TaskFlow inbox triage

SkillCommunication

Example TaskFlow authoring pattern for inbox triage. Use when messages need different treatment based on intent, with some routes notifying immediately, some waiting on outside answers, and others rolling into a later summary.

Then ask your AI: use the TaskFlow inbox triage skill

Details

Instructions available. Your AI can read the instructions. Execution depends on the setup they require.

Add it as a step in a pipeline you build on Ahel, or connect Ahel to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Claude Code or Codex and ask your AI to use it.

What this skill tells your AI

The instructions your AI receives, as published by the-open-agent/openagent in skills/taskflow-inbox-triage/SKILL.md and read by Ahel’s review.

This is a concrete example of how to think about TaskFlow without turning the core runtime into a DSL.

Goal

Triage inbox items with one owner flow:

  • business → post to Slack and wait for reply
  • personal → notify the owner now
  • everything else → keep for end-of-day summary

Pattern

  1. Create one flow for the inbox batch.
  2. Run one detached task to classify new items.
  3. Persist the routing state in stateJson.
  4. Move to waiting only when an outside reply is required.
  5. Resume the flow when classification or human input completes.
  6. Finish when the batch has been routed.

Suggested stateJson shape

{
  "businessThreads": [],
  "personalItems": [],
  "eodSummary": []
}

Suggested waitJson when blocked on Slack:

{
  "kind": "reply",
  "channel": "slack",
  "threadKey": "slack:thread-1"
}

Minimal runtime calls

const taskFlow = api.runtime.tasks.flow.fromToolContext(ctx);

const created = taskFlow.createManaged({
  controllerId: "my-plugin/inbox-triage",
  goal: "triage inbox",
  currentStep: "classify",
  stateJson: {
    businessThreads: [],
    personalItems: [],
    eodSummary: [],
  },
});

const child = taskFlow.runTask({
  flowId: created.flowId,
  runtime: "acp",
  childSessionKey: "agent:main:subagent:classifier",
  task: "Classify inbox messages",
  status: "running",
  startedAt: Date.now(),
  lastEventAt: Date.now(),
});

if (!child.created) {
  throw new Error(child.reason);
}

const waiting = taskFlow.setWaiting({
  flowId: created.flowId,
  expectedRevision: created.revision,
  currentStep: "await_business_reply",
  stateJson: {
    businessThreads: ["slack:thread-1"],
    personalItems: [],
    eodSummary: [],
  },
  waitJson: {
    kind: "reply",
    channel: "slack",
    threadKey: "slack:thread-1",
  },
});

if (!waiting.applied) {
  throw new Error(waiting.code);
}

const resumed = taskFlow.resume({
  flowId: waiting.flow.flowId,
  expectedRevision: waiting.flow.revision,
  status: "running",
  currentStep: "route_items",
  stateJson: waiting.flow.stateJson,
});

if (!resumed.applied) {
  throw new Error(resumed.code);
}

taskFlow.finish({
  flowId: resumed.flow.flowId,
  expectedRevision: resumed.flow.revision,
  stateJson: resumed.flow.stateJson,
});

Related example

  • skills/taskflow/examples/inbox-triage.lobster

Signals

GitHub stars
6k
Forks
666
Last commit
Oct 2026
Advanced
Item type
skill
Key
taskflow-inbox-triage-the-open-agent
Source
github.com/the-open-agent/openagent