Overview
Every task in Whim moves through a series of states from creation to completion. Understanding these states helps you manage your workspace effectively and know what’s happening at a glance.Task states
A task’s status represents its high-level lifecycle position:| Status | Description |
|---|---|
| Active | The task’s container is running and the AI agent is available. This includes tasks that are working, idle, or waiting for input. |
| Sleeping | The task is paused — its container is suspended to save compute. All state is preserved and the task can be resumed. |
| Completed | The task has finished its work. The container is stopped and the branch with its changes is preserved. |
| Archived | The task is hidden from the default view. The container is stopped but changes remain in Git. |
Agent states
While a task is active, the AI agent inside it has its own state:| Agent State | Indicator | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| WORKING | Spinning | The agent is actively reading, writing, or running commands |
| IDLE | Paused | The agent has finished its current work and is waiting |
| NEEDS_INPUT | Attention needed | The agent is asking a question or waiting for your response |
| STOPPED | Stopped | The agent process has exited |
State transitions
Pausing and resuming
Pausing (sleep)
Pausing a task suspends its container, preserving the filesystem, running processes, and agent session. This saves compute units while keeping the task ready to pick back up. You can pause a task by:- Clicking the pause button in the task header
- Using the task’s context menu
Auto-sleep: Whim automatically pauses idle tasks after a configurable timeout (set per-workspace in Settings). This prevents forgotten tasks from consuming compute units. The default threshold is workspace-specific — check your workspace settings for the current value.
Resuming
Resume a sleeping task to restart its container and restore the agent session. The agent picks up exactly where it left off.- Click the resume button on a sleeping task
- The task transitions back to Active and the terminal reconnects
- You can optionally send a new prompt as part of resuming
Resuming a completed task also works — it restarts the container so you can continue working on the same branch and codebase.
Completing tasks
Manual completion
Mark a task as completed when you’re satisfied with its work:- Click the complete button in the task header
- Use the task’s context menu
Automatic completion
Tasks can also complete automatically when the AI agent finishes its work and exits. This happens when the agent determines it has fulfilled the prompt and stops itself.Cascading completion
When you complete a parent task that has active child tasks, Whim will prompt you to confirm whether to also complete the children. This prevents orphaned subtasks from continuing to run.Archiving tasks
Archiving moves a task out of your active workspace view. Archived tasks:- Are hidden from the default task list
- Have their containers stopped
- Retain their Git branches and code changes
- Can still be found via Search
Unread indicators
Whim tracks whether you’ve seen the latest activity on each task:- Tasks with new agent output show an unread dot in the sidebar
- Tasks in the NEEDS_INPUT state are highlighted for attention
- Opening a task’s terminal automatically marks it as read