prioritize

Task Prioritization

Analyze all ready tasks and recommend a priority ordering.

Steps

1. Gather context

Run these commands to understand the current state:

emdx task ready --json
emdx epic list

2. Fetch task details

For each ready task, get full details:

emdx task view <id>

Focus on: description, epic membership, category, dependencies, age, and any work log entries.

3. Analyze and rank

Consider these factors when ranking tasks:

Factor	Why it matters
Epic progress	Tasks in nearly-complete epics should be prioritized to close out the epic
Blocked-by chains	Tasks that unblock other tasks should be done first
Category	FIX > FEAT > ARCH > DOCS > CHORE (bugs before features)
Age	Older tasks may indicate forgotten work or growing tech debt
Description clarity	Well-defined tasks are easier to execute and should be prioritized

4. Present recommendations

Show the user a ranked table like:

Priority  ID        Title                          Reasoning
────────  ────────  ─────────────────────────────  ──────────────────────
1 (P1)    FEAT-8    Implement auto-linking         Unblocks 3 downstream tasks
2 (P1)    TUI-10    Wire QA presenter              Nearly completes QA epic (7/8)
3 (P2)    FEAT-13   Add semantic search caching     Quick win, small scope
...

Priority scale:

• P1 (value 1): Critical — do this now
• P2 (value 2): High — do this soon
• P3 (value 3): Normal — default priority (unchanged)
• P4 (value 4): Low — nice to have
• P5 (value 5): Backlog — defer indefinitely

5. Apply priorities

After the user confirms (or adjusts), apply priorities:

emdx task priority <id> <1-5>

Only set priorities that differ from the default (3). Skip tasks the user wants left at normal priority.

Important

• Always show your reasoning before applying changes
• Let the user adjust the ranking before applying
• Only change priorities the user agrees with
• If the user provides additional context (e.g., "we're shipping feature X next week"), factor that into the ranking