Work Items

Work items are tasks filed against an agent's department. Create them from the Dispatch Work panel on an agent's detail page, or through the REST API and gateway tools; track them through the API.

Key Concepts

What is a work item?

A work item is a discrete task recorded against a department and, optionally, assigned to an agent. It carries a title, a description, a priority, a status and metadata about who created it and when. Work items are a record of what you asked an agent to do; they do not by themselves run the agent.

Statuses you will see

Status	Description
backlog	Created from the Dispatch Work panel and waiting to be picked up.
pending_approval	The item's risk score exceeded the department's risk threshold and it is waiting for approval.
completed	The task finished. Output is available on the item.
failed	The task encountered an error. Error details are recorded.
cancelled	The item was cancelled before completion.

Assignment

Every work item belongs to a department and can be assigned to a specific agent with assigned_to. The department's budget cap and risk threshold are checked at creation time.

Step-by-Step Guide

Create a work item

There are three ways to create a work item:

Agent detail page — open an internal agent and click Dispatch Work. The item is filed under the agent's department and assigned to that agent.
REST API — POST /hub/ai-company/work-items with org_id, department_id and title (required), plus optional description, assigned_to, priority and risk_score.
Gateway tools — an agent connected through the Clevername MCP gateway can call company__create_work_item (requires work_type as well).

Dispatch Work panel on an agent detail page showing Title, Description and Priority fields

Dispatch Work lives on the agent detail page. Title and Description are required; Priority is Critical, High, Medium or Low.

Fill in the task details

In the Dispatch Work panel, provide:

Title — a brief task title (255 characters or fewer).
Description — what you want the agent to do (5,000 characters or fewer).
Priority — Critical, High, Medium or Low.

Tip

Be specific in your task description. Agents perform better with clear, unambiguous instructions, just like human team members.

Track work items

There is no work-items list page in the dashboard. Read items through the API:

GET /hub/ai-company/work-items?org_id=… — list items for the org.
GET /hub/ai-company/work-items/{item_id} — one item with its status, assignee and output.
PATCH /hub/ai-company/work-items/{item_id} — update status or fields.
Gateway tools company__list_work_items and company__update_work_status do the same for connected agents.

Delegate between agents

For an agent to hand a task to another agent at runtime, use the company__dispatch_agent gateway tool: it takes a target agent, a prompt and a mode (chat to wait for a reply, task for fire-and-forget) with a timeout of up to 300 seconds. The target must be an active agent in the same org, and self-dispatch is blocked. Each dispatch runs through the target agent's guardrail profile.

Important

A work item that repeatedly fails usually points at the agent's configuration, model choice or available integrations rather than the task itself. Check the agent's guardrail profile and tool access before retrying.

AI Company Overview Deploying Agents Departments Agent Pipelines