Goals, tasks, and schedules

Keep longer work moving, set reminders and recurring jobs, get a daily brief, and choose what Oktapod may notice for you.

Not everything fits in one reply. Oktapod keeps longer work, reminders, and recurring jobs in durable records, so they continue when you close the app.

#Goals & tasks

Goals are what you are working toward. Tasks are pieces of work in progress. Both live on the Goals & tasks page.

To add a goal, choose New goal or tell Oktapod in chat:

I'd like to work toward running a half marathon in April.

New goal does not send anything by itself. It starts a message in chat for you to finish. The same happens with Discuss goal on an existing goal.

Tasks appear when Oktapod takes on work that continues beyond a reply. Each task shows its state:

Current shows open work; All includes finished and stopped items. Open conversation jumps to the chat where the work started.

#Schedules

Ask for reminders and recurring work in plain language:

Remind me in 20 minutes to stretch.

Every Friday at 5 PM, list what I finished this week.

Move my Friday summary to 4 PM.

Pause the Friday summary.

The Schedules page lists your schedules with their next run. Open Schedule details for the timing and last run, or choose Start now to run one immediately. New schedule starts a "Remind me to" message in chat.

A new install also has a Getting-started tips schedule. For the first week it posts one short tip a day into your main chat, skips tips that no longer apply, and retires itself when done. Ask Oktapod to pause it if you do not want it.

Scheduled work runs in its own conversation, so it never inherits context or approvals from an unrelated chat.

#When a schedule needs your approval

A simple reminder runs on its own. If a scheduled job wants to do something that needs permission, it does not disappear:

• one approval request appears under Settings → Apps & permissions → Approvals and in oktapod approvals list;
• the schedule stays in place and records that it is waiting for approval;
• approving runs it right away; denying skips that occurrence, and a one-time reminder is removed or switched off.

An unanswered approval expires after 24 hours and the schedule asks again on its next run. After three unanswered requests, the schedule is switched off so it cannot pile up requests. Ask Oktapod to turn it back on when you are ready.

#Daily brief

The daily brief is a short, cited summary of your day. Set it up in chat:

Set up my daily brief every day at 8:30 AM. I sleep from 11 PM to 8 AM. Include my calendar, Gmail, and projects. Send it here.

Change it the same way: "Move my brief to 9 AM", "Stop including Gmail", "Pause my brief", or "Send it to WhatsApp". The confirmation names the time, time zone, quiet hours, sources, and where it will be delivered.

The brief can draw on your calendar, mailbox, Drive, projects, memory, and FreshRSS when those are connected. It has sections such as At a glance, Read next, and Needs attention, with sources in an Evidence section.

If a brief is due during quiet hours, it waits until they end instead of being lost. To get one now from a terminal:

oktapod brief --refresh

#What Oktapod notices on its own

Oktapod can watch for signals such as a calendar change, new mail, or project activity. For each one it decides to:

• observe: keep a short, cited note for later;
• propose: show a suggestion or ask for approval; or
• deliver: send a low-risk notification, when your settings allow it.

It never turns a signal into a sent email, a calendar change, or a deletion on its own. Quiet hours, cooldowns, and daily limits keep it from interrupting you. You can see what it noticed under Settings → Advanced → Work signals.

#Watches

A watch tells you when something finishes, such as a coding task or a helper agent. It only notifies; it never grants permission to change what it watches.

Tell me when the coding task finishes.

From a terminal:

oktapod watches list
oktapod watches pause <watch_id>
oktapod watches resume <watch_id>

#Where notifications arrive

Reminders, briefs, and other announcements arrive in chat, as phone notifications when the iPhone or Android app is connected, as browser alerts when you turn them on, or in a messaging channel you choose. If one does not arrive, check quiet hours first, then the channel's status. See Troubleshooting.