Work items
Work items are what is left to do in a project: the tasks agents propose, the plans written in Plan mode, and the reviews in flight. CodeAlta Desktop shows them where you decide on them, and lists them all in one tab.
Tasks
While an agent works, it can find something that is not part of what you asked: a gap, a problem, or an improvement. Before it ends its turn it proposes a follow-up task for it. The session shows the proposal at once, as a card beside Notes:
- a title, the kind of finding, and a short summary;
- Details opens the full description;
- with several proposals, the arrows go from one to the next.
The cards sit to the left of Notes, or below them in a narrow pane.
You decide on each card:
| Choice | What happens |
|---|---|
| Start in a new worktree | A new session does the task in its own worktree, on a new branch. |
| Do it in this session | The session does it after its current work. |
| Start in a new session | A new session does it in the folder of the project. |
| Later | The task is kept, out of the way. |
| Dismiss | The task is not worth doing. |
- A new session started from a card uses the provider, model and reasoning effort of the session that shows the card.
- When you ask the proposing session to do the task itself, its card says Task in progress: OK puts it away, and it goes away by itself once the task is done.
- Agents propose a task only for something concrete they verified, and never start it themselves. A session has at most five proposals waiting.
Plans
A plan is a document you review before the work starts. In Plan mode the agent researches, writes the plan and asks for your review: you comment on its blocks, then approve it or ask for changes. A plan that is not done can also be reviewed from its details in the Work items tab.
Once you approve it, the session shows the plan as a card with the same choices as a task. Nothing starts until you choose.
The Work items tab
Open it with Work items in the title bar (in its … menu when the window is narrow), with Ctrl+G Ctrl+I, or with the mark of a project in the Explorer.
- To do, In progress, Later and Closed separate what waits from what is done.
- Runs with is the Agent chip of the new session. With Use the defaults on, it runs with the provider, model and reasoning effort of the session that proposed the item, else the default provider and its model. Turn it off to choose them, the agent prompt, the permission mode, review before commit and the sandbox, before you start. More options turns sub-sessions off for the new session.
- Filter by tasks, plans or reviews, by project, or by text. All projects are those of the space the window shows.
- Select an item to read it, start it, mark it done, open its file, or remove it.
- Start several items at once: a spinner marks each while its worktree is made. A ready session opens if you still read its item; otherwise a notification offers it with Show.
In the Explorer, a project shows how many work items wait for you, and a dot while a session works on one.
Files
Each work item is a Markdown file of its project, which you can read, edit and commit:
| Kind | File | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Task | .alta/tasks/yyyy-mm-dd-name-xxxx.md |
pending, later |
| Plan | .alta/plans/yyyy-mm-dd-name.md |
draft, approved, in-progress, done, blocked |
The name of a task ends with four random characters, so that two branches of a project never create the same file.
---
title: "Report why the model list is empty"
kind: gap
status: pending
created: 2026-10-07
summary: "The Models page shows nothing for a provider that failed. It should say why."
---
## Why
...
Plans written before plans had this header are listed too, from their title and their - Status: line.
A completed or dismissed task is deleted, and a completed plan is kept. Settings > Work items changes both, turns task proposals off, hides the cards, and chooses which way of starting comes first.
From an agent
Agents use the same work items with alta task and alta plan, also in CodeAlta TUI, which has no cards and no tab:
Show me the open tasks of this project and do the one about the model list.
Mark the plan 2026-10-07-task-cards as done.