What do the task states mean (proposed, pending, running, done)?
Every task carries a state that tells you where it is in its life. There are five: proposed (the agent suggested it and is waiting for you to accept or reject), pending (accepted and queued, ready to run), running (an agent is working it now), done (finished), and cancelled (you turned it down or stopped it). A task you type in yourself starts as pending. Tasks the agent suggests start as proposed.
The five states
- proposed: the agent has suggested this task and is waiting for your decision. It shows a proposed badge, or ☁ from cloud if it was pushed from another device. Accept it or reject it (see below). Nothing runs until you accept.
- pending: the task is accepted and queued. It is ready to run but no agent is on it yet. Tasks you type in yourself begin here.
- running: an agent is working the task right now. It shows a live timer counting how long it has been going.
- done: the task is finished. It shows how long it took, and a matching line appears in the done tab.
- cancelled: the task was rejected or stopped. A cancelled task shows the reason after the word "cancelled:".
Accepting or rejecting a proposed task
When the agent proposes tasks (for example after you ask it to plan some follow-up work), each one arrives as proposed with three buttons:
- ✓ accept: moves the task to pending, ready for you to run.
- ✗ reject: cancels the proposal. The task moves to cancelled.
- ✏ edit: change the wording before you accept it.
A proposal marked ☁ from cloud was sent from another device (for instance the phone app). It works the same way: accept, reject or edit it.
Running, finishing, and reopening
You send a pending task to the agent from its actions, with ▶ execute with claude (see How do I give my agent a task?). While it works, the task is running. When the agent finishes, it marks the task done for you.
You can also set the state by hand. Click a task's text to open its actions:
- ✓ mark done: mark the task finished yourself.
- ↶ reopen: if a task is already done, this puts it back to pending.
If several tasks are queued and you run them as a batch, codus works them one at a time: when the running task finishes, the next in line becomes running on its own.
Subtasks and progress notes
Open a task (click the ▶ on its footer) to see its details. Inside you can:
- Add a subtask in the "add subtask…" box. Each subtask has its own tick you click to mark done, and the task shows a count like "2/5 subtasks".
- Add a short + progress note to record where things are up to.
The agent can add these too while it works, so an open task is often the clearest view of what is happening.
Removing and archiving tasks
- The × on a task deletes it. It asks you to confirm first, so a single slip does not remove anything.
- Finished tasks can be tidied out of the way. When tasks are archived they collapse into a "▶ N archived" row at the bottom of the list; click it to show them again, and use ↶ on an archived task to restore it.
How do I know it worked?
The task's state changes to match what you did: ✓ accept turns a proposal into pending, running it turns it running with a timer, and finishing turns it done with a line in the done tab.
Common problems
"The agent suggested tasks but nothing is happening." Proposed tasks wait for you. Click ✓ accept on the ones you want, then run them; or ✗ reject the ones you do not.
"A task says running but the agent looks idle." It is usually waiting for your answer in the terminal. Reply there with the arrow keys and Enter. See How do I answer the agent when it asks me something?.
"What does ☁ from cloud mean?" The task was proposed from another device signed into your account. Accept, reject or edit it the same as any proposal.