Backlog

The backlog is a per-project list of deferred work. Humans, orchestrators, workers and reviewers file items; the orchestrator picks them up in order. Open it from the desktop Backlog page, or use tallpine backlog from a terminal or an agent session. Every command takes --project <id> and defaults to TALLPINE_PROJECT_ID, the current session's project, or the current registered repository. Most commands accept --json.

For every flag, see the generated command reference. The commands are also listed in the CLI reference.

Items

Each item has a short ref such as B12, numbered per project. Refs are never reused. tallpine backlog accepts B12, b12 or 12.

States

Progress such as "active" or "in review" is not stored. It is derived from the item's links.

An item can also be held with a reason. tallpine backlog next and run mode skip held items.

File and triage

tallpine backlog add "Rename the settings route"
tallpine backlog add - <<'NOTE'
Title on the first line
Everything after it becomes the note, so backticks and quotes stay literal.
NOTE

Agents file into the inbox. Humans always create open items, and an orchestrator can skip the inbox with --open. Workers can also file follow-ups they will not do now with tallpine report --defer "<line>" (repeatable, at most three lines per report, 1 to 200 characters each).

tallpine backlog next prints the topmost open, unheld, unblocked item that is not a parent. Add --parent <ref> to look only at one parent's children.

Links

tallpine backlog link <ref> <kind:value> attaches something to an item, and unlink removes it. The kinds are session, pr, issue, artifact, memory, item and blocked-by. An item with an unfinished blocked-by item is not returned by next.

tallpine backlog link B12 pr:https://github.com/acme/app/pull/42
tallpine backlog link B14 blocked-by:B12

Delete

tallpine backlog delete <ref> permanently removes a done or dropped item together with its links and closed children. It refuses open and inbox items, and a parent that still has an open child. tallpine backlog purge --done --dropped --older-than 30d removes closed items in bulk; use --dry-run first.

Start a worker from an item

tallpine spawn --name rename-route --backlog B12

The item's title, note, done-when and agent notes join the worker's task, and the new session is linked to the item. If the item is held, the spawn is refused unless you add --force. --backlog is for project worker sessions, not orchestrators or standalone workers.

Run mode

Run mode lets an orchestrator work through the backlog ("finish the backlog"). A project has at most one open run. The orchestrator writes the plan and records progress with tallpine backlog run; the Backlog page shows the run card, and adds cost and elapsed time per item from the usage records.

tallpine backlog run start --scope pr --all          # or --parent B3, or B12 B14 ...
tallpine backlog run plan R1 --file plan.json
tallpine backlog run item R1 B12 --status active
tallpine backlog run status
tallpine backlog run finish R1 --summary-file summary.md

--scope names the publishing scope the owner chose for the run:

Plan

The plan is JSON. Lanes run in parallel; items inside a lane run in order, each with a model:

{"lanes":[[{"ref":"B12","model":"opus"},{"ref":"B14","model":"sonnet"}],[{"ref":"B13","model":"haiku"}]]}

A blocked item must follow its blocker in the same lane. Parents are not planned; plan their children. The first plan starts the run. These plan lanes belong to run mode; they are not the orchestrator lanes started with tallpine orchestrator new --lane.

Item progress

tallpine backlog run item <run> <item> --status <status> records one of:

Control and finish

Run statuses are planning, running, paused, stopping and done.

Turn it off

Run mode is on by default. Set TALLPINE_BACKLOG_RUN=off on the daemon to hide the Run button and run card and to refuse tallpine backlog run. See Configuration.