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Dependencies & Causality Tracking

TaskGuard v0.4.0 introduces causality tracking - every task must have dependencies to form semantic cause-effect chains.

Key Concepts

Concept Description
Root Task setup-001 is auto-created by taskguard init
Dependencies Required for all tasks (use --dependencies)
Orphan Task No dependencies AND nothing depends on it
Escape Hatch --allow-orphan-task for spikes/research

Dependency Chain Example

setup-001 → backend-001 → api-001 → testing-001
         ↘ frontend-001 → integration-001

Commands

# Create with dependencies (required)
taskguard create --title "API endpoints" --area api --dependencies "backend-001"

# Update dependencies
taskguard update dependencies api-001 "backend-001,auth-001"

# Check for orphan tasks
taskguard validate --orphans

# Create orphan (escape hatch)
taskguard create --title "Research" --area backend --allow-orphan-task

Validation

# Standard validation
taskguard validate

# Show orphan details
taskguard validate --orphans

Orphan = task with no dependencies AND nothing depends on it (except setup-001).

Archive Protection

Tasks with active dependents cannot be archived:

$ taskguard archive
⚠️  Cannot archive backend-001 - active tasks depend on it:
   - api-001
   - testing-001

Complete dependent tasks first, then archive.

Next Steps