Consult tasks

Consult tasks let one aidev project answer a perspective question on a ticket owned by another project — without git branching, without moving the ticket to review, and with an explicit handback to the primary agent.

Typical use case: a SDK bug reported through a consumer app. The SDK project (qelos) asks a question; you tag the ticket for the consumer project (isaac) to reply from its repo; isaac posts its perspective and returns the ticket to pending so qelos can continue.

Human-in-the-loop

Consult routing is always manual. Project A does not know project B exists on the board — you add the consultant's tag when you want their input.

End-to-end example: a SDK bug on a qelos ticket needs the consumer app's perspective. Only you route consults — qelos never delegates to isaac on its own.

Qelos · primaryYou · humanIsaac · consultant

1. You
   Ticket created on qelos

   New card on the shared board, tagged qelos — owned by the SDK project.

2. ↓
3. Qelos
   Qelos picks up the task

   aidev run implements from the qelos repo — branch, commits, normal code flow.

4. ↓
5. Qelos
   Qelos asks a follow-up question

   Agent needs consumer-side context · posts [aidev-qelos] comment · ticket moves to pending.

6. ↓
7. You
   You add isaac-consult

   Manual routing — qelos does not know isaac is on the board. Re-add this label anytime you need another consult.

8. ↓
9. Isaac
   Isaac runs consult

   Isaac cron (aidev run pending) picks up the ticket from the isaac repo — no git branch, no review status.

10. ↓
11. Isaac
    Isaac posts its perspective

    [aidev-isaac] reply with consumer-app context · removes isaac-consult · adds isaac-consulted · stays pending.

12. ↓
13. Qelos
    Qelos resumes

    Next run sees a comment without the qelos prefix · continues implementation on the same ticket.

The -consulted tag is stats/history only. Consult always runs on pending and leaves the ticket pending.

Tag convention

Each project has a tag family:

Tag	Default	Purpose
{folder}	qelos	Code tasks — full SDLC
{folder}-other	qelos-other	Non-code tasks — no git
{folder}-consult	qelos-consult	This agent should consult (human adds to ticket)
{folder}-consulted	qelos-consulted	Stats marker after consult completes

When qelos needs isaac's perspective on a qelos ticket, add isaac-consult (not qelos-consult).

# Defaults — override per project directory
CONSULT_TAG=isaac-consult
CONSULTED_TAG=isaac-consulted

Re-consult: add isaac-consult again anytime. The -consulted tag is kept for stats/history.

Comment prefixes

Each project should use a distinct comment prefix so peer replies unblock pending on the primary agent:

# Default expands to [aidev-qelos], [aidev-isaac], etc.
AIDEV_COMMENT_PREFIX=[aidev-$PROJECT_NAME]

# Or a custom template:
AIDEV_COMMENT_PREFIX='My Bot ($PROJECT_NAME): '

$PROJECT_NAME and $FOLDER_NAME expand to the project directory name during loadConfig.

Pin the legacy shared prefix on existing setups:

AIDEV_COMMENT_PREFIX=[aidev]

Flow

See the diagram above for the full story. In short:

1. Ticket created on the shared board, tagged qelos
2. Qelos picks up the task and starts implementation
3. Qelos posts a follow-up question → ticket moves to pending
4. You add label isaac-consult
5. Isaac cron runs (aidev run pending or aidev run) → consult phase picks up the ticket
6. Isaac posts [aidev-isaac] … perspective from its repo
7. Isaac removes isaac-consult, adds isaac-consulted, ticket stays pending
8. Qelos sees a non-own-prefix reply → resumes implementation

Consult tasks only run when status is pending and stay pending after completion.

Multi-project setup

Shared API keys via AIDEV_ENV_EXTEND; per-project tags and prefixes in each .env.aidev:

# qelos/.env.aidev
TRELLO_LABEL=qelos
NON_CODE_TAG=qelos-other
# CONSULT_TAG defaults to qelos-consult (for when others consult qelos)

# isaac/.env.aidev
TRELLO_LABEL=isaac
NON_CODE_TAG=isaac-other
# CONSULT_TAG defaults to isaac-consult — watches isaac-consult on any card

Provider notes

Consult uses the same tag/label filter as code and non-code tasks. Provider-specific details:

Provider	Tag filter field	Notes
ClickUp	CLICKUP_TAG (overridden to CONSULT_TAG)	Same as code tasks
Jira	JIRA_LABEL	Same as code tasks
Linear	LINEAR_LABEL	Same as code tasks
Trello	TRELLO_LABEL	Same as code tasks
Notion	CLICKUP_TAG	Requires a Tags multi-select property on the database
Monday.com	CLICKUP_TAG + MONDAY_TAG_COLUMN_ID	Text column with comma-separated tags
Local	tags: in frontmatter	Consult mode scans pending/ only

Notion

Set CLICKUP_TAG to your project/consult tag name (same convention as other providers). Pages must have a Tags (or tags) multi-select property.

Monday.com

Add a text column for tags and set:

CLICKUP_TAG=isaac-consult
MONDAY_TAG_COLUMN_ID=tags

Store comma-separated tags in that column (e.g. qelos, isaac-consult).

Local provider

Pending task with consult tag in frontmatter:

---
title: Consumer repro steps?
tags: qelos, isaac-consult
---

Latest question from qelos agent…

File must live under .aidev/tasks/pending/.

Related

• Non-code tasks
• Behaviour configuration
• Scheduling