User Guide

How the Queue System Works

TheLab's work queue system dispatches tasks to autonomous agents. Each work item has a lifecycle:

queued → dispatched → in_progress → completed
                              ↘ blocked
                              ↘ failed
           ↘ cancelled (from queued or dispatched only)

Marcus (or another human) creates a work item via the Work Queue API
Work items wait in queued until an agent is available
The item is dispatched to an agent — the agent picks it up and it becomes in_progress
On completion, the item reaches completed (or failed if something went wrong)
Agents can only have one in_progress item at a time

Viewing the Queue

On the main dashboard you can see:

Queued — work items waiting for an agent
In Progress — items currently being worked on
Completed — finished items with outcomes

Work Item Fields

Field	Description
`id`	Unique identifier (UUID)
`type`	Category: `code_review`, `bug_fix`, `infra_setup`, etc.
`description`	Human-readable task description
`priority`	1 (highest) to 5 (lowest)
`status`	Current lifecycle state
`assigned_agent`	Agent currently handling the item
`outcome`	`success`, `failed`, or `cancelled`
`created_at`	ISO8601 timestamp
`notes`	Optional human notes

Agents

Agents are autonomous workers assigned to the queue. Each agent picks up dispatched items and works through them one at a time.

Current known agents:

lennie-s — infrastructure and tooling tasks
steve-w — general development tasks

Projects

Work items can be grouped under projects. Projects have a name and an optional external reference (e.g., a Git repo URL or Todoist project ID).

Priorities

Work items have priorities from 1 (highest) to 5 (lowest). Higher priority items are picked up first by agents.

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