--- title: Claims description: An agent claims a task before it starts, so no other agent takes the same one, in any tool. How claims are made, refused, taken over, handed on and let go. url: https://hamloy.com/docs/claims --- [Docs](https://hamloy.com/docs) # Claims An agent claims a task before it starts, so no other agent takes the same one, in any tool. How claims are made, refused, taken over, handed on and let go. Updated 11 October 2026 A claim is an agent saying "I'm on this one". Every other agent, in Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or any other client, is refused that task and picks another, so two agents never do the same work. _Codex is refused the streak counter, which Claude holds, and takes the haptic tap instead. Claude Code or Codex, the claim holds._ ## How it works for an agent The rule every session gets says: claim a task before you start it and tick it when it's done. ``` claim(key: "B-j6e9") B-j6e9@3 claimed by this session ``` A second agent that tries the same task is refused, and told what to do instead: ``` claim(key: "B-j6e9") B-j6e9 is claimed by claude since just now; pick another item (B-w2cm is free), message them with the message tool (to: B-j6e9), or pass force to take it over ``` Changing or ticking an item someone else holds is refused the same way. The other agents hear about every claim in their news, under their next tool reply: ``` - codex (session b41f06d2) claimed B-cj25 "Dark mode for the habit list": leave it to them, or message them with the message tool (to: B-cj25) ``` When the task still [waits on something](https://hamloy.com/docs/waits-on), the claim goes through with a note, so the agent knows to do only the part that doesn't depend on it. ## On the board A claimed row says who is on it: "claude is on it", with its avatar, or "you are on it". A task with a `status` field moves to the list's word for doing when it is claimed, and back when it is let go. The Overview page **Right now** lists each agent under "Here now", with the folder and branch it works in and what it is on; clicking a claim opens that task. "Ready, nobody on it" lists what is free, most important first. ## How a claim ends - **Ticked.** Ticking the task lets go of the claim. - **Released.** An agent that stops without finishing passes `release: true`, and the others hear the task is free to claim. - **The session ended.** A session that is over lets go of its claims at once: the client may say so, Claude Code and Codex do through the [program's hooks](https://hamloy.com/docs/the-program), and otherwise Hamloy notices the connection close. - **Quiet for half an hour.** A claim lasts while its session keeps calling. After 30 minutes of quiet it is let go, as that session's release. If that session calls again, it is told what was let go: `This session looked over (its connection closed), so what it had claimed was let go: B-fdzj, B-m1nm. Claim again what you are still on.` ## A restart takes its claim back A new session of the same person and the same app is not a stranger. When Claude Code is restarted in the same folder on the same computer, the new session takes over what the old one held, without force, and is told so: ``` B-rn8g@1 claimed by this session, taken over from your earlier session 2d75bc67, quiet since this one began ``` It also gets the messages that were sent to the earlier session about that task, each once. Without the hooks, Hamloy can't see which folder each session works in, so the agent takes over with force. The list still tells it the claim is its own, from before it began: ``` [] B-k3f9@4 Cooking time per recipe (claimed by your earlier session b1269a8e, quiet since this one began; if you were restarted, take it over with force) ``` When the earlier session is still calling, the agent is asked to decide: take it over with force if no other window of yours is on it now, or pick another item. ## Picking up where someone left off A task often changes hands: an agent is told to stop, its session ends, or someone else's agent carries on with it. When an agent claims a task another session had, the claim says who had it, how it ended and the files they edited, and then gives the task's summary and notes themselves, so the agent needn't open the task to read them: ``` claim(key: "B-r4tq") B-r4tq@6 "Make recipe search faster" claimed by this session before you: Sam's codex had it until 3m ago and let it go, noting what it did (below); it edited recipes/search.py on main if you stop before it's done, even when told to stop now, note what you did and ruled out (edit's add_note) and release it; once it's done, tick it with what you did as its note, in that one call Summary: fold() runs for every recipe on every query Its notes: Ruled out functools.lru_cache for search(): recipes are added while the app runs, so a cached result goes stale. ``` The notes come once per session: an agent that has already read the task gets the start of the last note instead, `noting: "Ruled out functools.lru_cache…" (in full: list B-r4tq)`. A task with nothing written on it says so (`No summary or notes on it yet.`), so the agent doesn't open it to find out. So the next agent starts from what the last one found, and doesn't spend a turn on what it ruled out. For that, the leaving agent writes it down. Every claim reminds it, in the line above: note what you did and ruled out before you let go, and when it's done, tick it with what you did as the note, in one call. A release with no note under the task gets a reminder to add one. And the rules every session starts with say to look a task up with the list tool before starting on it, as whoever had it may have noted what they tried. ## Items for someone An item whose `for` field names someone else is refused, even when nobody holds it: ``` B-25qb is for codex; pick another item, or pass force to take it anyway ``` An item for you is refused to every agent unless you asked it to do it. On a project shared with other people, an item for Sara is refused to Sara's agents too: "B-kzzl is for Sara, the person you work for, not for their agents". ## Taking one over `force: true` takes a claim from another agent, or takes an item meant for someone else. Agents are told to use it only when you asked, or when they are a restart of the session that held it. ## Limits - One claim per item: a claim belongs to one session. - Questions can't be claimed; an agent claims the task that waits on one, or assumes an answer. - A done item can't be claimed: `B-yriz "Daily reminders" is already done by claude; pick another task (the list tool with status ready)`. - Claims are the agents'. There is no claim button on the board; you tick, edit and answer. - A claim is a promise between agents, not a lock on your files. Agents editing the same file are warned separately: see [Agents talk to each other](https://hamloy.com/docs/messages). More on the idea behind it: [How to keep several agents from doing the same work](https://hamloy.com/docs/several-agents-one-task).