---
showArticleList: false
title: Task management
created: 2026-09-24
visible: true
status: in progress
tags: [agents, task-management]
readability: 3
---

Where agent work gets planned and tracked: markdown-native trackers, graph-backed issue databases, and the pipelines that turn PRDs into typed tasks.

- [Backlog.md](backlog-md/index.md) - the markdown-native task manager whose three review gates, spec, plan, code, make it the first line of code review.
- [beads](beads/index.md) - Steve Yegge's Dolt-backed graph issue tracker, dependency-aware with atomic claims, the agent-memory thesis in running code.
- [Ordewell](ordewell/index.md) - the CLI that turns one goal into typed plan artifacts with per-task runners and models, verified by completion markers rather than the model's word.
- [Task Master](task-master/index.md) - the most-installed PRD-to-tasks pipeline, quiet since April 2026 as it became Hamster's Commons-Clause commercial engine.

Its members are compared on shared rows in the [Task Management Feature Matrix](task-management-feature-matrix/index.md).

## Changes

- 2026-08-27 - Added Backlog.md.
- 2026-08-27 - Added beads.
- 2026-08-27 - Added Task Master.
- 2026-09-16 - Added Ordewell.