Chapter 6

Tasks move from Inbox to done

A task is a node with a state. You set the state with one key, hand the task to someone with another, and Orbital keeps every copy of it in step with Tana.

The four states

Every task is in one of four states. The box in front of the title tells you which one, so you can read a list at a glance.

A task list grouped by status: Inbox, In Progress, Completed and Later

Inbox A dashed box. Someone, or Tana's AI, suggested the task and nobody has taken it on yet.
In Progress A grey box. The task is accepted and open.
Completed A green tick, the title struck through and grey. Finished work goes quiet.
Later Parked for now. Its marker is a small zz.

Clicking a dashed box accepts the task first: it turns grey and moves to In Progress. The next click completes it. A change shows at once on every copy of the task, in every pane: the list, a page that mentions it, the Timeline.

Tick it off

Complete `⌘↩`

With the caret in a task, press ⌘↩. The box squashes, the tick draws in green, the title is struck through and you hear a short pop. Press it again to reopen the task. In ⌘K the same thing is the row Complete, or Reopen on a finished task. On a page that is a task, ⌘↩ in the title works too.

In a note, ⌘↩ ticks a checkbox row the same way.

Completing a task from the keyboard, then Clean up.

Rows stay put until Clean up

A task you just changed keeps its place in the list, even when it now belongs in another group. Nothing jumps away while you are working on it. When rows are being held, a brush button appears in the page's header; click it, or run Clean up from ⌘K, and every row slides to where it belongs. With nothing held, the ⌘K row stays listed but grey, with the hint "Nothing to clean up".

A list that reshuffles under your cursor makes you lose your place, or click the wrong row. Holding rows until you ask means the list only changes when you are ready for it. Views & saved searches shows the same rule for any list.

Click a task →⌘↩→⌘K→ type clean →↩

Set status

For any state other than done, use ⌘K Set status. Its hint shows the state the task is in now. It opens a short page of the states, the four above and Waiting, the current one ticked; type a few letters and press ↩.

You can skip the page: the choices are also folded into ⌘K itself, so typing status later finds Set status to Later directly.

An Inbox task accepted with Set status: the dashed box turns grey.

⌘K→ type status later →↩

Waiting on someone else

Some tasks stop on someone else: you did your part, and the next step is theirs. Set status to Waiting takes such a task out of your way. It leaves Today's Tasks on the Timeline, and a list grouped by Responsibility puts it in its own Waiting section, after Mine. When it is back with you, set it to In Progress, or drop it on Today's Tasks. Everyone in your workspace who uses Orbital sees the same Waiting, on your tasks and on theirs.

A task list grouped by status with a Waiting section holding Prepare the offsite agenda — Waiting, a section of its own.

Tana itself has only the four states, so to Tana a waiting task is In Progress, and the Tana app shows it that way. Choosing a state there takes Waiting away. For the same reason the Status filter offers only the four.

Click a task →⌘K→ type status waiting →↩

Who has it

A task is assigned to one person, a few, or nobody. Two ⌘K rows change that:

Edit assignees opens the list of members with the current ones ticked. ↩ on a name adds or removes that person, and the page stays open for the next one. Its hint lists who has it now.
Assign to … hands the task to one person outright, replacing whoever had it. Unassigned at the top clears it. Each member is also folded into ⌘K, as Assign to Sam Okafor.

The list also offers Agent, which hands the task to a Codex agent on your Mac; see AI & agents.

Edit assignees adds Priya next to Sam.

If you assign someone who cannot open the task, Orbital asks what to do: Grant access, Keep private, or Cancel. Until it is solved, the task's grey line says "Not visible to …" in a soft rose; in a table, a rose warning icon says it, with the names in its tooltip. Sharing & privacy explains who can see what.

Click a task →⌘K→ type assign to and a name →↩

The grey line

After a task's title come its facts, in grey: who has it, who can see it, whether you are watching it. When the title needs the room, the facts move to the grey line under it, so a long title never wraps into what looks like a second one.

