Tasks, scheduled tasks and monitors
Hand work to your agents as a task in a channel. Follow it, answer its approvals, run it on a schedule, or set a monitor to watch for a change.
A task is work you hand to Nebula and your agents. It can run now, on a schedule, or when something happens, and you follow it, steer it and answer its questions without leaving the channel.
Score this week's inbound leads against our ICP and flag the top ten.
Score every inbound lead from the last seven days against the Q4 ICP and post a top-ten shortlist to q4-launch.
I'll pull this week's inbound leads, then have Prospect Researcher score each one.
Gmail · Fetch emails
Delegate
6 tool calls·1 runningWeb Search, Web Scraper, Compute
Web Search
Web Scraper
Compute
Working…2m 8s
| What it is | On desktop | On mobile |
|---|---|---|
| Task: a piece of work | The channel's Tasks box, New task | The Tasks tab (list icon) |
| Scheduled task: work on a schedule | The Jobs box, New job → Scheduled task | The Automations tab (clock icon) |
| Monitor: watch for a change | The Jobs box, New job → Monitor | Ask Nebula in the channel |
Start a task
In a channel, Nebula answers small things itself: conversation, questions about past messages, quick web searches. Anything bigger becomes a task. The work moves into a thread on the message that asked for it: Nebula says it's on it there, the task card sits under that line, and the task reports back in the same thread when it's done. The channel's main feed stays readable while the work runs.
Nebula, score this week's inbound leads against our ICP and flag the ten strongest.
On it. I've started a task to score this week's inbound leads, and it will report back in this thread when it's done.
In a shared channel, address Nebula: tag it, or start your message with its name ("Nebula, …"). In your Nebula DM, every message reaches it, so you can just say what you need.
On desktop, click + in the channel's Tasks box. The New task dialog asks you to finish the sentence "Start a task that…". Click Start and the sentence posts to the chat, where Nebula picks it up and you can steer it.
Nebula keeps listening on a call, even when it's in the background, and it can start tasks while you keep talking. The work lands in the channel like any other task.
Follow a task
Click a task card to open the task as a tab beside the chat. On desktop, the channel's Tasks box lists every task in the channel, plus the runs of its jobs. Click a task there to jump to the conversation that started it, or a run to open its job. Your Nebula DM (Home) has the same box for the work you start there. On mobile, use the channel's Tasks tab (the list icon), which shows a pulsing dot while a task is running.
Every task shows one of these states:
| State | What it means |
|---|---|
| Queued | Waiting to start |
| Running | Working now |
| Paused | Stopped for now, not working |
| Needs your attention | Waiting on you for an approval, an answer or a connection. The task's header shortens this to Needs you |
| Completed | Finished, with its result on the card |
| Failed | Stopped by an error or an interruption |
| Called off | Cancelled before it finished |
Inside the task you see each step as it happens. That includes the tools it ran (click one to see its input and output), a To-do list for longer work, and how long it worked. If Nebula handed the work over from the channel, its instructions sit under your request as Brief from the Channel agent (that's Nebula).
Steer or stop a task
A running task takes new instructions. Type in the Continue this task… box to add detail, change direction or ask a follow-up. The same box has a Task model picker, so you can switch models for this task without changing the channel's or the workspace's default (see Models).
To stop a task, click Stop in its header, or hover the state icon on its card and choose Stop this task. Stop appears only for the person who started the task.
When a task needs you
When a task can't go on without you, it raises a card and switches to Needs your attention. The card lands in the channel, on the task's card in the chat, so you answer it where you're already talking. Once answered, it leaves a one-line result such as Approved or Connected. On your phone you can also answer it inside the task. Needs your attention, Needs you and Waiting on you all mean the same thing: the task is waiting for you.
Approve: Computer control - exec
- command
- pnpm run build
- path
- /Users/maya/Code/launch-site
- action
- exec
When an agent wants to run a command or touch a file outside what its device allows, the card reads Computer control with the action, and shows the command and the folder. Choose Approve or Deny. For actions that need your consent on a device, you also get Always allow, and Nebula stops asking for that action on that device.
With your write-approval safety gate on, a write that looks risky or doesn't match what you asked for doesn't run. The task stops and says in plain words what it wants to do and why. Reply to tell it to go ahead or to change course, and the work picks up from there. The safety gate is covered on Notifications.
The card reads "Review the plan before the work starts." and shows the plan. Choose Approve plan to begin. If it's wrong, choose Not this — I'll reply and say what to change.
The agent lists options as cards. For a single choice, click one and the task moves on. Otherwise make your picks and click Submit.
The card reads "Connect App to continue." Choose Connect to link it in your browser or enter credentials, or Decline. Once the app is linked, the card closes and the task starts again. See Connections.
Connect Gmail to continue.
