ThinkForge's task system is a per-project tracker with list, kanban, timeline, and table views. The same task data is available in a main-window Tasks tab and in the standalone Task Board window opened from Power Strip.
Opening the Board
The main command bar's Tasks command opens or activates the current project's Tasks tab. It is a normal movable, closable project tab and is restored after restart only when it was left open. Closing the tab does not delete tasks or its saved layout.
Power Strip's Tasks command remains a separate standalone-window entry point.
Both entry points require an active project. With no project open, Power Strip reports "No active project" and the main-window command does not open a tab.
The window is titled Tasks: <project name>, opens centered and resizable. Its content is rendered slightly smaller than the rest of the app.
The window never fully closes — closing it hides it instead, so reopening from Power Strip restores the same board. Reopening while it is already visible just brings it forward.
Views
The board offers List, Kanban, Timeline, and Table views. Binding a project reveals the + Task button, loads data, and switches to List.
List
The default view. Shows tasks as rows for the current project.
Kanban
Groups tasks into columns. Group by offers Status or Category. A priority filter offers All, Low, Medium, High, Urgent, and Critical. A project filter offers All Projects, Global, or a specific project.
Columns are configurable. Column colors come from a fixed set — Blue, Green, Yellow, Red, Gray, Accent, and Subtle. Column naming offers common status suggestions including To Do, Open, In Progress, In Review, Testing, QA, Blocked, On Hold, Done, Cancelled, and Deployed.
Timeline
Lays tasks out against their start and due dates.
Table
A generic table view showing task rows as records.
Creating and Editing Tasks
+ Task reveals an inline text box with the watermark "New task title... Enter to create, Esc to cancel." Enter creates the task, Escape cancels. This is a title-only fast path; everything else is filled in afterward.
Selecting a task opens the detail panel, which has four sections: Description, Subtasks, Comments, and Activity. Comments accept new entries inline. Activity is a change log recording field-level changes with the old and new value.
Task edits are checked for conflicts. If the same task changed elsewhere while you were editing, saving reports "This task changed in ThinkForge. Reload it before saving again."
The Task Model
Tasks carry more fields than the list view shows. Every task has a title, description, status, priority, created and last-modified timestamps, optional start and due dates, estimated and actual hours, tags, an assignee, an optional parent task, custom fields, a completion timestamp, subtask counts, and an optional task list name.
Project tasks additionally carry a project and an optional sprint.
Three states are derived rather than stored. A task is complete when its status is Done or Cancelled. It is overdue when it has a due date in the past and is not complete. It is due soon when it has a due date within three days, is not already overdue, and is not complete.
Priority is Low, Medium, High, Urgent, or Critical, defaulting to Medium.
Statuses
Six statuses are created on first use:
- To Do — Open bucket, the default for new tasks
- In Progress — Active bucket
- In Review — Active bucket
- Blocked — Blocked bucket
- Done — Closed bucket
- Cancelled — Closed bucket
The four buckets — Open, Active, Blocked, and Closed — let views reason about a custom status without knowing its name. Statuses are data rather than a fixed list, so the set can be extended.
Custom fields
You can define your own fields with a name, visibility, display order, and a type of Text, Number, Date, Dropdown, Checkbox, Url, Person, or Tags. Dropdown fields carry their own option list.
Storage
Tasks live in the ThinkForge database directory rather than inside the project folder. In a release build that is:
Documents\Think Forge\Databases\Widgets.db
This is application-level storage. Tasks are associated with a project by reference, not by living inside it. Two consequences follow: tasks are not part of a project's file backup, and copying a project folder to another machine does not bring its tasks with it.
Where Tasks Appear Elsewhere
A compact task summary bar counting overdue and completed tasks is docked at the top of the main-window Tasks tab. The same bar remains in the dormant Global Dashboard implementation. When there are no tasks it shows "No tasks — type in the input above to create one."
The same task views can appear in any dashboard widget bound to the tasks source, not only in the Task Board window.
Mobile Access
Tasks are the one part of the system reachable from outside the desktop UI. When the Mobile Dashboard is enabled, a paired device can work with the same tasks the desktop board uses. Both surfaces read and write the same data.
The mobile surface supports listing tasks with filters for scope, completed-item inclusion, free-text search, status, category, and a result limit; fetching a single task's detail; fetching status and category metadata for the project; creating a task; updating a task; creating a subtask under a parent; and adding a comment.
Every operation is checked against the expected project, so a paired device cannot read or modify tasks outside the project it asked for. Access requires the Mobile Dashboard to be enabled, the device to be paired, and ThinkForge to be running. See Settings and Preferences.
Beta Limitations
Tasks can be opened from the main command bar as a project tab or from Power Strip as a standalone window. There is no separate main-menu or folder-tree entry.
Apart from the Mobile Dashboard, tasks are not exposed anywhere else. ThinkForge MCP, the Chrome extension, and the Agent Tool skill set have no task operations, so no AI client, browser command, tool, or automation can read or create a task.
Task content is not indexed for search, so tasks do not appear in project search results.
Because the window hides rather than closes, its state persists for the life of the application session. Switching the active project does not automatically rebind an already-open board; reopening from Power Strip does.