Taskmaster Agent¶
Thinklio Built-in Agent Specification Version 0.1 | March 2026
1. Purpose and Problem Statement¶
Taskmaster is the personal productivity agent. It manages tasks — creating, organising, prioritising, tracking, and surfacing them — through both a conversational interface and a set of structured UI views.
It is personal first. Tasks in Taskmaster belong to the user. Team-level task coordination (assignments, shared boards) is a workspace-level layer built on top of the personal model, not the other way around.
The problem Taskmaster solves is fragmentation: tasks created by agents (the Enquiry Agent assigns something to a user, a coordinator creates a follow-up, a Mail Agent flags a required action) need somewhere to land that a person actually looks at. Taskmaster is that place. It is also the layer that makes scheduled agent runs (from the Research Agent, Newsletter Creator, etc.) visible as tracked work items.
2. UI Structure¶
Taskmaster uses the Thinklio multi-tab agent UI pattern. The Chat tab is always present and context-aware. Additional tabs provide structured views over the same underlying data.
Chat Tab¶
The conversational interface. All task operations can be performed via chat: - "Add a task to call Dr Singh tomorrow afternoon" - "What's due this week?" - "Move the Thinklio pricing review to next Monday" - "Mark the board meeting prep as done" - "What should I focus on today?"
The chat interface is context-aware: if the user is looking at the Board tab and says "move this to in progress", Taskmaster understands "this" from the current board context.
Board Tab¶
A Kanban board. Columns are configurable but default to:
Cards show: title, due date, priority indicator, tag chips, and assignee (if shared). Cards are drag-and-drop. Clicking a card opens the task detail panel.
Boards can be filtered by tag, priority, assignee, or date range. Multiple boards are supported (e.g. a personal board and one per project), selectable from a dropdown.
Calendar Tab¶
Tasks with due dates shown on a calendar view. Day, week, and month views. Tasks overlay on any synced calendar events (from the Calendar Agent if connected), giving a unified view of time commitments and task deadlines.
Overdue tasks shown in a persistent banner above the calendar.
List Tab¶
A flat, sortable, filterable list of all tasks. Useful for bulk operations (multi-select, bulk tag, bulk reassign, bulk complete). Default sort: due date ascending, with undated tasks at the bottom. Supports grouping by tag, priority, or status.
Summary Tab¶
A daily/weekly digest view generated by the agent. Not a static list — a synthesised overview:
- Tasks due today (with a priority recommendation if overdue items exist)
- Items needing attention (e.g. tasks waiting on others that have been waiting more than N days)
- Recently completed (last 7 days)
- Upcoming deadlines (next 14 days)
- Agent-created tasks from the last 24 hours (tasks created by other agents, surfaced for awareness)
The summary is regenerated on tab open and can be regenerated on demand via the chat.
3. Data Model¶
A Task in Taskmaster maps to the Thinklio Task data object:
Task
├── task_id UUID
├── title string
├── description string | null
├── status enum (inbox | this_week | in_progress | waiting | done | archived)
├── priority enum (urgent | high | normal | low) | null
├── due_date date | null
├── due_time time | null
├── created_at timestamp
├── created_by UUID (user or agent)
├── assigned_to UUID | null
├── tags string[]
├── linked_records[]
│ ├── record_type enum (Item | Note | Organisation | Person | Artefact)
│ └── record_id UUID
├── subtasks[] Task[] (same structure, no further nesting)
├── recurrence RecurrenceRule | null
└── notes string | null
Tasks created by agents (Enquiry Agent, coordinator agents, Mail Agent) carry a created_by reference to the originating agent, which is visible in the task detail panel.
4. Configuration¶
4.1 Admin Configuration¶
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Default board columns | Column names and order for new workspaces |
| Team boards enabled | Whether shared team boards are available |
| External task sync | Whether tasks can be synced to/from external systems (Jira, Linear, etc.) |
| Agent task creation | Whether non-Taskmaster agents may create tasks in users' Taskmaster |
4.2 User Configuration¶
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Default view | Which tab opens first |
| Work hours | Used by the Summary tab to determine "today" and for due-time suggestions |
| Notification preferences | When to be notified of approaching due dates, waiting tasks, etc. |
| Summary frequency | How often the Summary tab auto-regenerates |
| Connected boards | Which project boards the user is a member of |
5. Agent Capabilities¶
Beyond UI interactions, Taskmaster has agent capabilities invokable via chat or by other agents:
| Capability | Description |
|---|---|
| Create task | Add a task with any combination of fields |
| Update task | Change any field on an existing task |
| Complete task | Mark done, optionally with a completion note |
| Query tasks | Answer questions about task state ("what's overdue?", "how many tasks are in progress?") |
| Prioritise | Given current task list, suggest a priority order for today based on due dates, urgency flags, and linked record context |
| Summarise | Produce a natural language summary of current task state for a given scope (today / this week / a specific project) |
| Create from context | Given a Note, Item, or email summary, extract implied tasks and create them |
| Recurring tasks | Create and manage recurring task rules |
6. Inter-Agent Behaviour¶
Taskmaster is a common target for other agents:
- Enquiry Agent creates tasks when an inbound item is assigned to a user
- Mail Agent can flag emails as tasks ("deal with the invoice from X")
- Calendar Agent can create tasks from meeting action items
- Research Agent (scheduled) creates a task per run for review
- Coordinator agents create and update tasks to represent pipeline steps
When another agent creates a task, it lands in the Inbox column by default with a clear agent-created badge. The user promotes it to an active status when they've acknowledged it.
7. Use Cases¶
UC-1: Daily planning via chat¶
A user opens Taskmaster in the morning and asks "What should I focus on today?" The agent reviews due dates, priority flags, and any items flagged as urgent by other agents overnight, and produces a prioritised recommendation with brief reasoning.
UC-2: Task creation from email¶
The Mail Agent identifies an email requiring a response by Friday. It creates a task in Taskmaster: "Reply to [sender] re [subject] — due Friday" with the email linked as context. The task appears in the user's Inbox.
UC-3: Board management via drag and drop¶
A user moves cards across the Board tab during a weekly review session, occasionally asking the agent "remind me what this one is about" on a card they've forgotten the context for.
UC-4: Project summary¶
A user asks "summarise progress on the Thinklio launch tasks". The agent queries all tasks tagged thinklio-launch, counts by status, identifies blockers (tasks in Waiting status over 3 days), and returns a brief summary.
UC-5: Recurring task management¶
A user sets up a recurring task: "Weekly maintenance check — every Monday at 9am". Taskmaster creates the recurrence rule and generates the next instance each week.
8. Open Questions¶
- Should Taskmaster support shared team boards natively, or is team-level coordination out of scope for the initial release?
- External task sync (Jira, Linear, Asana) would be high value for many users but adds significant integration surface. Scope for phase two?
- The "prioritise" capability requires some model of urgency beyond due date. Should it factor in linked record priority (e.g. an Item tagged as high priority) or user-defined importance weights?
- Subtask nesting is limited to one level in the current data model. Is this sufficient, or do users need deeper nesting for complex projects?
Next: Rolodex Agent