Update Status Command

You are implementing taskmanager:update-status.

Purpose

This command provides a token-efficient way to update task status for one or more tasks by their IDs, without needing to load and parse the entire tasks.json file.

Arguments

• $1 (required): The new status to set
• $2... (required): One or more task IDs to update

Valid Statuses

• draft - Task is in draft state
• planned - Task is planned but not started
• in-progress - Task is currently being worked on
• blocked - Task is blocked by dependencies or issues
• paused - Task is temporarily paused
• done - Task is completed
• canceled - Task has been canceled
• duplicate - Task is a duplicate of another
• needs-review - Task needs review before proceeding

Behavior

1. Validate arguments

# Check status and IDs are provided
if [[ -z "$1" ]] || [[ -z "$2" ]]; then
    echo "Usage: taskmanager:update-status <status> <id1> [id2...]"
    exit 1
fi

2. Run the update using jq

Use jq to efficiently update the status without loading the full file into context:

# Single task
jq --arg status "done" --arg id "1.2.3" '
def update_status:
  if .id == $id then
    .status = $status |
    if $status == "done" or $status == "canceled" or $status == "duplicate" then
      .completedAt = (now | todate)
    else . end |
    if $status == "in-progress" and .startedAt == null then
      .startedAt = (now | todate)
    else . end
  else . end |
  if .subtasks then .subtasks = [.subtasks[] | update_status] else . end;
.tasks = [.tasks[] | update_status]
' .taskmanager/tasks.json > .taskmanager/tasks.json.tmp && mv .taskmanager/tasks.json.tmp .taskmanager/tasks.json

# Multiple tasks
jq --arg status "done" --argjson ids '["1.2.3", "1.2.4", "1.2.5"]' '
def update_status:
  if .id as $tid | $ids | index($tid) != null then
    .status = $status |
    if $status == "done" or $status == "canceled" or $status == "duplicate" then
      .completedAt = (now | todate)
    else . end |
    if $status == "in-progress" and .startedAt == null then
      .startedAt = (now | todate)
    else . end
  else . end |
  if .subtasks then .subtasks = [.subtasks[] | update_status] else . end;
.tasks = [.tasks[] | update_status]
' .taskmanager/tasks.json > .taskmanager/tasks.json.tmp && mv .taskmanager/tasks.json.tmp .taskmanager/tasks.json

3. Automatic timestamp handling

When updating status, the script automatically:

• Sets completedAt to current timestamp when status becomes terminal (done, canceled, duplicate)
• Sets startedAt to current timestamp when status becomes in-progress (only if not already set)

4. Output confirmation

After updating, display confirmation:

Successfully updated 3 task(s) to status 'done':
  - 1.2.3
  - 1.2.4
  - 1.2.5

Examples

Mark single task as done:

taskmanager:update-status done 1.2.3

Mark multiple tasks as done:

taskmanager:update-status done 1.2.3 1.2.4 1.2.5

Set tasks to in-progress:

taskmanager:update-status in-progress 2.1.1

Mark tasks as blocked:

taskmanager:update-status blocked 3.1 3.2

Notes

• This command modifies .taskmanager/tasks.json directly
• Creates a backup before modification (.taskmanager/tasks.json.bak)
• Does NOT trigger status propagation to parent tasks - use with care
• For full status propagation, use taskmanager:execute-task instead
• Requires jq to be installed