Get Task Command

You are implementing taskmanager:get-task.

Purpose

This command provides a token-efficient way to retrieve task information by ID, without needing to load and parse the entire tasks.json file. You can get the full task object or extract a specific property.

Arguments

• $1 (required): The task ID to retrieve
• $2 (optional): A specific key/property to extract (supports nested keys with dot notation)

Behavior

1. Validate arguments

if [[ -z "$1" ]]; then
    echo "Usage: taskmanager:get-task <id> [key]"
    exit 1
fi

2. Query the task using jq

Get full task object:

jq -r '
def flatten_all: . as $t | [$t] + (($t.subtasks // []) | map(flatten_all) | add // []);
[.tasks[] | flatten_all] | add // [] |
.[] | select(.id == "1.2.3")
' .taskmanager/tasks.json

Get specific property:

jq -r '
def flatten_all: . as $t | [$t] + (($t.subtasks // []) | map(flatten_all) | add // []);
[.tasks[] | flatten_all] | add // [] |
.[] | select(.id == "1.2.3") | .status
' .taskmanager/tasks.json

Get nested property (e.g., complexity.scale):

jq -r '
def flatten_all: . as $t | [$t] + (($t.subtasks // []) | map(flatten_all) | add // []);
[.tasks[] | flatten_all] | add // [] |
.[] | select(.id == "1.2.3") | .complexity.scale
' .taskmanager/tasks.json

3. Handle not found

If the task ID doesn't exist, output an error:

Error: Task '1.2.3' not found

Examples

Get full task object:

taskmanager:get-task 1.2.3

Output:

{
  "id": "1.2.3",
  "title": "Implement user authentication",
  "status": "planned",
  "priority": "high",
  "complexity": {
    "score": 3,
    "scale": "M"
  },
  ...
}

Get task status:

taskmanager:get-task 1.2.3 status

Output:

planned

Get task title:

taskmanager:get-task 1.2.3 title

Output:

Implement user authentication

Get nested property:

taskmanager:get-task 1.2.3 complexity.scale

Output:

M

Get task priority:

taskmanager:get-task 1.2.3 priority

Output:

high

Get estimate in seconds:

taskmanager:get-task 1.2.3 estimateSeconds

Output:

7200

Available Properties

Common properties you can query:

Property	Description
id	Task ID
title	Task title
status	Current status
priority	Task priority (low, medium, high, critical)
type	Task type (feature, bug, chore, analysis, spike)
description	Task description
complexity	Full complexity object
complexity.score	Complexity score (0-5)
complexity.scale	Complexity scale (XS, S, M, L, XL)
estimateSeconds	Estimated time in seconds
startedAt	When task was started
completedAt	When task was completed
durationSeconds	Actual duration
dependencies	Array of dependency task IDs
parentId	Parent task ID

Notes

• This command is read-only - it does not modify any files
• Uses jq for efficient JSON parsing without loading full file
• Supports nested property access using dot notation
• Returns null if the property doesn't exist on the task
• Requires jq to be installed