Appearance
Task templates and recurring tasks
Two things that look alike and are not. A task template is a shape you start new work from. Make recurring takes a task that comes back and wires up the machinery that brings it back.
Saving a task as a template
Right-click a task and choose Save as template..., or use the same row in the frame's dots menu.
The dialog has two halves. Name & Icon is what the template is called and the glyph it shows in the picker. What it includes lists the parts of the task and lets you switch off anything that should not travel:
| Part | Default |
|---|---|
| Description | On |
| Checklist | On |
| Tags | On |
| Assignees | On |
| Priority | On |
| Custom fields | On |
| Estimate | On |
| Cover colour | On |
| Due date | Off, set as "N days after the task is created" |
The title always travels. Each row says what is actually on this task, so a template built from a task with no tags says None on this task rather than pretending.
Due dates travel as an offset, never as a fixed day: "due 3 days after the task is created".
Saving under a name the board already uses updates that template instead of making a second one. That is also how you change a template: edit a task until it is right, then save it over the template.
Templates belong to a board. Templates on a database board are called record templates and behave the same way.
Starting from a template
Press / in any new-task title box (the Kanban add row, the List view draft row, a Calendar day) and the picker opens beside it. It lists this board's templates, its in-app forms, and Manage templates... at the foot. The caret next to the add button opens the same picker without typing.
Keep typing to filter, Arrow keys to move, Enter to pick. Whatever you had already typed becomes the new task's title.
A template can also be the source for the Create Card automation action, and for an agent or the API. See Automation actions.
Managing templates
Manage templates... opens the board's list. From a row you can Rename, Change icon and Delete, and you can drag rows to set the order the picker shows them in.
Deleting warns you if an automation creates tasks from that template, and names the automations that would break. Tasks already created from a template keep everything: a template is a starting point, not a live link.
Make recurring
Right-click a task and choose Make recurring.... Truetask offers four ways a task can come back:
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Recurring work an agent does | On a schedule, creates a fresh copy of this task from a template and hands it to an agent. |
| Recurring weekly task (on completion) | Complete a task carrying the weekly-recurrence tag and a fresh copy appears in the first open list. |
| Duplicate card on demand | Adds a Run button so anyone can drop a ready-to-go copy into the same list. |
| Finish here, recreate on another board | Complete a task tagged recurring and the next copy is created on a board you choose. |
All four install an ordinary automation on the board. Nothing bespoke runs behind the scenes, which means you can open what you just made in the builder and change it. The toast after setup has a View automation link.
The three tag-driven options pre-seed the tag they key on: Truetask looks for a tag on the board whose name already matches (repeat-weekly, weekly, recurring, repeat and their translations) and offers it, rather than inventing a second one alongside.
Deleting the pieces
A recurring task is an automation plus a task template plus, sometimes, a tag. Delete the template and the automation that creates from it will fail; the template manager warns you before you do.
The agent option in detail
This is the one with its own setup panel, in three sections.
Schedule is the ordinary schedule trigger: Frequency (Hourly, Daily, Weekly, Monthly), then day of week or day of month, hour and minute. See Automation triggers.
Who does the work picks the agent, its model and effort, and the agent workflow it follows. Leave the workflow on Board default to follow whichever workflow the board marks default.
What each run creates shows the task template each copy starts from, and Lands in the list it arrives in. Customize opens the Save as template dialog so you can trim what travels. Assignees deliberately do not travel: the agent takes each copy, so a person pinned on the template would only be reassigned every run.
Run it by hand too adds a Run button so someone can start a copy without waiting for the clock, and Run it from says where that button appears: the board toolbar, or every task.
This option needs AI switched on for you. If it is off, the row stays visible and says where to turn it on.
The Recurring tasks board template
There is also a whole-board starting point called Recurring tasks: complete a recurring task and a fresh copy returns to To do. It arrives with the automation and an example task already wired up, which makes it a good place to see the mechanism before you build your own. See Board templates.