Pause Task

Pause Task

Goal: shelve a task on purpose — record that it's intentionally set aside (status: paused) with a reason, while preserving its pipeline stage and every artifact exactly as they are, so resume-task can pick it up later with zero loss.

paused is a deliberate choice, distinct from blocked (stuck on an external dependency, not by choice) and from done (finished). pause-task is a lifecycle skill, not a stage: it touches only status and the log — never stage or artifacts:. It's the inverse of resume-task.

When to use

• You're stepping away from a task and want it clearly marked so it isn't mistaken for active work, and isn't auto-picked when resolving "the current task".
• The user asks to pause / park / hold a task.
• Not for tasks stuck on a dependency (that's just status: blocked, set by the stage skill) and not for finished work (use archive-task).

Shared task state

Part of the task pipeline — see ../WORKFLOW.md → "Task lifecycle". Unlike resume-task, this skill does write tasks/ — that's its job.

Method

Input: an optional task id argument in any form (pause-task 007, pause-task 7, pause-task TASK-007), normalized to the on-disk folder name TASK- (a non-numeric ticket key like PROJ-123 → TASK-PROJ-123). No argument → resolve the current task (below).

1. Locate the task: the normalized id argument, one named in conversation, else the most-recently-updated: task under tasks/TASK-* (skip tasks/archive/* and any status: paused task — already-shelved tasks aren't auto-picked). If several are active or it's ambiguous, list candidates and ask — don't guess.
2. Check it's pausable: the task must be active or blocked. If it's already paused, say so and stop. If it's done, suggest archive-task instead.
3. Get the reason: use the reason the user gave; if none, ask one line ("Tạm dừng vì lý do gì?") so the pause is self-explanatory later. Don't invent one.
4. Write the state in tasks/TASK-/task.md — get the real time first (date "+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M %Z"):

• set status: paused; leave stage and every artifacts: value untouched.
• bump updated:.
• in the Now block, note it's paused and why (e.g. - Blocked by: none (paused — waiting on design)).
• Snapshot the working tree: check git status — if this task's work sits uncommitted, list the mid-flight files in the Now block (e.g. - In flight: src/auth.ts, src/auth.test.ts (uncommitted)), so resuming doesn't mistake them for another task's changes. Suggest the user stash or WIP-commit before switching tasks — don't run git yourself.
• append a dated Pipeline Log line: - paused: .

1. Confirm to the user: which task, what stage it's frozen at, and that /resume-task brings it back exactly here.

When done

Report the task id, the stage it's paused at, and the reason logged. Don't run any stage work — pausing only changes status. To bring it back, the user runs resume-task.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: bonnguyenitc
• Source: bonnguyenitc/specship
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.