task done.

When several tasks belong to one effort (a house move, a product launch, a big client), they can live in a program. A program has its own standing chat, a plan, an owning agent, and usually a heartbeat: a scheduled review where the agent goes through every task in the program and spots anything drifting.

Programs are made on purpose. Ask for one (“Group the move tasks into a program and review them every Monday”) and the agent creates it and files the tasks in. On desktop you can drag a task onto a program; on any device use Move to… on the task. Close program and Reopen program are there when the effort ends or comes back.

Programs hold tasks; tasks never hold other tasks, and programs don’t nest.

Things that repeat

A task can also run on a schedule: every morning, every Friday, the first of the month. See Scheduled tasks: work that repeats on its own.

Staying in control

Background work respects each project’s quiet hours and a daily budget for how much the clock may wake up. Ask an agent to change them, or set them in the project’s settings.
You can always ask “what’s waiting on me?” or open Inbox for decisions addressed to you. Home shows active work and the Work log across projects.