Connect in your browser, or enter provider credentials here when required. The task resumes once it’s linked.
Put a task on a schedule
A scheduled task runs again and again until you pause or delete it. The simplest way to make one is to ask in the channel. Nebula sets up the schedule right in the chat. After each run, Nebula tells the channel when there's something worth saying. If a run fails or stops for a decision from you, it always posts, mentions the task's owner and links to the job.
Nebula, every Monday at 9am put together a pipeline digest: new deals, stalled deals and anything that closed.
Done. Weekly pipeline digest runs every Monday at 9:00 AM, and I'll share what's worth knowing here.
The channel's Automations tab (the clock icon) lists its scheduled tasks. To add one, ask Nebula in the channel's chat.
Instructions
Every Monday, summarize last week's pipeline: new inbound leads, deals that moved stage, and anything stalled for more than 14 days.
Runs
- Run #35m ago42 new inbound leads this week; 6 deals moved to proposal and 3 have stalled past 14 days.1m 4s · 6 tools · 4/4 steps
- Run #21w ago31 new inbound leads; pipeline value is up 12% on last week.58s · 5 tools · 4/4 steps
- Run #12w agoCouldn't read the pipeline: the HubSpot connection needs reconnecting.12s · 2 tools
Manage a scheduled task
Open a scheduled task from the Jobs box. The top of the pane shows its status, its schedule in words, when it runs next, when it last ran and how many runs it has had.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Run now | Runs it immediately without changing its schedule |
| Pause / Resume | Stops it from running on schedule, then starts it again |
| Delete | Stops it for good and removes it from the channel. Past runs stay where they landed |
On desktop, only the scheduled task's owner can use those controls. Anyone can read its Instructions, which say what every run is asked to do. Manage jobs (the sliders icon in the Jobs box) opens Channel settings → Jobs, which lists every job in the channel with the same controls.
All of a scheduled task's runs land in one task. Runs lists them newest first as Run #1, Run #2 and so on, and a question you ask in between shows as Follow-up. A run that's waiting for you is marked Waiting on you. You can also ask Nebula in the channel to change the schedule, pause the task, delete it or move it to another channel.
Run a task when something happens
A task can also start when something happens. Set these up by asking Nebula in your Nebula DM or inside a task. A channel's chat doesn't create them directly.
Start a run when something happens in a connected app, like a new release tag in a GitHub repository. The app has to be linked first, so see Connections.
Nebula gives you a web address that any service can call, and each call starts a run. This is useful for tools Nebula doesn't connect to directly.
Start a run when you come online, become active, go away or go offline. You can add a minimum time, such as "after I've been away for an hour".
Whenever we tag a new release in our GitHub repo, draft launch notes from the merged pull requests and email them to me.
Setting up a run for each new release tag.
Set. Each new release tag starts a run that drafts the launch notes and emails them to you.
On desktop these jobs show a lightning bolt in the Jobs box. Until the first event arrives they read Listening, and the job's pane names the event it waits for, such as When you come online.
Watch for a change with a monitor
A monitor is a short watch that only works in a channel. It checks a public web page or a web search at a regular interval for a window of 15 seconds to 15 minutes, looking for something specific. When the condition comes true, the window closes or the page can't be read, a message lands in the channel and mentions whoever asked.
Nebula, watch the Stripe status page for the next 15 minutes and tell me when today's incident says resolved.
Watching the Stripe status page. I'll mention you here when it changes.
@Maya Chen The Stripe status page now shows today's incident as resolved.
On desktop you can also start one from the Jobs box: click +, choose Monitor in New automation and finish the sentence "Watch…". Running monitors sit at the top of the Jobs box. Opening one shows Watching now, the condition under Fires when, and each check under Checks and results. Click Stop watching to end it early.
| Monitor | Scheduled task | |
|---|---|---|
| How long it runs | One window, 15 seconds to 15 minutes | Until you pause or delete it |
| What it can check | A public web page or a web search | Anything a task can do |
| When it acts | When an exact condition is met, like text appearing or a number crossing a line | On its schedule |
| What you get | One message in the channel at the end | An update in the channel when a run has news, fails or needs you |
A monitor can't make judgment calls ("when the reviews turn negative") or look inside connected accounts like email or a CRM. Ask for a task instead. Anything that repeats or needs longer than 15 minutes is a scheduled task. Not sure which fits? Ask Nebula. For bugs or requests, email support@nebula.gg.
Common questions
Related
Calls with your team and Nebula
Start a live call in any Nebula channel, talk the work through with your team and Nebula, show it your screen, and come away with a recap of decisions.
Apps: build tools for a channel by asking
Create apps in Nebula by describing them. Trackers, dashboards and forms open beside a channel's chat, and you can pin them or add them to another channel.