Todos & subtodos

A todo is a title plus whatever structure the work deserves: a rich description, a status, a priority, labels, a due date, comments, and subtodos. Every todo gets a short identifier like MZ-123 — stable, human-readable, and safe to drop into commits and conversations.

Creating todos

Press C in a list and the composer slides up from the bottom of the page. Enter creates the todo and keeps the composer open for the next one; ⇧ Enter opens a description row; Esc hides the composer and keeps what you typed. The row under the title carries the property bar, the list and relations, plus Clear and Save as draft (drafts).

While you type, @name, #label and date phrases (tomorrow, next friday) turn into chips and leave the stored title — dismiss a chip to keep the words. Similar open todos appear under the title so you catch a duplicate before filing it (switch it off in Settings → Preferences). Pasting a URL into an empty title opens the description with a bookmark card and swaps the URL for the page’s title.

Hold or right-click the create button for Create and go to todo or Create and copy as prompt. New from template… in the list’s ⋯ menu creates a todo named after a workflow template from Settings → Templates, with each step as a subtodo.

Subtodos

When a todo turns out to be several pieces of work, break it down instead of letting the description sprawl. On a todo’s page, press C to add a subtodo (or S from a row’s context menu); Make subtodo of… nests an existing todo under another, as does dragging a row onto one. Subtodos are full todos with their own identifier, status and page. A collapsed parent row shows done / total for its subtodos, and completing a parent with open subtodos asks how to resolve each one.

Working with a todo

Hover a row — or press Space — for a preview beside the list: the title, the property bar, the live description editor, and when the todo was created, edited and finished. Title, properties and description are editable in place. Open the todo for its subtodos, relations, comments and activity, plus Acceptance criteria, Design and Notes sections that agents fill through the CLI and MCP server.

• ⌘ C copies the identifier (or whatever Click identifier to copy in Preferences is set to), ⌘ ⇧ L a link; Copy as… in the row’s context menu also offers the title, Markdown, or a prompt for an AI agent
• ↑/↓ (or j/k) step to the previous or next todo
• Drag a row onto your avatar in the sidebar’s footer to assign it to yourself
• ⌘ ⌫ deletes it — into the trash, where it can be restored

Comments

Every todo has a comment thread with replies. Use it for decisions and context you want attached to the work rather than lost in chat. Agents can read and write comments too, and a comment an agent wrote says so.