Two task rows with their assignee, bell, audience faces and an agent badge

Assignee The name of whoever has the task.
Bell You are watching it: its changes reach your Timeline and notifications. Click the bell to stop.
Who can see it A lock glyph with a face for each person, the first four and then "+n".
Everyone Visible to the whole workspace. Private tasks say "Private", and a space's tasks name the space.
Agent badge A Codex agent is working on the task. It tells you what the agent is doing.

The small icons stay faint until the pointer or the caret is on the row. Other facts can join the line: a tack when the task is pinned (Pins & dates), and a meeting glyph when Tana's AI took the task from a meeting. Hover it for "From Leadership sync · Wed", click it to open that meeting. Which facts a list shows is up to its Display pill. Inside a document a task always shows its box, assignee and age.

Tasks for an agent

A task you gave to a Codex agent carries the agent badge at the end of its row. The badge says what the agent is doing: waiting to start, working, waiting for you, finished, or in need of attention. Click it to open the agent's task. When the task itself is completed, the badge turns into a grey outline, a note of what happened rather than something to act on. AI & agents covers the rest.

Watching a task

Watching a node means its changes reach you: as a macOS notification, and as entries on your Timeline. A watched node has a bell among its facts.

You do not have to set this up. Orbital watches a task you created and gave to someone else, whether they picked it up or not, because that is the work you are waiting on. A task assigned to you is yours to look at, and a task someone else made is theirs to follow, so neither is watched by default.

To choose for yourself, use ⌘K Notify on changes on any node, or Stop notifying on a watched one. A click on the bell stops it too. Your choice always beats the rule, and it follows you to your other Macs.

Cmd+K with the Notify on changes row — **Notify on changes**, under Current node.

Open a note you care about →⌘K→ type notify →↩

Creating tasks

Quick Add Task `⇧⌘Space`

Press ⇧⌘Space anywhere in Orbital, or run Quick Add Task from ⌘K. A card opens over the window with one field. Type the title and press ↩: the task is created, In Progress and assigned to you, and a note appears that opens it when clicked.

The line under the field says what you are about to make, such as "Task · Assigned to Me".

↑ ↓ pick the type: plain Task, or one of your workspace's workflow types.
⇥, or a click on that line, turns the field into Assign to…. Type a name, ↩ picks it and brings your title back.
esc closes the card; ⌘K closes it and opens the palette.

A title, a type and an assignee, without leaving the keyboard.

With an image on the clipboard and no title typed, the card offers Process image from clipboard, which turns a screenshot into a task or a note (see AI & agents).

Other ways in

⌘K Create new …, or the round button in the window's bottom-right corner, makes a task or any other kind of node. In a note, type / and pick Task: you name the task, and the line becomes a reference to it; see Writing in the outline. An empty My Tasks list reminds you of ⇧⌘Space too.

⇧⌘Space→ type a title →⇥→ a name →↩→↩

Several tasks at once

Select tasks with ⇧↓ and ⇧↑ from the row you are on, or ⌘-click them one by one. Then open ⌘K: it leads with a Selection group made for them.

Set status for 3 tasks, with the states folded in as for one task.
Assign 3 tasks to, which gives them all to one person.
And what fits any rows, such as Add 3 items to Today.

Rows that are not tasks are left out, and the hint says how many were skipped.

Two tasks completed in one go.

Click a task →⇧↓⇧↓→⌘K→↩

Keys in this chapter

Action	Keys
Complete or reopen the task you are in	`⌘↩`
Quick Add Task, anywhere in Orbital	`⇧⌘Space`
Pick a type on the Quick Add card	`↑` `↓`
Assign to someone else on the card	`⇥`
Select the rows below or above	`⇧↓` `⇧↑`
Add a row to the selection	`⌘`-click
Set status, Edit assignees, Assign to …, Clean up	`⌘K` then the row