overlane task start | Overlane Docs

With a TASK_ID, claims that ready or paused task for this working copy (same checks as task resume). Without one, creates a task (outcome, acceptance criteria, required checks, allowed paths) at the current commit and claims it, writing the lease to .overlane/state/task.json. Fails with exit 5 if this working copy already holds a task.

Usage

overlane task start [task-id] [--outcome TEXT] [--criterion TEXT...] [--check ID:LEVEL...] [--path GLOB...] [--no-checks REASON] [--dry-run]

Arguments

Argument	Required	Description
`task-id`	no	An existing task to claim; omit to create one from the flags

Flags

Flag	Type	Required	Description
`--outcome`	string	no	What the task must achieve (up to 500 characters)
`--criterion`	string (repeatable)	no	An acceptance criterion; repeat for more
`--check`	string (repeatable)	no	A required check and its minimum evidence level, for example unit_tests:L2; repeat for more
`--path`	string (repeatable)	no	A file pattern the task may change; repeat for more
`--no-checks`	string	no	Why the task has no required checks; needed when no –check is given
`--dry-run`	boolean	no	Print the requests and file changes this command would make, then stop. Needs no credentials.

Examples

overlane task start task-7
overlane task start --outcome "Add CSV export" --criterion "export works" --check unit_tests:L2 --path "src/**"
overlane task start --outcome "Fix login" --criterion "login passes" --no-checks "copy change only" --path "src/auth/**" --dry-run

Behavior

Effect: write (changes local or hosted state).
Needs credentials: yes. Uses the network: yes.
Supports --dry-run: yes. Accepts --force: no.
Machine-readable description: overlane schema task start.

Result

With --json (the default when stdout is not a terminal) the command prints this JSON Schema’s shape on stdout.

{
  "anyOf": [
    {
      "type": "object",
      "properties": {
        "taskId": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "version": {
          "type": "number"
        },
        "state": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "holder": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "leaseExpiresAt": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "next": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "payload": {
          "type": "object",
          "properties": {
            "file": {
              "type": "string"
            },
            "totalTokens": {
              "type": "number"
            },
            "sections": {
              "type": "object",
              "propertyNames": {
                "type": "string"
              },
              "additionalProperties": {
                "type": "string"
              }
            }
          },
          "required": [
            "file",
            "totalTokens",
            "sections"
          ],
          "additionalProperties": false
        }
      },
      "required": [
        "taskId",
        "version",
        "state",
        "holder",
        "next"
      ],
      "additionalProperties": false
    },
    {
      "type": "object",
      "properties": {
        "dryRun": {
          "type": "boolean",
          "const": true
        },
        "service": {
          "type": "string"
        },
        "requests": {
          "type": "array",
          "items": {
            "type": "object",
            "properties": {
              "method": {
                "type": "string"
              },
              "path": {
                "type": "string"
              },
              "body": {},
              "note": {
                "type": "string"
              }
            },
            "required": [
              "method",
              "path"
            ],
            "additionalProperties": false
          }
        },
        "commands": {
          "type": "array",
          "items": {
            "type": "string"
          }
        },
        "writes": {
          "type": "array",
          "items": {
            "type": "object",
            "properties": {
              "path": {
                "type": "string"
              },
              "action": {
                "type": "string",
                "enum": [
                  "write",
                  "append",
                  "delete"
                ]
              },
              "description": {
                "type": "string"
              }
            },
            "required": [
              "path",
              "action",
              "description"
            ],
            "additionalProperties": false
          }
        },
        "notes": {
          "type": "array",
          "items": {
            "type": "string"
          }
        }
      },
      "required": [
        "dryRun",
        "requests",
        "commands",
        "writes",
        "notes"
      ],
      "additionalProperties": false
    }
  ]
}

See exit codes for the status the process returns.