A workflow for selecting and implementing the highest-priority task from a repository’s Next or Backlog lists. It also describes how to update task status and related project logs.

Use it to start the next planned development task, move it through progress states, implement and verify it, and record the result.

It gives the coding agent a defined way to choose the next piece of work and keep the task tracker accurate. It includes checks for repository settings and required planning.

next-task — Skill by smekai

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods

npx agentmods add skills/smekai/taskplanner/next-task

Any agent

npx skills add smekai/taskplanner --skill next-task

Clone the repo

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/smekai/taskplanner

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 36 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.

When invoked 225 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.

Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.

Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.

Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

Model	Per session	Once invoked
Fable 5	$0.00036	$0.00225
Opus 5	$0.00018	$0.00112
Sonnet 5	$0.00007	$0.00045
Haiku 4.5	$0.00004	$0.00022

Measured 2d ago against content hash 9ae9e19df787, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

next-task scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

plugins/taskplanner/skills/next-task/SKILL.md · 17 lines

What it actually says

Start the Next TaskPlanner Task

Run the sibling taskplanner skill's version preflight once.
Prefer taskplanner_list for Next, then Backlog, always passing the absolute repository as workspace_root. If MCP cannot access the repository, read and parse the configured state files directly.
Select the highest priority task and identify it to the user.
Move its complete section to In Progress with taskplanner_move or a direct cut/insert.
Read .tasks/config.json; when aiPlanRequired is true, add a concise ### Plan before coding.
Implement and verify the task.
Condense the plan, move the task to Done, add a top .tasks/WORK_LOG.md entry when present, and update CHANGELOG.md when required.

Never change task IDs or modify unrelated task sections.

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

2d ago First seen · 17 lines · 36 tokens per session scan A 9ae9e19df787

Subscribe to this mod's changes

next-task is a skill published in the GitHub repository smekai/taskplanner (19 stars, last pushed 4d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 36 tokens to every session and 225 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

Planning Productivity Project management

wayfinder

Plan a huge chunk of work (more than one agent session can hold) as a shared map of decision tickets on your issue tracker, and resolve them one at a time until the way to the destination is clear.

mattpocock/skills · 46 tokens

setup-matt-pocock-skills

Configure this repo for the engineering skills: set up its issue tracker, triage label vocabulary, and domain doc layout. Run once before first use of the other engineering skills.

mattpocock/skills · 44 tokens

release-notes

Generate user-facing release notes from tickets, PRDs, or changelogs. Creates clear, engaging summaries organized by category (new features, improvements, fixes). Use when writing release notes, creating changelogs, announcing product updates, or summarizing what shipped.

phuryn/pm-skills · 57 tokens

retro

Facilitate a structured sprint retrospective — what went well, what didn't, and prioritized action items with owners and deadlines. Use when running a retrospective, reflecting on a sprint, creating action items from team feedback, or learning how to run effective retros.

phuryn/pm-skills · 52 tokens

bug-triage

Read all open bugs in production/qa/bugs/, re-evaluate priority vs. severity, assign to sprints, surface systemic trends, and produce a triage report. Run at sprint start or when the bug count grows enough to need re-prioritization.

Donchitos/Claude-Code-Game-Studios · 59 tokens

flow-next-tracker-sync

Project a flow-next spec to a tracker issue (Linear, GitHub, GitLab, Jira) and reconcile two-way. Use when asked to sync to a tracker. NOT plan-sync.

gmickel/flow-next · 44 tokens