workflow-status

Workflow Status Tracking

Adds status and status_updated_at columns to the thoughts table for kanban-style workflow management of tasks and ideas.

What It Does

Extends the thoughts table with two columns that track workflow state. This enables the Workflow board in the Next.js dashboard and the progress_task MCP tool for AI-assisted task management.

Valid statuses: new, planning, active, review, done, archived

Only task and idea thought types use the status field. All other types have status = NULL.

Prerequisites

• Working Open Brain setup (guide)
• Access to the Supabase SQL Editor or CLI

Credential Tracker

WORKFLOW STATUS -- CREDENTIAL TRACKER
--------------------------------------

SUPABASE (from your Open Brain setup)
  Project URL:           ____________
  Secret key:            ____________

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Steps

1. Open your Supabase SQL Editor (Dashboard > SQL Editor)
2. Paste and run the migration:

SQL: Add status columns and backfill existing tasks/ideas

-- Add status column (nullable — only task/idea types use it)
ALTER TABLE thoughts ADD COLUMN IF NOT EXISTS status TEXT DEFAULT NULL;

-- Add timestamp for tracking when status last changed
ALTER TABLE thoughts ADD COLUMN IF NOT EXISTS status_updated_at TIMESTAMPTZ DEFAULT now();

-- Index for fast status filtering (partial — only rows with a status)
CREATE INDEX IF NOT EXISTS idx_thoughts_status ON thoughts (status) WHERE status IS NOT NULL;

-- Backfill: set existing task and idea thoughts to 'new' status
UPDATE thoughts
SET status = 'new', status_updated_at = now()
WHERE type IN ('task', 'idea') AND status IS NULL;

Or via the Supabase CLI:

supabase db push

(if you have the migration file in supabase/migrations/)

1. Verify the columns exist:

   SELECT column_name, data_type, is_nullable
   FROM information_schema.columns
   WHERE table_name = 'thoughts' AND column_name IN ('status', 'status_updated_at');

2. Verify the backfill worked:

   SELECT status, count(*) FROM thoughts
   WHERE type IN ('task', 'idea')
   GROUP BY status;

Expected Outcome

After running the migration:

• The thoughts table has two new columns: status (TEXT, nullable) and status_updated_at (TIMESTAMPTZ)
• All existing task and idea thoughts have status = 'new'
• A partial index idx_thoughts_status exists for fast status queries
• Other thought types (observation, reference, etc.) have status = NULL and are unaffected

Tip

The migration is idempotent — safe to run multiple times. IF NOT EXISTS prevents duplicate columns or indexes.

MCP Integration

Once the schema is applied, update your open-brain-mcp Edge Function to include the progress_task tool. This allows AI assistants to manage task status conversationally:

Tool	Parameters	Description
progress_task	thought_id (required), status, importance	Update workflow status or priority of a task/idea

Example prompts after setup:

• "Move thought 42 to active"
• "Set the priority on the API redesign to high"
• "Mark the karaoke task as done"

Troubleshooting

Issue: "column already exists" error Solution: This is expected if you run the migration twice. The IF NOT EXISTS clause handles this — the error is informational only.

Issue: Existing tasks don't appear on the Workflow board Solution: Run the backfill query manually: UPDATE thoughts SET status = 'new' WHERE type IN ('task', 'idea') AND status IS NULL;

Issue: Non-task thoughts showing status values Solution: The status column should only be set for task and idea types. Run: UPDATE thoughts SET status = NULL WHERE type NOT IN ('task', 'idea');