Create and edit entities by hand

Chorus normally runs on the Reversed Conversation: an agent proposes and you verify. But every entity also has a manual entry point — you can author an idea, a task, or a whole proposal by hand, and edit, move, reparent, or delete what already exists. This guide covers those manual tools; for the lifecycle each entity then follows, it links out to the stage guides rather than repeating them.

Create an idea by hand

Ideas live in the tracker on the project Overview. Select New Idea to open a dialog with two ways to capture one:

• Fill a form — give the idea a title and an optional description. The Make this a theme option turns it into a grouping theme (delivered through the child ideas derived from it) instead of a single deliverable.
• Describe to an agent — talk the idea through in a chat composer and let an online agent shape it with you. This needs an agent online, so it is unavailable when none is. You can also ask the agent to break a large request into child ideas as you describe it.

The New Idea dialog lets you fill a form or describe the idea to an agent, and mark it a theme.

What the agent does

A hand-created idea enters the same pipeline as any other. Once you assign it to an agent, the agent runs elaboration and drafts a proposal for your review. See Capture an idea for the full flow.

Edit, move, or reparent an idea

Open an idea to see its detail panel. From there you can Edit Idea (title and description), Delete Idea, or Move to project… to relocate it — the move dialog previews what travels with the idea before you confirm.

To move an idea you need Editor access on both its current project and the target project (see Control who can see a project). A target you cannot see is treated the same as one that does not exist: an agent calling chorus_move_idea gets Target project not found.

Everyone assigned to the moving ideas and their tasks must also have Editor access on the target. If some don’t, the dialog lists each blocked assignee with how many ideas and tasks they hold, and Confirm move stays disabled until you reassign or release those items (or grant those assignees Editor access on the target), then try the move again. Assignees that no longer exist, such as a deleted agent, are skipped and never block the move; their items move unchanged.

Quick Tasks linked to a moving idea travel with it, like the tasks of its proposals. Deleting an idea keeps its linked Quick Tasks; they simply become unlinked.

The panel also manages lineage — how ideas relate as parents and children:

• Set parent / Change parent — attach this idea under another, or move it to a different parent.
• Derive new idea — create a child idea from this one (a full idea with its own elaboration, proposal, and tasks).
• Detach (make top-level) — remove the parent link and return the idea to the top level.

Make this a theme switches an idea between a single deliverable and a grouping theme. A theme only groups its children and cannot become a proposal on its own — see Theme ideas versus derived child ideas.

Create a task by hand (Quick Task)

Most tasks are created when you approve a proposal, but you can add one directly — a Quick Task — when a piece of work does not need the full idea-to-proposal cycle. On the Tasks board, select New Task and give it a title and description, a Priority, an effort estimate, Acceptance Criteria (the checklist a reviewer verifies against), and any Dependencies (use Add Dependency to require other tasks to be done first). A hand-created task starts open and unassigned, ready to be claimed or assigned like one created from a proposal.

Link a Quick Task to an idea

When the work delivers an existing idea but does not need a proposal, choose that idea in the Idea (optional) field of the New Task form. A Quick Task links to at most one idea, and the list offers only ideas in the same project. Theme ideas are not offered, because a theme is delivered through its child ideas. The idea can be at any stage (open, elaborating, or elaborated), and linking never changes its own status.

A linked Quick Task counts toward the idea’s progress exactly like a task from an approved proposal: the idea shows Building while any of its tasks is unfinished, Verify work when a task awaits verification, and Done once every task is done or closed. Linked tasks appear on the idea’s panel (its Tasks tab and overview timeline) and in the resource graph. See derived progress for the full rule.

Tasks created from a proposal already belong to that proposal’s idea, so they never show this field.

What the agent does

A Quick Task is a normal task once created — assign it to an agent and, when its dependencies are met, the agent claims it, works on it, and submits it for your verification. See Run tasks for claiming, assigning, and the status path.

Edit a task and its dependencies

Open a task to reach the same panel, now titled Edit Task. Change any field and Save Changes, or Delete Task to remove it. The panel also drives the status path with Start Work, Submit for Review, Mark as Verified, and Assign.

A Quick Task linked to an idea shows it under Idea in the task panel; select it to open the idea. To change the link, edit the task and pick another idea in Idea (optional), or choose No linked idea to clear it, then Save Changes.

A Quick Task linked to an idea shows it under Idea; select it to open the idea.

Dependencies read in two directions: Depends on lists the upstream tasks this one waits on, and Blocked by this lists the downstream tasks waiting on it. A task can only start once everything it depends on is done. On the board, moving a still-blocked card shows a warning; you can override it with Force Move when you know the order is safe.

Create a proposal by hand

Proposals are normally written by a PM agent, but you can author one yourself. Select Create Proposal, give it a title, and pick the source idea(s) it delivers — only ideas you have claimed or been assigned are selectable, so claim one first if the list is empty. Creating the proposal opens it for editing, where you assemble the plan: Add Document for each PRD, design, or spec, and Add Task for each unit of work (with its acceptance criteria and dependencies). When the plan is complete, Submit for Review sends it into the same approval gate as an agent-authored proposal.

What the agent does

Whether an agent or you authored a proposal, approval is the decision gate: reviewing and approving the document and task drafts turns them into real Documents and open Tasks. See Review a proposal for what approval creates.

Next

These are the manual entry points; the entities they create follow the standard lifecycle. Continue with Capture an idea, Review a proposal, or Run tasks. For the full state model, see the lifecycle reference.