07-task-system

07: Task System — File-Based DAG Task Graph

Key Insight: State that survives compression -- because it's outside the conversation.

What You'll Learn

• Persistent task state — JSON files in .tasks/ that survive context compression
• Dependency graphs — blockedBy/blocks edges between tasks
• Automatic unblocking — completing a task frees its dependents
• External state — why keeping state outside the conversation is critical

Prerequisites

• Completed 06: Context Compaction
• Understand the 3-layer compression pipeline

How to Run

make 07-task-system
# or
uv run python 07-task-system/agent.py

What's New vs Module 06

Feature	06 (Compaction)	07 (Task System)
Planning	In conversation (lost on compress)	Persisted to .tasks/
Dependencies	None	DAG with blockedBy/blocks
Visibility	TodoManager (in-memory)	File-based (survives restarts)
Tool count	6	8 (+ task_create, task_update, task_list, task_get)

Key Concept: External State

.tasks/
  task_1.json  {"id":1, "subject":"...", "status":"completed"}
  task_2.json  {"id":2, "blockedBy":[1], "status":"pending"}
  task_3.json  {"id":3, "blockedBy":[2], "status":"pending"}

Dependency resolution:
  task_1 ──> task_2 ──> task_3
  (done)     (unblocked)  (still blocked)

Completing task 1 removes it from task 2's blockedBy list, making task 2 actionable.

Files

File	Lines	Description
agent.py	~250	Agent with TaskManager and dependency graph

Next Module

Ready for background execution? → 08: Background Tasks