Task Master

Task Master

End-to-end planning, specification, task management, and quality gating plugin for Claude Code.

What It Does

Task Master brings structured project management to Claude Code:

• Specification generation - Formal specs from requirements (lite for medium features, full for complex ones)
• Task management - Atomic tasks with dependencies, complexity scores, and phases
• Quality gates - Automated lint/typecheck/test checks before task completion
• Session continuity - Resume where you left off across sessions
• Overlap detection - Prevents duplicate work across specs

Installation

claude plugin add /path/to/claude-code-task-master

Or from GitHub:

claude plugin add github:qazuor/claude-code-task-master

Quick Start

Create a standalone task (simple work)

/new-task "Fix login button mobile responsiveness"

Generate a specification (medium/complex features)

/spec "Add user authentication with Clerk"

This will:

1. Check for overlaps with existing specs
2. Assess complexity (medium or complex)
3. Enter Plan Mode for you to explore and plan
4. After approval, generate formal spec + tasks automatically

View your dashboard

/tasks

Start working on the next task

/next-task

Check detailed progress

/task-status SPEC-001

Re-plan when requirements change

/replan SPEC-001

How It Works

Flows by Complexity

Simple (bugfix, config change):

/new-task → implement → quality gate → done

Medium (new endpoint, component):

/spec → Plan Mode → approve → spec + tasks auto-generated → /next-task loop

Complex (multi-day feature, architecture):

/spec → Plan Mode → approve spec → tasks generated → approve tasks → /next-task loop

Data Storage

All data is stored as JSON files in .claude/ and committed to your repo:

.claude/
├── specs/                    # Formal specifications
│   ├── SPEC-001-feature/
│   │   ├── spec.md           # The spec document
│   │   └── metadata.json     # Parseable metadata
│   └── index.json            # Spec index
├── tasks/                    # Task state
│   ├── SPEC-001-feature/
│   │   ├── state.json        # Source of truth
│   │   └── TODOs.md          # Human-readable checklist
│   ├── standalone/
│   │   ├── state.json        # Tasks without specs
│   │   └── TODOs.md
│   └── index.json            # Global task index
└── plans/                    # Plan Mode files (Claude built-in)

Task Lifecycle

pending → in-progress → quality gate → completed
                ↑              ↓
                └── fix ← FAIL

Tasks cannot be completed until quality gates pass (lint + typecheck + tests).

Commands

Command	Description
/spec	Generate a specification from requirements
/tasks	View task dashboard with progress
/next-task	Get and start the next available task
/new-task	Create a standalone task (no spec needed)
/task-status	Detailed progress report for a spec or all work
/replan	Modify tasks when requirements change

Skills

Skill	Description
spec-generator	Generates formal spec docs from Plan Mode output
task-atomizer	Breaks features into atomic implementable tasks
complexity-scorer	Scores tasks 1-10 based on multiple factors
dependency-grapher	Validates dependency graph, finds critical path
task-from-spec	Orchestrates spec-to-tasks pipeline
overlap-detector	Detects overlaps with existing specs/tasks
quality-gate	Runs quality checks before task completion

Agents

Agent	Description
spec-writer	Writes functional specs (user stories, BDD criteria, UX)
tech-analyzer	Writes technical analysis (architecture, data, risks)
task-planner	Decomposes specs into tasks with dependencies

Configuration

Custom Quality Gates

Create .claude/task-master.config.json in your project:

{
  "qualityGate": {
    "lint": {
      "command": "pnpm lint",
      "required": true
    },
    "typecheck": {
      "command": "pnpm typecheck",
      "required": true
    },
    "tests": {
      "command": "pnpm test",
      "required": true
    },
    "coverage": {
      "threshold": 90,
      "required": false
    }
  }
}

Project-Level Extensions

• Custom agents: Add domain-specific agents in your project's .claude/agents/
• Custom templates: Override templates in your project's .claude/templates/
• Custom tags: Define additional task tags relevant to your domain

Session Resume

When you start a new Claude Code session with active tasks, the plugin automatically detects and shows:

Active Task Master work detected:

Active Epics:
  - SPEC-001: User Authentication (3/9 tasks, status: in-progress)

Standalone Tasks: 2 pending (1/3 completed)

Use /tasks for full dashboard, /next-task to continue working.

Plugin Structure

claude-code-task-master/
├── .claude-plugin/
│   └── plugin.json           # Plugin manifest
├── commands/                  # 6 slash commands
│   ├── spec.md
│   ├── tasks.md
│   ├── next-task.md
│   ├── new-task.md
│   ├── task-status.md
│   └── replan.md
├── skills/                    # 7 skills
│   ├── spec-generator/
│   ├── task-atomizer/
│   ├── complexity-scorer/
│   ├── dependency-grapher/
│   ├── task-from-spec/
│   ├── overlap-detector/
│   └── quality-gate/
├── agents/                    # 3 agents
│   ├── spec-writer.md
│   ├── tech-analyzer.md
│   └── task-planner.md
├── templates/                 # Spec + JSON schema templates
│   ├── spec-lite.md
│   ├── spec-full.md
│   ├── state-schema.json
│   ├── metadata-schema.json
│   ├── index-schema.json
│   ├── specs-index-schema.json
│   └── config-example.json
├── hooks/
│   └── hooks.json             # SessionStart resume hook
├── scripts/
│   └── session-resume.sh      # Resume detection script
├── CHANGELOG.md
├── LICENSE
└── README.md

License

MIT