Triaging Work with the Priorities Engine

Overview

The Priorities view answers "what should I do next?" It runs your active tasks through the StretchTasks prioritization engine to produce an explainable ranked sequence, a critical path through dependent work, and a list of root blockers gating everything else.

Priorities is powered by an optional engine. If it hasn't been enabled for your platform, this view shows an Engine dormant notice instead of results — the ranking, scoring, and dependency graph appear once an administrator turns the engine on.

What you'll see

Recommended sequence A ranked table of your active tasks, most important first. Each row shows:

• # — its position in the recommended order.
• Task — the title.
• Score — a numeric priority score.
• Band — a readable bucket: Do now, High, Medium, Low, or Blocked.
• Next best action — the engine's suggested move.
• Why — expand it to see the factors (signals and their weights) that produced the score. Negative-weight factors are flagged.

A chip in the header tells you whether the engine is live (and its version) or off.

Critical path The longest chain of dependent tasks — the sequence that most constrains your delivery — listed step by step with its length shown in the header. If there's no blocker→dependent chain, you'll see a "No dependency chain" note.

Root blockers The tasks that are blocking others, each with a chip showing how many downstream tasks it blocks. Clearing these unlocks the most work.

How the engine scores

The engine reads signals from your live tasks — priority, how soon each is due, how old it is, and any dependencies you've recorded (a task can be marked as blocked by others). It combines these into a score and an explainable band, so the ranking reflects real urgency and dependency rather than a guess. StretchTasks stays the system of record: the engine reads your tasks and returns a recommendation but never silently rewrites them.

Steps: use Priorities to plan

1. Open Priorities from the left rail.
2. Check the engine chip in the Recommended sequence header to confirm the engine is live.
3. Work top-down: start with the #1 row, using its Next best action as your cue.
4. Expand Why on any task you're unsure about to see what's driving its score.
5. Scan Root blockers — knock these out first to free up dependent tasks.
6. Use the Critical path to understand which chain of work sets your overall timeline.

Concrete example

Priorities ranks "Get API keys from vendor" at #1 in the Do now band. Expanding Why shows factors like blocking count + and overdue +. Over in Root blockers, that same task shows blocks 4. You realize finishing this one unblocks four downstream tasks, so you tackle it first. After you complete it, you reopen Priorities and the sequence has recomputed — the four unblocked tasks have moved up.

Tips

• The recommended sequence is recomputed from your live tasks — as you complete blockers and adjust due dates, reopen Priorities for a fresh ranking.
• Record dependencies on the tasks that have them so the critical path and root blockers reflect reality.
• Use the band for quick planning: clear the Do now items before touching Low.

Troubleshooting

• The view says the engine is dormant/off. The prioritization engine is an optional capability an administrator enables for your platform. Until it's on, you'll see a notice instead of results — use the Board, Today queue, and priority sorting in the meantime.
• Critical path is empty. That means no blocker→dependent chain exists among your active tasks. Add dependencies to the tasks that have them and it will populate.
• A task I expected isn't ranked. Only active tasks are scored — completed, cancelled, and archived tasks are excluded from Priorities.