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Core Concepts

Tasks

Add and assign tasks, track time on them, and discuss them with your team

Tasks break a project into pieces of work you can assign, time and discuss. Every project has a task list on its page, and Tasks in the sidebar shows tasks across all the projects you can see. Anyone who can see a project can add, edit, assign and delete its tasks. A task can only be assigned to someone who can see its project too: on a confidential project, that's the people on it, plus owners and admins.

How to add a task

  1. Open the project and click Add task on the Tasks card, or click New task under Tasks and pick the Project.
  2. Enter a Title and, optionally, a Description.
  3. Optional: set a Due date (see Due dates).
  4. Optional: set Estimated hours. You're alerted when logged time passes it (see Estimates).
  5. Optional: pick an Assignee. They're notified.
  6. Click Add task.

A project needs at least one person on its team before it can have tasks. If the Tasks card says Add a team member first, an owner or admin adds someone under Team & bill rates (see Clients & Projects).

How to find your tasks

Go to Tasks in the sidebar. Tasks are grouped by project.

  • Mine shows tasks assigned to you; Everyone shows all tasks.
  • Open shows tasks that aren't done; Done and All do what they say.
  • Overdue shows tasks past their due date that aren't done; Due this week shows tasks due from today through Sunday; Any date shows all.
  • By due date puts the soonest due first (tasks without one last), and the projects with the soonest deadline first; By status puts tasks in progress first.

How to change status or assignee

A task is To do, In progress or Done.

  • On the project page: click a task's status badge to move it to the next one (To do → In progress → Done → To do). Click the assignee name to pick someone else or Unassigned.
  • On the task sheet: use the Status and Assignee menus.

Assigning someone notifies them. If the project is linked to Linear with changes sent back, status and assignee changes go to the issue too.

To edit a task's title, description, due date or estimate, click the pencil on its row (Edit task). To delete it, click the bin icon and confirm. Deleting a task also deletes its comments. Time logged on it is kept, just no longer linked to a task.

If you pick someone who can't see the project, you'll get That person can't be assigned tasks on this project. An owner or admin can add them to the project's team first.

The task sheet

Click a task's title (on its project page or under Tasks) to open its sheet. It shows:

  • Status and Assignee, which you can change right there.
  • Due: the due date, or No due date.
  • Hours logged on the task next to its estimate, marked over estimate once it passes.
  • Linear: the issue key (for example RING-12) and Open issue, for a task synced with Linear.
  • Time: Start timer / Stop timer, Log time, and every entry logged on the task.
  • Comments.

The page URL gets ?task=… while the sheet is open. Copy it to send someone straight to the task.

Due dates

A task's due date shows on its row (on the project page and under Tasks) and on its sheet: Due Aug 14, amber on the day before and the day itself (Due tomorrow, Due today), red once it's past. Done tasks stay grey. Due dates are whole days.

  • The assignee is reminded the day before (A task is due tomorrow) and once it's overdue (A task or milestone is overdue), in the app and by email. Changing the date re-arms both. See Deadline reminders.
  • Due dates show on the calendar and the dashboard's Upcoming card, and in your calendar subscription.
  • On a project synced with Linear, the due date syncs both ways with the issue's due date.

If the date isn't valid you'll see That date doesn't exist. (for example February 30).

How to track time on a task

  • Timer: click the play button on the task's row, or Start timer on its sheet. Click the same button (now a stop button) or Stop in the top bar to stop it; the time is logged against the task.
  • By hand: click Log time on the sheet. The project and task are filled in for you.

Only one timer runs at a time: starting one on another task stops the running one and logs its time first. Timer details are in Time Tracking.

Estimates

When the hours logged on a task first pass its Estimated hours, owners, admins and the task's assignee get an alert (A project nears its budget or a task passes its estimate under Settings → Alerts). Hours on the task list turn red. If hours drop back under, or you raise the estimate, the alert can fire again.

Comments

Comments are internal: the client never sees them unless you share a specific one.

How to comment and @mention someone

  1. Open the task sheet.
  2. Type in Add a comment… at the bottom. Type @ and pick a name to mention someone. Only people who can see the project are offered.
  3. Click Comment (or press Ctrl+Enter / Cmd+Enter).

Who gets notified:

  • People you @mention get a "mentioned you" notification.
  • The assignee and the task's watchers get a "commented on" notification.
  • You're never notified about your own comment.

Commenting on a task, or being mentioned on it, makes you a watcher.

How to watch or stop watching a task

On the task sheet, click Watch next to Comments to be notified of new comments, or Unwatch to stop. The assignee is always notified and sees Notified as assignee instead.

How to share a comment with the client

This works once the project has a client link with Show tasks turned on (see Client links).

  1. Write your comment and tick Share with client (shown on the project's client link).
  2. Click Comment.

The comment is badged Client can see and appears under its task on the client link. To change an existing comment, hover over it and click Share with client or Hide from client. The comment's author, owners and admins can do this.

Comments and Linear

On a task linked to a Linear issue, your comment is also posted on the issue. Untick Also post to Linear before you click Comment to keep it in Consultainer only. Comments made in Linear show up on the task marked From Linear. See Linear.

Deleting comments

Hover over a comment and click the bin icon. Authors can delete their own comments; owners and admins can delete any. A copy already posted to Linear stays there.

Over MCP

AI agents connected through the MCP server can use list_my_tasks (soonest due first), create_task and update_task (both take a dueDate, YYYY-MM-DD; null clears it on update_task), update_task_status, list_task_comments, add_task_comment, delete_task_comment, watch_task, start_timer and stop_timer.