Task Coordination Strategies

When to Use This Skill

• Breaking down a complex task for parallel execution
• Designing task dependency relationships (blockedBy/blocks)
• Writing task descriptions with clear acceptance criteria
• Monitoring and rebalancing workload across teammates
• Identifying the critical path in a multi-task workflow

Task Decomposition Strategies

By Layer

• Frontend components
• Backend API endpoints
• Database migrations/models
• Test suites

By Component

• Authentication module
• User profile module
• Notification module

By Concern

• Security review
• Performance review
• Architecture review

By File Ownership

• src/components/

  — Implementer 1

• src/api/

  — Implementer 2

• src/utils/

  — Implementer 3

Dependency Graph Design

Principles

1. Minimize chain depth — Prefer wide, shallow graphs over deep chains
2. Identify the critical path — The longest chain determines minimum completion time
3. Use blockedBy sparingly — Only add dependencies that are truly required
4. Avoid circular dependencies — Task A blocks B blocks A is a deadlock

Patterns

Task A ─┐
Task B ─┼─→ Integration
Task C ─┘

Task A → Task B → Task C

        ┌→ Task B ─┐
Task A ─┤          ├→ Task D
        └→ Task C ─┘

Using blockedBy/blocks

TaskCreate: { subject: "Build API endpoints" }         → Task #1
TaskCreate: { subject: "Build frontend components" }    → Task #2
TaskCreate: { subject: "Integration testing" }          → Task #3
TaskUpdate: { taskId: "3", addBlockedBy: ["1", "2"] }  → #3 waits for #1 and #2

Task Description Best Practices

1. Objective — What needs to be accomplished (1-2 sentences)
2. Owned Files — Explicit list of files/directories this teammate may modify
3. Requirements — Specific deliverables or behaviors expected
4. Interface Contracts — How this work connects to other teammates' work
5. Acceptance Criteria — How to verify the task is done correctly
6. Scope Boundaries — What is explicitly out of scope

Template

## Objective
Build the user authentication API endpoints.

## Owned Files
- src/api/auth.ts
- src/api/middleware/auth-middleware.ts
- src/types/auth.ts (shared — read only, do not modify)

## Requirements
- POST /api/login — accepts email/password, returns JWT
- POST /api/register — creates new user, returns JWT
- GET /api/me — returns current user profile (requires auth)

## Interface Contract
- Import User type from src/types/auth.ts (owned by implementer-1)
- Export AuthResponse type for frontend consumption

## Acceptance Criteria
- All endpoints return proper HTTP status codes
- JWT tokens expire after 24 hours
- Passwords are hashed with bcrypt

## Out of Scope
- OAuth/social login
- Password reset flow
- Rate limiting

Workload Monitoring

Indicators of Imbalance

Rebalancing Steps

1. Call

   TaskList

   to assess current state
2. Identify idle or overloaded teammates
3. Use

   TaskUpdate

   to reassign tasks
4. Use

   SendMessage

   to notify affected teammates
5. Monitor for improved throughput