Task Templates are the core building block for structured work in Kodexa. They define everything about how a task behaves — what forms appear, which actions are available, how documents are organized, what team is assigned, and whether an automated plan should execute when the task is created.
What is a Task Template?
A task template is a project-scoped configuration that acts as a blueprint for tasks. When a user creates a new task, they select a template which pre-configures the task with:
- Name and description patterns
- Data forms for structured data entry and review
- Actions (buttons) for status transitions and data mutations
- Document groups with file type filters, limits, and auto-population rules
- Default team assignment
- Default priority
- Custom options (configurable form fields)
- Planning mode for automated multi-step workflows
Every project can have multiple task templates, each representing a different type of work such as “Document Review”, “Data Extraction”, or “Quality Approval”.
Managing Task Templates
Viewing Templates
Navigate to your project and select Task Templates from the sidebar. The grid displays all templates with their names and descriptions. Click a template to open the editor.
Creating a Template
Click the add button to create a new task template. You will need to provide:
- Name — A human-readable name (e.g., “Invoice Review”)
- Slug — A URL-safe identifier used in API references and plan configurations
- Description — What this template is for
Template Editor Tabs
The template editor provides several tabs for configuring different aspects:
| Tab | Purpose |
|---|
| Overview | Name, slug, description, and general settings |
| Data Forms | Attach data forms for structured data display and editing |
| Planned Activity | Configure automated planning workflows (see Planning Mode) |
| Actions | Define action buttons with status transitions and keyboard shortcuts |
| Document Groups | Configure how documents are organized and filtered within tasks |
Actions
Actions define the buttons that appear in a task’s toolbar. Each action can:
- Change task status — Transition to a target status when clicked
- Set attributes — Mutate data properties on the task
- Trigger keyboard shortcuts — Bind to key combinations for fast review workflows
- Display with icons and colors — Visual differentiation for different action types
Actions are important beyond the task UI — in Planning Mode, TASK plan steps can have action-specific dependency edges, meaning the next step in a workflow can depend on which action the reviewer clicked (e.g., proceed only if “Approve” was clicked, re-route if “Reject” was clicked).
Task templates can attach one or more data forms that define the structured data interface shown to users working on the task. Forms are configured with:
- Data form reference — Which data form to use
- Available panels — Which panels are visible
- Custom properties — Form-specific configuration
Document Groups
Document groups control how documents are organized within a task:
name: "Source Documents"
documentFamilyFilter: "*.pdf OR *.xlsx"
maxHits: 5
automaticallyAdd: true
editable: true
uploadOnly: false
uniqueFilenames: true
| Property | Description |
|---|
name | Display name for the document group tab |
documentFamilyFilter | File extension filter (e.g., *.pdf OR *.xlsx) |
maxHits | Maximum number of documents allowed |
maxPages | Maximum pages per document |
maxSize | Maximum file size in bytes |
automaticallyAdd | Auto-populate matching documents from the project store |
editable | Whether users can add/remove documents |
uploadOnly | Restrict to uploading new files only (no existing file selection) |
uniqueFilenames | Prevent duplicate filenames |
titlePrompt | LLM prompt template for auto-generating task titles from document content |
Custom Options
The options array defines configurable form fields that appear during task creation or editing:
tabName: "Settings"
name: "extractionMode"
label: "Extraction Mode"
type: "select"
required: true
default: "auto"
description: "How documents should be processed"
showIf: "advancedMode == true"
- Conditional visibility via
showIf expressions
- Feature flag gating via
featureFlag
- Developer-only fields via
developerOnly
- Popup display via
showOnPopup (shown in the creation dialog)
Default Team
Task templates can specify a default team via the teamSlug field. When a user creates a task from this template, the team dropdown is automatically pre-populated with the matching team. The user can override this selection. See Teams and Task Assignment for details.
Setting a default team on your templates ensures tasks are automatically routed to the right group without requiring the creator to remember which team handles each type of work.
Sub-Task Templates
Templates can be marked as sub-task-only by setting properties.subTaskOnly: true in the metadata. These templates are hidden from the main task creation dialog and are only used when a Planning Mode plan creates child tasks.
Task Templates in Project Templates
When you build a Project Template, task templates are included as part of the template definition. When a new project is created from the project template, all task templates are automatically created with variable substitution applied (project ID, name, organization slug). 