# Running a checklist

Open a checklist and you get every task in order, top to bottom. The ones you can
work are open; the rest show what they are waiting on.

## The header

Along the top: the checklist name, which [workflow](workflows.md) and version it
came from, how long it has been open, and progress -- `3 of 6`.

## Working a task

A [Ready](task-statuses.md) task shows its instructions, its
[fields](fields.md) if it has any, and two buttons.

1. **Read the instructions.** If there are none the card says so.
2. **Fill in the fields.** Ones marked with an asterisk are required -- the task
   will not complete without them.
3. **Complete task.**
4. **Check it over, then confirm.**

The task does not close on that first press. A box opens showing the checklist,
the task, and every answer you gave, read back to you -- so a field you tabbed
past shows up as "Not filled in" while you can still do something about it.

**Yes, complete it** closes the task. **Go back** returns you to the form with
everything you typed still there.

The reason for the extra press is that closing is final: a task cannot be
reopened, so the moment before the write is the only place to catch a mistake.
See [Task and checklist statuses](task-statuses.md).

Once closed, anything that was waiting on it turns Ready straight away -- you do
not need to reload. See [Prerequisites](prerequisites.md).

## Attaching a file

A [file field](fields.md) has an upload control. Pick the file and it uploads
before the task submits, so a slow upload does not lose your other answers.

One file per field, 25 MB each. Everything attached across the checklist is
collected in the Files section of the [summary](checklist-summary.md).

## Skipping

**Skip** passes over a task that does not apply this time. It asks for the same
confirmation, for the same reason -- a skip closes the task just as firmly as a
completion does.

A skipped task counts as closed: everything waiting on it turns Ready, exactly as
if it had been completed. The [summary](checklist-summary.md) counts skips
separately, so the fact that it was skipped stays on the record.

## "This task is not yours"

If a task is assigned to someone else you get a warning above the buttons. It is a
warning, not a block -- you can still complete it, and the checklist records that
you did. See [How assignment works](assignment.md).

## Tasks that close themselves

A task wired to a connected system closes when that system reports in -- a deploy
job, for example. It shows as complete, credited to the system's name, without
anyone touching it. The page updates on its own while you have it open.

## Leaving a comment

Under every task, whatever its status, is **Add a comment**. Use it for what the
task did not ask about -- what you worked around, why it took as long as it did.
It records what you wrote, and changes nothing else. See
[Comments](comments.md).

## Blocked tasks

Collapsed, with a line reading "Waiting on Deploy job". Nothing to do but finish
what it names. See [Why is my task blocked?](faq.md)

## Finishing

There is no finish button. When the last task closes -- completed or skipped -- the
checklist flips to Complete on its own and the page becomes the read-only
[summary](checklist-summary.md).

## Next

- [Comments](comments.md)
- [The checklist summary](checklist-summary.md)
- [Task and checklist statuses](task-statuses.md)