Issue Tracking With Beans

---
name: issue-tracking-with-beans
description: Use when starting work, tracking tasks, or deciding where to record discovered work - clarifies when to use TodoWrite vs Beans
---

# Task Tracking Hierarchy

Two systems serve different purposes. Use the right tool for the job.

| System        | Purpose                    | Persistence  | Audience                |
| ------------- | -------------------------- | ------------ | ----------------------- |
| **TodoWrite** | Live progress visibility   | Session only | User                    |
| **Beans**     | Agent memory & audit trail | Git-tracked  | Agents, future sessions |

## When to Use Each System

**TodoWrite** — User-facing progress indicator for the current session:

- Multi-step work (3+ steps) where the user benefits from seeing progress
- Skip for background/non-user-facing work
- Skip for trivial single-step tasks

**Beans** — Persistent agent memory:

- All non-trivial work (3+ steps)
- Work that may span sessions or context boundaries
- Discovered work during implementation
- Anything needing an audit trail
- Skip for trivial single-step tasks (typo fixes, quick lookups)

## Rule: Use Both TodoWrite and Beans Together

For user-facing, non-trivial work:

1. Create a bean first (`beans create ... -s in-progress`)
2. Create a TodoWrite list for live user visibility (prefix todos with bean ID)
3. Update both as you progress
4. TodoWrite items should mirror in-bean checklist items

For non-user-facing work (background agents, audit-only):

- Use Beans only
- Skip TodoWrite

## Rule: Update Bean Checklists Immediately

After completing each checklist item in a bean:

1. Edit the bean file: `- [ ]` → `- [x]`
2. This creates a recoverable checkpoint if context is lost
3. The I/O overhead is acceptable for persistence

## Rule: Commit Bean Changes With Code

Every code commit includes its associated bean file updates:

```bash
git commit -m "[TYPE] Description" -- src/file.ts .beans/issue-abc123.md
```

This keeps bean state synchronized with codebase state.

## Git Commit Messages

When closing a Beans issue, reference it in the commit:

```
<descriptive message>

Closes beans-1234.
```

## Rule: Discovered Work Goes to Beans

When you discover work during implementation:

1. Create a bean immediately (`--tag discovered`), add a line that explains that it was created while working on current bean, and name the current bean.
2. Never ignore discovered work due to context pressure
3. Label discovered issues appropriately for later triage

For epic-level discovered work, create the bean with `--type epic`.

## Querying Work

- `beans list --status backlog` — Find unblocked work to do next
- `beans show <id>` — View issue details including dependencies