Execution Monitoring

After the plan is written, the agent follows your natural-language direction to continue, pause, or revise execution. You can monitor progress and intervene at any time; there is no blanket plan-approval state to operate first. For long-running work, newer DesireCore versions use the floating task board when responsibility, blockers, cross-agent coordination, or durable progress visibility genuinely need tracking.

Real-Time Display of Execution Process

When a task is executing, you will see a real-time updated progress panel:

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  🔄 Executing: Review procurement contract            │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                        │
│  ✅ Step 1/6  Parse contract file          Done (0.8s) │
│  ✅ Step 2/6  Check penalty percentage     Done (0.2s) │
│     └─ Result: 15%, meets standard (≤20%)            │
│  ✅ Step 3/6  Check payment terms          Done (0.2s) │
│     └─ Result: ⚠️ 15 days, below standard (≥30 days) │
│  🔄 Step 4/6  Analyze imported equipment clauses  In progress... │
│     └─ Analyzing clauses 12-15...                    │
│  ⏳ Step 5/6  Comprehensive risk assessment  Waiting │
│  ⏳ Step 6/6  Wait for confirmation before sending  Waiting │
│                                                        │
│  Total progress: ━━━━━━━━━━━━░░░░░░░░  60%            │
│  Time elapsed: 1 min 15 sec | Est. remaining: 1-2 min │
│                                                        │
│  ┌──────────┐  ┌──────────┐                            │
│  │  ⏸ Pause  │  │  ⏹ Stop  │                            │
│  └──────────┘  └──────────┘                            │
│                                                        │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Step Status Indicators

Status	Icon	Meaning
Pending	🔹	Task created but not started
Waiting	⏳	Queued (waiting on a dependency or an earlier step to finish)
In Progress	🔄	Currently processing
Completed	✅	Step executed successfully
Needs Confirmation	🚪	Human Gate, waiting for your confirmation
Warning	⚠️	Execution successful but problem found
Failed	❌	Execution failed
Discarded	🗑️	Task soft-deleted (still visible in the audit log)

Task List (Transparent Progress)

A task list is not a state machine for the Plan, and it does not mechanically duplicate every Plan step. The agent creates task items only when work needs explicit ownership, blocker tracking, cross-agent coordination, or durable visibility of key progress. Simple sequencing remains in the Plan file. You can still ask “where are we?” or “what’s left?” at any time.

What the Task List Looks Like

Each task has a clear title, status, and links to related context:

📋 Task List (agent "Contract Review Assistant")

🔄 #1 Parse contract file, extract key clauses
        In progress · linked to .desirecore/plans/<plan-id>/PLAN.md

🔹 #2 Check penalty percentage
        Pending · depends on #1 completing

🔹 #3 Check payment terms
        Pending · depends on #1 completing

🔹 #4 Analyze imported equipment clauses (adaptive)
        Pending · risk: med · depends on #1 #2 #3

🔹 #5 Comprehensive risk assessment (adaptive)
        Pending · risk: med · needs your confirmation

🔹 #6 Send review report
        Pending · risk: high · needs your confirmation

Status Updates Immediately

The agent's discipline is:

• Before starting a step, immediately switch its status to "🔄 In Progress"
• As soon as a step is done, switch to "✅ Completed"
• Never batch updates across multiple steps

That means what you see is always current—no "looks stalled but actually working" situations.

Task Dependencies

A task can declare "you must finish X before me". For example, "run database migration" depends on "backup complete"—if the dependency hasn't finished, the agent won't start the dependent step, preventing out-of-order execution.

Dependencies appear in the list as "depends on #X" so you can see the full task graph at a glance.

Deviations from the Plan Reflect in the List

If the agent needs to adjust steps mid-flight, it will:

1. Proactively tell you "I'm going to deviate from the original plan, because X"
2. Incorporate your feedback through natural conversation; wait only when you explicitly require confirmation, otherwise update the relevant task items
3. Append the deviation log to the ## Execution Notes section at the end of the plan file

This way, looking at the plan file + task list later gives you a complete reconstruction of "what actually happened".

Task Lists Are Private to Each Agent

Each agent can see and modify only its own task list. By design:

• No interference: Switching to another agent shows you its list—you won't see another agent's to-dos mixed in
• Clear accountability: Each task traces back to a specific agent (no "who did this?")
• Isolated audit: Task records travel with the agent, making it easy to audit per-agent

What about multi-agent collaboration?

When several agents work on a big task (e.g. a team task), each agent manages its own list and shares progress via messages and receipts—not by reading each other's lists. This mirrors real teamwork: each person has their own to-do list and aligns through updates and receipts. See Cross-Agent Collaboration.

