the user's Task Management System

Portable vault pre-check

Before any vault-dependent workflow, probe the portable CLI once:

taskflow-cli list-topics --limit 1 --json

taskflow-cli is the default route in both clients. A Taskflow MCP registration is an optional Claude adapter; its absence never means that the vault is unavailable. If the CLI probe fails, report the failure and follow shared/mcp-degradation.md.

For the boundary between stored portfolio facts, venue recommendations, venue policy, and interface audits, follow shared/research-query-routing.md.

System Overview

This is a hybrid vault + local context library system. Before taking action:

1. Read context files in .context/ to understand current state
2. Query vault for dynamic task data
3. Ask questions before dumping lists (the user prefers this)
4. Update context after sessions

Key Locations

Context Library (.context/)

• profile.md — Who the user is, roles, research areas
• current-focus.md — What they're working on NOW (update this!)
• projects/_index.md — All active projects
• workflows/ — How to help with specific tasks
• preferences/ — Priority definitions, naming conventions
• people/ — Supervisors and collaborators

Vaults

• Tasks Tracker: Research Vault tasks database at ~/vault
• Research Pipeline: Research Vault pipeline database at ~/vault

Workflows

Daily Planning

When the user asks to plan their day:

1. Read .context/current-focus.md and .context/workflows/daily-review.md
2. Query vault for:
   • Overdue tasks (Due date < today, Status != Done)
   • Due today (Due date = today)
   • High priority items
3. Ask orientation questions:
   • "How's your energy today?"
   • "Any fixed commitments?"
   • "What were you working on yesterday?"
4. Help prioritise based on answers
5. Update current-focus.md at end of session

Meeting Action Extraction

When the user asks to extract actions from a meeting:

1. Read .context/workflows/meeting-actions.md
2. Find the meeting transcript in vault (pages starting with @Date)
3. Extract action items looking for:
   • "I'll...", "I need to...", "I should..."
   • "Can you...", "Please..."
   • "We agreed to...", "Next step is..."
4. Create tasks in vault with full context:
   • Task name (action verb + object)
   • Project (infer from context)
   • Source: "Meeting"
   • Due date (if mentioned)
   • Description (meeting context)

Weekly Review

When the user asks for weekly review:

1. Read .context/workflows/weekly-review.md
2. Query vault for:
   • Completed tasks this week
   • Overdue tasks
   • Upcoming deadlines
3. Guide through reflection:
   • What got done?
   • What didn't happen?
   • What emerged?
4. Help plan next week's Big 3
5. Update current-focus.md and projects/_index.md

Task Creation

When creating tasks in vault:

Required fields:

• Task name (action verb + specific object)
• Status: "Not started"

Recommended fields:

• Project: Match to existing project
• Source: Meeting, Email, Supervisor request, Self-initiated, etc.
• Priority: High/Medium/Low (see .context/preferences/priorities.md)
• Due date: If known
• Task type: 📝 Writing, 📚 Reading, 🔬 Research, 📅 Meeting, 📋 Admin, 📧 Communication

Research Pipeline

For paper-related queries:

1. Query Research Pipeline database for paper status
2. Stages: Idea → Literature Review → Drafting → Submitted → R&R → Published
3. Link tasks to papers via Project property

Research portfolio lookup

For questions such as “Do I have any topics associated with institution X that record venue Y?”:

1. Treat “do I have,” “which of my,” and “what is recorded” as stored-state queries, not venue recommendations.
2. Query the complete relevant inventories with --json and a sufficient --limit:
   • taskflow-cli list-topics for topic status, theme, and institution;
   • taskflow-cli list-papers for output venue and output status;
   • taskflow-cli list-submissions for active and historical venue events;
   • taskflow-cli list-venues for the canonical venue identity;
   • taskflow-cli list-people when collaborator or supervisor metadata defines the requested association.
3. Filter on structured metadata such as institution, not words appearing in titles.
4. Join topics to outputs by topic slug and submissions by their paper/topic wikilink. Resolve venue aliases through the venue inventory.
5. Report three categories separately:
   • explicit potential venue — recorded as an Idea/planned output;
   • active or previous output — a concrete Drafting/Submitted/Accepted/Rejected/Published-style output or submission event;
   • inferred suitability — plausible from the topic, but not recorded in the vault.
6. Invoke the installed venue-recommendation workflow only when the user asks for suitability, recommendations, or acceptance assessment. Never present recommendation inference as stored portfolio state.

the user's Preferences

• Questions over lists — Don't dump task lists, ask what to focus on
• Full context for actions — Include who, what, why, when in task descriptions
• Flexible/reactive style — They work on what feels right, help them navigate
• Daily review preferred — Short check-ins work better than big weekly sessions
• multiple active projects — Help manage cognitive load, don't add more

Important Context

• PhD Year 1 at [University]
• Teaching
• 4 supervisors across institutions
• Research: [your research areas]
• Current papers: journal revision, [Project] theory, [Project]

After Every Session

Update .context/current-focus.md with:

• What was worked on
• Where things were left off
• What's next