ondeck

Per-project task management for AI agents. A persistent, concurrent-safe task backlog backed by SQLite.

Session task lists die with the session, and tasks.md breaks under parallel agents and long autonomous runs. ondeck gives agents a backlog that survives context compaction, supports atomic task claiming across parallel workers, and keeps progress notes attached to the work.

Install

npm install -g ondeck

Setup

Each project gets its own store — a .ondeck SQLite file at the project root, discovered git-style by walking up from the current directory.

cd my-project
ondeck init   # creates .ondeck (and adds it to .gitignore if in a git repo)

Usage

Tasks

# Add tasks (they go to the end of the list)
ondeck add "migrate database to v3"
ondeck add -t auth-refactor "add retry logic to the token client"
echo "longer task description" | ondeck add

# Insert at a specific spot
ondeck add "urgent fix" --top
ondeck add "follow-up" --after 3

# List open tasks (todo, wip, blocked) in order
ondeck ls
ondeck ls done
ondeck ls -t auth-refactor
ondeck ls --all

# Full task with notes
ondeck get 3

The work loop

# What's the suggested next task? (first todo in list order — advisory only)
ondeck next
ondeck next -t auth-refactor

# Claim it atomically (sets wip; safe with parallel agents)
ondeck next --claim

# Record progress, findings, blockers as you work
ondeck note 3 "the v2 schema has a circular FK, migrating users table first"

# Update status
ondeck mark 3 done
ondeck mark 4 blocked

# Overview: counts, open tasks, recent notes
ondeck status

Topics

Tasks can belong to a topic — a stream of work like a feature or refactor. Each task has at most one topic, so a topic is a clean partition of the backlog: easy to switch between, easy to clean up wholesale.

ondeck add -t auth-refactor "rotate signing keys"   # add into a topic
ondeck topic 7 auth-refactor                        # assign later
ondeck topic 7 --clear                              # remove from its topic

ondeck topics            # all topics with counts per status
ondeck ls -t auth-refactor
ondeck next -t auth-refactor --claim

ondeck rm -t auth-refactor   # abandon a topic: drop all its open tasks at once

Ordering

Task order is the priority — like the implicit ordering of a tasks.md, but explicit and reorderable. There is no separate priority field to go stale.

ondeck move 5 --top
ondeck move 5 --before 2
ondeck move 5 --after 2
ondeck move 5 --bottom

Everything else

ondeck edit 3 "rewritten task description"
ondeck rm 3                  # soft-delete (status: dropped)
ondeck restore 3             # back to todo
ondeck find "migration"      # FTS5 search over tasks and notes

All listing commands support --json for structured output.

Commands

Command	Description
init	Create a .ondeck store in the current directory
add [text...]	Add a task (args or stdin); -t <topic>, --top, --after <id>
ls [status]	List tasks in order (default: open). Status: todo, wip, blocked, done, dropped; -t <topic>
get <id>	Show a task with full content and notes
next	First todo in list order; -t <topic> to scope, --claim atomically sets it wip
mark <id> <status>	Set status: todo, wip, blocked, done
note <id> [text...]	Attach a note to a task
move <id>	Reorder: --top, --bottom, --before <id>, --after <id>
edit <id> [text...]	Replace task content
rm [id] / restore <id>	Soft-delete / restore; rm -t <topic> drops all open tasks in a topic
topic <id> [name]	Set a task's topic (--clear to remove)
topics	List topics with task counts per status
find <text>	Keyword search (FTS5) over tasks and notes
status	Overview: counts, open tasks, recent notes

Claude Code skill

A SKILL.md is included so Claude Code can use ondeck automatically. Copy it to your skills directory:

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/ondeck
cp $(npm root -g)/ondeck/SKILL.md ~/.claude/skills/ondeck/SKILL.md

Design

• Per-project store. One .ondeck SQLite file at the project root, found by walking up from cwd. No global state; tasks from different projects never mix.
• Position is priority. Tasks are ordered by a fractional position; reordering never renumbers other tasks. next suggests the first open todo, but agents are free to scan ls and pick.
• Topics, not tags. A task belongs to at most one topic. Topics partition the backlog into streams of work that can be switched between, scoped with next -t, and abandoned in one command — no generic label mechanism.
• Concurrent-safe claiming. next --claim is a single atomic UPDATE ... RETURNING, so parallel agents (e.g. multiple worktrees) never grab the same task.
• Notes are the history. Progress, findings, and blockers attach to tasks and survive context compaction. edit replaces content in place.
• Soft-delete. rm sets status to dropped; restore brings it back. Nothing is lost.
• SQLite + FTS5. Local-first, no services, no model downloads. Easy to back up or inspect.

License

ISC