Deterministic Steps vs. Adaptive Steps

This is one of DesireCore's core designs—each execution step is clearly categorized so you know which results are certain and which contain AI judgment.

Deterministic Step

• Characteristics: Clear rules, certain results
• Execution Method: Executed precisely like a program
• Predictability: Execute 100 times, 100 times same result
• Examples: Check if value exceeds threshold, extract specific fields, format conversion

⚙️ [Deterministic] Check penalty percentage
  Rule: Penalty ≤ 20% → Compliant
  Input: Contract clause 8, penalty = 15%
  Result: ✅ Compliant (15% ≤ 20%)

Adaptive Step

• Characteristics: Requires AI understanding and judgment
• Execution Method: Based on contextual reasoning
• Predictability: Different inputs may have different reasoning paths
• Examples: Analyze contract semantics, assess comprehensive risk, generate reports

🧠 [Adaptive] Analyze imported equipment clauses
  Basis: Contract clauses 12-15 content
  Reasoning process:
    - Clause 12 mentions "imported equipment" but doesn't specify country of origin
    - Clause 13 has installation acceptance terms but doesn't mention Chinese instruction manual
    - According to learned rules: imported equipment must have Chinese instruction manual clause
  Result: ⚠️ Missing Chinese instruction manual clause, suggest adding

Why is the Distinction Important?

You can fully trust the results of deterministic steps—they're executed according to rules. Adaptive step results require more attention—AI judgment may have deviations. Knowing which steps are adaptive tells you which results need careful checking.

Pausing and Resuming Execution

Pausing Execution

At any time, you can pause a task being executed:

[Click ⏸ Pause]

Agent: "Task paused.
        Current progress: Step 4/6 (Analyze imported equipment clauses)
        Completed steps are unaffected.

        You can:
        ▶️ Continue execution
        🔄 Retry current step
        ⏭️ Skip current step
        ⏪ Roll back to a step and restart
        ⏹️ Terminate task"

Resuming Execution

After pausing, you have multiple resume options:

Option	Behavior	Applicable Scenario
Continue	Continue from pause point	Temporarily needed to handle other things
Retry Current Step	Re-execute current step	Temporary error in current step
Skip Current Step	Jump to next step	Current step unimportant or handled manually
Roll Back	Roll back to previous step	Found problems with previous steps
Terminate	End task	No longer need to execute this task

Exception Handling During Execution

When the agent encounters problems, it takes different handling approaches based on the situation:

Automatic Retry

For temporary errors like network timeouts, the agent automatically retries:

⚠️ Step 4 execution failed: File read timeout
   Retrying automatically... (1/3)
   ✅ Retry successful

Proactive Reporting

For problems it cannot solve on its own, the agent proactively tells you:

Agent: "Step 4 encountered a problem:

        ⚠️ Contract file clause 13 references an attachment (Attachment C: Equipment Specification),
        but I didn't find this attachment.

        Please choose:
        1. Provide Attachment C file
        2. Skip this step, mark 'missing Attachment C' in report
        3. Pause task, I'll handle it later"

Inserting New Instructions During Execution

You can supplement instructions to the agent at any time during execution:

You: "Wait, clause 12's confidentiality period also needs special attention,
    if it exceeds 5 years mark it as a risk."

Agent: "Received, I will add confidentiality period check in subsequent steps.
        Current step unaffected, will incorporate in step 5 (comprehensive assessment)."

Approval and Waiting in Delegated Tasks

A child Agent may request approval while executing a command or tool. DesireCore displays the request and final decision in the child conversation and mirrors both into the parent Agent conversation that started the delegation. Notifications also prefer the parent conversation, so you do not need to switch panels just to approve the child operation.

Approval mode	Waiting behavior during delegation
AI Approval	You can decide within 30 seconds; at expiry, the AI suggestion approves or rejects, or the operation is denied when no suggestion is available
Always Ask / Allowlist miss / External Tools Only	Waits for a human decision and does not reject merely because an ordinary approval countdown elapsed
Allow All	Skips ordinary confirmation, while deny lists, file scope, and tool permissions remain active

A synchronous delegation has a separate wait limit. If the parent receives a “wait timed out” result first, the child task has not necessarily ended: it may still be running in the background or waiting for your approval. The timeout notice includes an available task reference; the parent can continue waiting, ignore a later result, or terminate the child task when supported.

Next Step

During execution, certain high-risk operations will trigger "Human Gate" confirmation. Go to Human Gate Confirmation Mechanism for details.

Will the task run for half an hour or longer?

See Long-running tasks for instructions on saving stage progress, running commands in the background, and resuming from existing results after an interruption.