Atona/How it works/Tasks
Tasks

Delegating real work.

Hand off the things you'd give to a human assistant — in plain language, from any channel. Atona figures out the steps, executes them, and reports back when it's done.

In this guide: how tasks differ from workflows, what Atona will do without asking, and how to keep tabs on what's running.

What it does

A task is a single goal you'd rather not handle yourself. "Find me three plumbers and book the best one." "Refund the order from last week." "Get the contract from Sarah and send it to my lawyer." You describe the goal. Atona figures out the steps, runs them, and asks you only when it can't proceed.

Tasks finish in minutes or hours. Anything that needs to span days or branches across multiple people becomes a workflow instead.

Try saying

Anything you'd hand to a smart assistant.

"

Find me three plumbers and book the best one.

"

Refund the order from last week.

"

Email everyone I haven't talked to in three months.

"

What are you working on right now?

How it works

1

Tell Atona the goal

In plain language, from any channel. No structure required — just say what you want done.

2

It plans the steps

Atona breaks the goal into the actual actions — search, draft, send, wait, confirm — and decides which to do automatically and which need your call.

3

It executes

Sending emails, scheduling, calling, looking things up, summarizing. Each step is logged.

4

It reports back

When the task is done, Atona summarizes what happened in your morning brief — or immediately, if you asked it to.

What you control

Priority and deadline

Tell Atona when something is urgent. It prioritizes accordingly.

Approval gates

Require Atona to check with you before taking specific kinds of actions — sending email to a new contact, anything involving money, anything irreversible.

Retry budget

Cap how many times Atona will retry something before escalating to you.

Cancel anytime

Stop a task in flight. Atona reports what it had done up to that point.

What Atona will not do

Common questions

How is a task different from a workflow?

Tasks finish quickly — minutes, sometimes hours — and follow a single thread. Workflows run for days or weeks, branch across multiple people and channels, and adapt over time. See workflows →

What if Atona gets stuck?

It pauses and escalates to you with a specific question, not a generic "help me." It tells you exactly what it tried and what it needs from you to continue.

Can it spend money?

Only with your explicit approval, every time. There's no "budget" Atona can draw from on its own.

Where do I see what's running?

In your morning brief, in the chat dashboard, and in the mobile app. Every task shows status, what's been done, and what's next.

Can I run multiple tasks at once?

Yes. Tasks run in parallel and don't block each other.

Related guides

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