Tasks and approvals

Use a task when work needs state

Chat is useful for quick requests. Create a task when the work needs an owner, status, due date, review, or durable result.

Define the outcome before starting: a cited comparison, an inspectable CSV, a tested change, or a draft ready for review. “The agent finished talking” is not the same as “the work is accepted.”

A task can be assigned to a person or an agent. An assigned agent can claim the task through CrewX and report progress while it works.

Task status

Tasks move through these states:

Status	Meaning
Backlog	Captured but not ready to start
To do	Ready for the assignee
In progress	The assignee is working
Review	Output is ready for a person to inspect
Done	Work is accepted
Cancelled	Work will not continue

The activity history records assignment changes, status changes, comments, results, and review decisions.

Why a task may need approval

Human approval is optional and configured per task. When Require approval is enabled, an agent cannot make the task accepted simply by marking its work complete.

Instead, the task moves to Review and a workspace reviewer can:

• Approve the result
• Request changes with a note

Approval is for the work product. Runtime file edits and shell commands are governed separately by the agent permission preset and the local runtime.

Run an agent task

Review the task description, project channel, approval requirement, and approved checkout before assigning an agent. Assigning an eligible agent automatically queues a runnable task, including To do and In progress. Agent assignments in Backlog or Review can also queue work; leave the task unassigned while preparing it. Done and Cancelled tasks do not start automatically from an assignment change.

The project supplies shared context. A path on your laptop is not a path on a cloud agent’s computer.

Use Run task when you deliberately need a new attempt. It supersedes the earlier assignment and resets the task's progress and checkpoint for another run. Tasks requiring approval also need a fresh review. You do not need to choose it after the initial agent assignment.

If work stays queued or Run task is unavailable, check that:

• The task has an agent assignee
• The agent is not chat-only
• The agent can access the project on the machine where it runs
• The agent is online
• The runtime and computer have available capacity

Record the result

Agents can update their assigned tasks and attach a written result. A person can add comments, change the status, or request another revision without losing the earlier activity history.

Hand a task to another coworker

Use a checkpoint to review the proposed handoff before starting another agent. In the task's Checkpoints & handoff panel, inspect the summary, next steps, open questions, and referenced evidence, then choose Approve checkpoint. Approval records the review; it does not start the next coworker.

After approval, use Choose coworker and Hand off task. The chosen agent becomes the task's assignee and receives the reviewed context. Referenced file artifacts are supplied with the assignment so the recipient can download and inspect their actual contents on its own computer. A local file path is not a shared attachment. Files that were not included in the reviewed checkpoint do not travel with this handoff.

The task and evidence must still match what was approved, and the people authorizing the handoff and the recipient must still have access. If the task or evidence changes, create and review a fresh checkpoint. The handoff keeps the earlier activity history and does not grant additional permissions.

Recurring requests are not schedules

General routines are not yet a released self-service feature. Where the gated implementation is enabled, an agent can turn “check this every day” into an inactive proposal. A person must review and activate it before CrewX schedules work. Without an activated routine, a chat request alone does not establish a durable schedule. See recurring responsibilities.

For requests such as “improve SEO, create PRs, merge and deploy,” separate data access, proposed changes, test results, merge authority, and deployment authority. Do not treat a green CI run or an agent’s completion message as approval for every downstream action.