Creating Tasks
Create tasks using slash commands, natural language @mentions, or form modals — with auto-priority, estimates, and due dates.
Tickr gives you three ways to create tasks — a slash command, a form modal, and natural language @mentions. All three produce the same interactive task card in the channel.
Slash command
/tickr create [description]With a description — creates the task immediately:
/tickr create Fix the login page timeout issueThe task is assigned to you by default. Tickr auto-assesses priority based on keywords in the title (e.g., "crash" = critical, "bug" = high). If it sets a non-low priority, it tells you why.
Without a description — opens a form modal:
/tickr createThe modal has the following fields:
| Field | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Title | Yes | What needs to be done |
| Description | No | Additional details (up to 300 characters shown on card) |
| Assignee | No | Slack user picker (defaults to you) |
| Priority | No | Low, Medium, High, or Critical (defaults to Low) |
| Estimate | No | Time estimate in natural language, e.g. "2 days", "1 week" |
| Due Date | No | Date picker |
| Tags | No | Comma-separated labels, e.g. "bug, frontend, urgent" |
| Repeat | No | Recurrence schedule: Daily, Weekly, Biweekly, or Monthly |
💡 Estimates matter
Setting an estimate calibrates Tickr's nudge engine. A task estimated at "2 hours" gets nudged much sooner than one estimated at "2 weeks". See Smart Nudges for how this works.
Natural language with @Tickr
Mention Tickr in any channel where it's installed:
@Tickr create a task to fix the checkout flow, assign to @carol, due FridayTickr uses AI to extract:
- Title from your description
- Assignee from any @mention (defaults to you if none)
- Priority from keywords and context (see Priority System)
- Due date from relative phrases like "Friday", "next Monday", "end of week", "tomorrow"
- Estimate from phrases like "3 days", "1 week"
- Tags from categorization cues (e.g., "bug", "frontend work", "tech debt") — see Tags
- Recurrence from phrases like "every week", "daily", "monthly" — see Recurring Tasks
More examples:
@Tickr add a task: redesign the settings page — high priority, estimate 3 days@Tickr we need to migrate the database to Postgres, it's criticalThread-aware context
When you mention @Tickr in a thread, it reads up to 10 recent messages for context. This means you can have a conversation and then say:
@Tickr based on this discussion, create a task for the API refactorTickr uses the thread context to generate a better title and description.
Auto-priority assessment
When creating a task, Tickr automatically assesses priority based on several signals:
Keyword detection:
| Keywords | Priority |
|---|---|
| outage, down, crash, P0, sev-1, incident, broken, data loss, security, vulnerability | Critical |
| urgent, ASAP, bug, regression, P1, sev-2, deadline, hotfix, breaking, customer-facing, escalation | High |
| important, tech debt, refactor, performance, flaky | Medium |
Due date proximity:
| Condition | Priority |
|---|---|
| Overdue or due within 24 hours | Critical |
| Due within 3 days | High |
| Due within 1 week | Medium |
AI signals:
- Tone and urgency — exclamation marks, ALL CAPS, phrases like "right now" signal higher priority
- Assignee workload — if someone already has 3+ active tasks, Tickr leans toward higher priority so nudges fire appropriately
When Tickr sets a non-low priority, it briefly explains why:
Auto-set to critical priority (keyword: crash)
For full details on the priority system, see Priority System.
Task statuses
Every task starts as open when created. There are four statuses:
| Status | Emoji | Description |
|---|---|---|
open | ⚪ | Created but not started |
in_progress | 🔵 | Actively being worked on |
blocked | 🔴 | Waiting on a dependency or blocker |
done | ✅ | Completed |
You can transition between any status freely using commands, buttons, or @mentions.