Tasks and worries
Triage the team board, claim and hand on work, and keep a shared list of things that are nagging but aren't work yet.
Where: Top bar→✅
Two lists, one set of rows. ✅ Tasks is the team's work from the Azure DevOps board: what nobody has picked up, what's yours, and where you were tagged. 😟 is the worry list: things that nag but aren't work yet. A worry becomes a task when somebody commits to it.
Both buttons appear in the top bar once you're signed in and the list has loaded. If you signed in after starting Griddler, restart it so the badges keep counting.
Triage new work
Click ✅. The Tasks panel opens at the side of the window, on Triage.
| Tab | What it lists |
|---|---|
| Triage | Work nobody has picked up. Feedback first, then bugs. The goal is an empty list. |
| Tasks | Work that has an owner, plus unassigned user stories. |
| Mine | Tasks you hold. |
| @ | Open work items where somebody @tagged you in a comment. |
| All tasks | Every open task. |
| Everything | Every row, including worries and your Today tasks. |
The badge on ✅ counts triage items that arrived since you last opened the panel. Opening it quiets the badge on all your machines; the items stay in Triage for everyone else.
Narrow and find
- EODE and Griddler under the tabs limit every tab to that product. The chips after them limit to a release. Click a lit chip again to clear it. Griddler remembers your choice on this machine.
- find #id or text searches every tab, open and settled, by work item number, title, tag, owner or type. Esc clears it.
- The sort button switches every tab between newest and oldest first.
- The refresh button checks the board now instead of waiting for the next check.
Work a row
Click a row's title or its # number to read the work item and its comments without leaving Griddler. Add a comment in Comment on the board — signed with your handle. Open in Azure DevOps ↗ opens it in your browser. The same buttons as on the row sit under the details.
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Claim / Release | Put your name on it, or take it off. |
| ↑ Task | Commit to a worry. It becomes your task. |
| ↓ Worry | Put a task back on the worry list and drop the owner's name. Asks first. |
| ↦ Assign | Hand it to a teammate. You can add a note, posted as a comment on the work item. |
| ➤ Session | Send it into a running pane, or ＋ New session for this…. Works like mail to a session. |
| 🤝 Co-op | Start a co-op session on it. See Peek and co-op. |
| Settle | Close it. Click twice: the button asks Settle & close #id? first. |
| Reopen | Bring back a settled row. |
Claiming, assigning and settling write back to the Azure DevOps board.
Marks on a row: 👁 is a standing question nobody should close; 🤖 means an agent filed it for someone mid-work; @ you means you were tagged.
When someone got there first
If a teammate claimed or settled a row while you were looking, Griddler refreshes the list and tells you, for example #1234 went to sam while you were looking — the list has been refreshed.
If the change worked in Griddler but the board refused it, you see Done here, but the board refused: and the reason.
Get told about new triage work
New triage work raises a desktop notification, New work needs triage, and a small card in the top-right corner with Take it, Open the list and Later. The card closes itself after 20 seconds.
- Turn the corner card off: Settings→Notifications→…and show new triage work top-right.
- Turn the notifications off: New task in Triage and Tagged on a work item in the same card.
File a worry
Click 😟 in the top bar. The badge counts worries filed since you last opened it.
Type in What is nagging you? and click File or press Enter. Anyone signed in to Griddler Social can see it, in Griddler and on the Guild Hall web page. Agents in your panes can file worries too, under your name.
The chips switch between Worries, Tasks and Everything. Tick show settled to include closed rows. Rows have the same buttons as in Tasks.
Limits
- A worry is up to 120 characters. Anything longer is cut off when you file it.
- Your Today tasks show only under Everything.
Related
- Today: In flight shows your board items at a glance
- Guild Hall: the web page has a read-only Worries tab
- Team tools for agents: what agents can do with the worry list
Today
One panel for your day: your meetings, board work assigned to you, what you shipped this week, mail waiting on you, and your own to-do list.
Standup, posts and stories
Draft your standup update from the sessions on this machine, turn a session into a social post, and read the team's story chapters.