Local Tasks

Local tasks are markdown files with YAML frontmatter that EditLess tracks alongside GitHub Issues and Azure DevOps Work Items. They let you manage lightweight, file-based tasks inside any repository — no external service required.

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File Format

Each task is a .md file with YAML frontmatter between --- markers, followed by markdown body content.

---
state: Todo
created: 2026-03-15T09:00:00Z
session_id: null
---
# Refactor auth middleware

Extract token validation into a shared utility so both the API
and WebSocket layers can reuse it.

Frontmatter Fields

Field	Required	Type	Description
state	✅	Todo | Done	Current task state.
created	✅	ISO 8601 string	When the task was created.
session_id	—	string | null	Copilot CLI session ID. When set on a Todo task, EditLess treats it as Active.

Title

The first # Heading in the markdown body becomes the task title shown in the Work Items panel. If no heading is found the title is left blank.

State Mapping

EditLess maps local task states to its unified filter model:

state	session_id	Unified State
Todo	null	Open
Todo	non-null	Active
Done	any	Closed

---

Configuration

Add folder paths to the editless.local.taskFolders setting. Each path should point to a directory containing .md task files.

{
  "editless.local.taskFolders": [
    "C:\\workspace\\my-project\\tasks",
    "/home/user/repos/backend/.tasks"
  ]
}

EditLess scans each folder for .md files, parses frontmatter, and skips any file that is missing the required state or created fields.

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Work Items Panel

Local tasks appear under a Local Tasks group in the Work Items tree view.

• Multiple folders — each folder gets its own subgroup, labeled with the folder name.
• Single folder — tasks are shown directly under the Local Tasks group (no extra nesting).
• Filtering — use the tree filter controls to filter by state: Todo, Active, or Done.

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Tips

• Task filenames (minus .md) are used as internal IDs — keep them unique within a folder.
• Files without valid frontmatter are silently skipped.
• BOM characters at the start of a file are handled automatically.
• The session_id field is useful for tracking which tasks have an active Copilot session. Set it to null when no session is running.