Task Tracking

Hive includes a built-in task tracker designed for multi-agent coordination. The hive hc command manages epics and tasks that agents can create, claim, and complete — no external issue tracker required.

Concepts

Epic — A top-level grouping of work. Contains tasks.

Task — A unit of work under an epic. Agents claim tasks, record progress, and mark them done.

Auto-detection — Session ID and repository are detected from the working directory automatically. No configuration needed.

Quick Start

Create an epic with tasks

echo '{
  "title": "Implement Authentication",
  "type": "epic",
  "children": [
    {"title": "Add JWT library", "type": "task"},
    {"title": "Implement login endpoint", "type": "task"},
    {"title": "Add session middleware", "type": "task"}
  ]
}' | hive hc create

Tasks can be nested under other tasks using children to break work into subtrees. hive hc next walks the tree and only returns leaf tasks with no incomplete children, so parent tasks act as groupings that resolve automatically when their subtasks are done.

echo '{
  "title": "Launch MVP",
  "type": "epic",
  "children": [
    {"title": "Backend", "type": "task", "children": [
      {"title": "Set up database schema", "type": "task"},
      {"title": "Implement API endpoints", "type": "task"}
    ]},
    {"title": "Frontend", "type": "task", "children": [
      {"title": "Build login page", "type": "task"},
      {"title": "Build dashboard", "type": "task"}
    ]}
  ]
}' | hive hc create

Output is JSON lines — one per created item:

{"id":"hc-a1b2c3d4","type":"epic","title":"Implement Authentication",...}
{"id":"hc-e5f6g7h8","type":"task","title":"Add JWT library","epic_id":"hc-a1b2c3d4",...}
...

Claim the next task

hive hc next hc-a1b2c3d4 --assign

This finds the next open leaf task, assigns it to the current session, and sets its status to in_progress.

Record progress

hive hc comment hc-e5f6g7h8 "JWT validation working, added RS256 support"

Complete the task

hive hc update hc-e5f6g7h8 --status done

Check epic progress

hive hc context hc-a1b2c3d4

Renders a markdown summary with task counts, your assigned tasks, and open work — designed for AI agent consumption.

Run hive hc --help for the full list of subcommands and flags.