Manage an actionable task

Core meaning

Capability purpose

Let work remain an independently manageable action whether standalone or contained by broader execution.

Meaningful outcome

A task has a clear current state, context, responsible actor, and resolution record.

Boundaries — includes

capture, clarification, assignment, parent/context linkage, due or schedule metadata, state transitions, completion, reopening, and archival.

Boundaries — excludes

project management, routine definition, reminder triggering, task-list organization, and executing domain-specific action logic.

Terms and concepts

A task is the general actionable unit. A to-do is a task surfaced in standalone context.

Interaction Contract MLEs

Maintain task lifecycle

Actor

An authorized owner, participant, or coordinating agent.

Command / intent

Create or update one actionable unit of work.

Current state

A work need or existing task is available.

Policies / invariants

Context and parentage are explicit; completion is attributable; detaching or moving a task preserves identity and history; a due date does not imply a reminder was delivered.

Transition

Capture or revise action, context, responsibility, timing metadata, and execution state.

Result

A current actionable task with durable lifecycle history.

Events / effects

Completion may update a parent, create a result/update, or feed History.

Unknowns

Universal task status vocabulary and subtask depth are not established.

Rules and defaults

Rules / invariants

• Standalone and contained tasks may share a model without losing their context.
• Completion and reopening must remain distinguishable.

Recommended defaults

• Keep the action wording, responsible actor, parent/context, next state, and relevant time constraints explicit.

Unknown / unresolved

• The minimum metadata for very lightweight capture may vary by surface.

Statement provenance