Skip to main content

Tasks

A task is work an agent does on its own — on a schedule, after a delay, or on demand. Tasks are how OtoDock goes from "answer my question" to "keep this running for me": a daily report, an hourly check, a weekly cleanup, a one-off job kicked off in the background.

A task run is just a chat

A task is the same kind of session as a chat — you can open a running task and watch it live (streaming text, reasoning, tools, file edits) exactly as you would a conversation. The task view and the chat view are essentially the same screen.

Creating a task​

Creating a task is as simple as asking. Tell an agent in chat — "summarize my open issues every weekday at 9am" or "remind me in 30 minutes" — and it sets the task up for you. Every task then appears in the agent's settings, where you can manage it.

Tasks come in two shapes:

  • Recurring — runs on a repeating schedule. Use a familiar cron schedule ("every weekday at 9am") or a plain interval ("every 6 hours"). Recurring tasks remember your timezone, so they keep firing at the right local time.
  • One-time — runs once, at a specific date and time or after a delay.

Personal or shared​

Like agents themselves, tasks can be private or shared:

  • Personal task — only you see it, its results go to you, and its files stay in your private space.
  • Shared task — everyone with access to the agent sees it, and its results land in the agent's shared workspace. Managers and editors create these for the team.

Runs and history​

Every time a task runs, it records a run: status (completed, failed, cancelled, or stopped at a usage limit), start and end time, duration, cost, and the output. Browse an agent's run history to see what it did, review results, or track down a problem.

Pick up where a task left off​

A finished task is also a conversation. Reopen any run and send a follow-up — the agent resumes with full context from that run, files and all, so you can refine the result or dig deeper without starting over.

Notifications when a task finishes​

Each task decides how it tells you it's done:

  • Automatic — you get a "Task complete" (or "Task failed") notification with a link straight to the result.
  • Custom — the agent writes its own notification with a message and severity it chooses.
  • Silent — it just runs in the background with no alert.

See Notifications for how alerts reach you.

Managing tasks​

  • Run, pause, resume, or delete any task from the agent's settings.
  • Edit a task's prompt, schedule, or notification mode by asking the agent — no need to recreate it.

Next steps​