Create a task

Create a task when you have an instruction you want Obvious to run again and again: on a schedule you set, when an incoming webhook fires, or with an approval gate where the run waits for you. Each task keeps its own run history, so you can see exactly what the agent did every time it ran.

Before you start

Make sure you have:

An Obvious project where you can send messages to the agent.
An idea of how the task should run: on a schedule, from a webhook, or with an approval gate.
Editor access in the Obvious project if you need to create or edit the task.

Open the message composer in your Obvious project.
Type / to open the slash menu.
Choose the New task shortcut.
Describe what the task should do, in plain language. For example: Check new support tickets every morning and summarize them.

The task appears in your project's Tasks list, where you can open it any time to see its runs.

Choose how the task runs

A task runs its instruction in one of three ways:

On a schedule. The task runs at the times you set. Scheduled tasks appear under Scheduled in your Tasks list, and each one shows when it runs next.
From a webhook. An external service sends an event, and the task runs. For the full setup, see Trigger a task from a webhook.
At an approval gate. The run waits partway through for someone to approve or reject it before it continues.

Understand task states

Awaiting Approval, in the run's thread, means the run is waiting at an approval gate. On task lists, the same run shows Awaiting gate. The run is mid-run, not stopped.
Paused means the task's schedule is paused, so it will not run at its scheduled times. Paused never describes a run waiting at a gate.

Find your tasks and follow their runs

Open a task from your Tasks list to see the task detail view. The activity panel below the task description logs each run's events, so you can see what the agent did and follow runs in progress.

For more on following runs as they happen, including runs waiting at a gate, see the companion article, Monitor task runs.

Troubleshooting

A task shows Paused. Paused means the schedule is paused, so the task will not run at its scheduled times. If you did not expect it, check the schedule.

A scheduled task did not run. Check whether the task's schedule is paused. If the schedule is active but the task still did not run, check the timezone saved in the schedule. It runs at the scheduled time in the saved timezone, not your current location.

A run shows Awaiting gate for a long time. Open the task and find the run in the activity panel. The approval card appears in the run's thread, and someone needs to act on it there before the run continues.

A webhook task is not running. Check whether the webhook subscription is active and connected to the task. See Trigger a task from a webhook.