Skip to main content
Task dependencies define execution order and enable advanced orchestration patterns. Claude Board supports full DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph) dependencies with conditional branching, automatic context sharing, and sub-task spawning.

​
Adding Dependencies

1

Open task modal

Click edit on an existing task, or create a new task.
2

Expand Options

Click the Options section to reveal the dependency editor.
3

Search and add

Click Add dependency to search and select parent tasks. You can also Shift+drag between nodes in the Orchestration Graph view.

​
Conditional Dependencies

Dependencies can have conditions that control when child tasks are triggered:
Use On Failure conditions to create automatic recovery workflows. Example: If a build task fails, trigger a debug task automatically.

​
Agent Context Handoff

When a parent task completes, Claude Board automatically generates a context summary containing:
  • Git diff statistics (files changed)
  • Recent commit messages
  • Last Claude output summary
  • Branch information
This context is automatically injected into dependent child task prompts. Child agents know what the parent did, what files changed, and can build on that work without re-exploring the codebase.

​
Sub-task Spawning

Running agents can create sub-tasks via MCP tools. When an agent calls create_task with a parent_task_id, the sub-task is linked to the parent:
  1. Agent calls create_task with parent_task_id set to its own task ID
  2. Sub-task is created in backlog and auto-queued
  3. Parent task enters awaiting sub-tasks state after its Claude process finishes
  4. Sub-tasks execute (respecting DAG and concurrency)
  5. When all sub-tasks reach done/testing, the parent automatically completes
Sub-tasks inherit the parent’s project context. The parent task’s prompt instructs Claude on how to use parent_task_id when creating sub-tasks.

​
Cycle Detection

Claude Board prevents circular dependencies using DFS (Depth-First Search) traversal. If adding a dependency would create a cycle (A -> B -> C -> A), the operation is rejected.

​
Dependency Patterns

Sequential: A -> B -> C -> D. Each task starts only after the previous completes.

​
API

  • addDependency(taskId, dependsOnId, conditionType?) — Add dependency with optional condition (always, on_success, on_failure)
  • removeDependency(taskId, dependsOnId) — Remove a dependency
  • getTaskDependencies(taskId) — Get parents and children
  • getDependencyGraph(projectId) — Full graph with edges (including conditionType) and waves
  • getExecutionWaves(projectId) — Wave groupings