One place to see what needs doing
Keep a task in a list that gives it context: family errands, a project, weekend plans or shopping. A useful task says what needs to happen and what done means. Dates help you plan; a planned day is personal, while a deadline is part of the shared task.
Shopping is a different kind of list. Cucumber and lettuce are items to pick up, not eight separate jobs competing with your other work. Open the shopping list to tick off its items. Main feeds can represent the shopping list as one row.
Responsibility stays clear
Share a list or a specific task with your crew. A person can be responsible for the outcome while an agent helps with a bounded piece of the work. Sharing with a person and connecting an agent are separate choices.
Start small: “Compare two picnic locations and explain which suits a rainy Saturday.” Give the agent the relevant list context and a clear result to bring back. You still decide what to use.
A connection and a worker do different jobs
A normal conversation can use the tools its host exposes while you are there. Background pickup also needs a host with an actual schedule, private durable state and working check-ins. Task Mafia coordinates that work; it runs no AI model or external job.
Enable work only for the lists and connection you intend to use. Explicitly delegate a task, answer the agent’s private question when needed, and review its result in the original workspace. Only a person completes the task. A setup check is not proof of an unattended scheduled run.
A useful loop, from thought to review
Capture “Plan Saturday’s family outing” in Weekend plans. Add what matters: an indoor option, the people involved and a rough budget. Choose an existing connected agent and explicitly hand over the research.
The agent can ask a question rather than guess. Answer it in the task conversation, let the same external run continue, then review its short handoff and original-workspace link. Accept useful changes and mark the task complete yourself.
You can also use Task Mafia as a simple personal task app. An agent connection is optional.
Bring the assistant you already use
Choose the ChatGPT, Codex, Claude or other MCP setup guide. The connection uses Task Mafia’s sign-in and the lists you select. Marketplace availability and a direct custom MCP connection are separate routes; neither means every host supports every feature.
The prompt does not sign in or grant access by itself.
A clear next step.
Keep the lists you want private, connect the assistant you want to use, and check what it can actually do before giving it work.