Copilot Tasks

Copilot Tasks is the async delegation layer for browser-heavy work. Instead of blocking the main conversation while a long browser run executes, tasks are persisted, stream progress, and can be resumed later.

What makes it different

• Durable lifecycle: tasks survive server restarts and are reconciled on startup.
• Resumable workflow: continue a task with follow-up instructions from the task detail view.
• Live event stream: task logs/events stream into the UI using SSE.
• Workspace visibility: browse files produced by the task directly from its workdir.
• Safe handoff: ask a question about task state without creating a new Copilot turn.

Typical flow

1. Open Tasks in the app.
2. Create a task with a prompt and optional title.
3. Watch status change through running, awaiting_user, completed, or failed.
4. Open task detail, then either continue the task, ask contextual questions, or archive it.

Browser live view

The tasks UI can show live browser state (when browser infra is available). If VNC is not reachable, the UI now shows a clear explanation instead of failing silently.

Technical details

• API surface lives in src/server/routes/copilotTasks.ts.
• Runtime orchestration lives in src/copilot/taskRunner.ts and persistence in src/copilot/tasks.ts.
• Task workdirs are created under runtime-data/copilot-workdir/tasks/<task-id>/.
• Pretty task URLs are supported: /tasks/<id> routes to client/task.html.

Background completion

Copilot Tasks publish lifecycle signals such as subprocess.completed, subprocess.needs_input, and subprocess.failed through the Inner Context Plane. After the exact task row is finalized, the durable delivery worker sends its summary and task link through the preference captured at dispatch: chat, SMS, email, or an explicit email address/E.164 phone number. Delivery state and up to three attempts are recorded in task metadata and resumed after restart; the base agent is instructed not to send a duplicate.

Key endpoints:

Method	Path	Purpose
GET	/api/copilot/tasks	List tasks
POST	/api/copilot/tasks	Create task
GET	/api/copilot/tasks/:id	Fetch one task
POST	/api/copilot/tasks/:id/continue	Enqueue next user turn
POST	/api/copilot/tasks/:id/cancel	Cancel active turn
POST	/api/copilot/tasks/:id/archive	Archive/unarchive
GET	/api/copilot/tasks/:id/events	Poll events
GET	/api/copilot/tasks/:id/events/stream	Stream events (SSE)
GET	/api/copilot/tasks/:id/files	List workdir entries
GET	/api/copilot/tasks/:id/file	Download/view a file
POST	/api/copilot/tasks/:id/ask	Ask context question about task state