What the sky can do — tasks

This page lists what you can ask ask the sky — Tasks' AI — to do with your tasks, in plain words. You ask on the chat; Ask the sky in Tasks says where that is.

#Add tasks

• Add a task at the top of the sky, inside another task, or in a region you name by number or name.
• A date or repeat in the words is read out, as on the add sheet: "call Sam fri 3pm" is due Friday at 3 pm, and "water plants every monday" repeats.
• Give it a whole list, and it can add each one — or a node with a star for each line.

A due time it sets becomes a reminder straight away.

#Find tasks

• Find tasks by words in their title or note, in the sky on screen, at every depth. It reads back the first 12.
• List everything, the tasks with the most inside first.
• Count what's done against the total inside a node, at every depth.

#Change a task

It can change a task's:

• title, note — or empty the note — and subtitle
• colour, and flag — white, gold, ice, lilac, mint or rose, or no flag
• gate, waiting, and ★ priority
• categories — it calls them tags
• due time, or clear it
• repeat, and "if missed": stack, skip or forget
• definition of done, and fallback ladder
• symbol, from an installed icon set, or remove it
• "location active", off or on, keeping the place

It can also complete or reopen it, take an attachment off, and fill in one of a card's boxes.

A flag colour it doesn't know is refused, and nothing on the task changes: "No flag colour “…” — try white, gold, ice, lilac, mint, rose or none."

Clearing a due time this way takes the time off, but a reminder already armed can still come at the old time.

#Completing

A task it completes has its reminder cancelled, and talismans that wait for a completion run, as when you complete it yourself. Marking a task done that is already done doesn't run them again.

A gated node with open tasks inside is refused before anything changes: "That one completes only when every task inside it is done — finish those first."

#Move a task

• Move it, with everything inside it, into another node or up to the top of the sky. There is no button for this by hand.
• Set its angle and orbit, from 0.3× to 6× — as far out as you can drag a star.
• Move a top-level task into another region.
• Lay out a node's tasks in a pattern: ring, spiral, arc, fan, rings, scatter, constellation or line.

It refuses a move into the task's own inside: "That's inside the task itself — a task can't be moved into its own inside."

#Link two tasks

Link one task to another, the blocker first. Blockers and analyze read the link. See Links, pins & export.

#Make a task speak up by itself

• Give it a place, with a range. See Place reminders.
• Give it weather to wake on — repeating, or a trigger that fires once, then clears. See Weather triggers.
• Set its "show only when…" states: charging, wi-fi, headphones, offline, in a meeting, on the move, or a pinned place.
• Give it an email to send — who, subject and body.
• Clear any one of these, or all four at once.

#Send a task on

• "📅 to calendar", by the route you chose, and open one already there. See Tasks & Zenith Calendar.
• "🗺 to mind", "🔭 analyze in mind", and open one already on the map.
• "📓 journal about this", with what's inside or just this one. See Journal about this.
• "▷ begin" — its email draft opens in your email app, and you press send.
• Give you its link in the reply.
• Ask your launcher to pin it to the home screen.

It can't "share" a task as a picture.

#Keep or reuse a task

• Retire a task to the archive with a reason, restore one, compost one onto the shuttle, and sweep every finished task in.
• Save a task, and what's inside it, as a template, and use a template — inside a task you name, or at the top of the sky.

See Delete, retire & the archive and Templates.

#Make a card

Add a task that opens as a small interactive card. See Cards & email drafts.

#Delete a task

Only while you allow it, and it asks you on screen each time. See Deleting asks first, and undo.

#See also.

What the sky can do — skies, settings & more · Ask the sky in Tasks · The edit sheet, top to bottom · Deleting asks first, and undo