Team Collaboration

Taskmaster has two operating modes: solo and team. Solo mode stores tasks locally in your project. Team mode connects to Hamster for cloud storage, real-time sync, and collaboration across your team.

Getting Started with Team Mode

# Log in to Hamster
tm login

# Initialize a project in team mode
tm init
# Select "Together" when prompted for workflow

Once connected, your tasks are stored in the cloud and synced in real-time across all team members.

What Team Mode Provides

  • Cloud storage — Tasks live on Hamster's servers, accessible from any machine
  • Real-time sync — Changes appear instantly for all team members
  • AI inference — Hamster handles all AI calls, so individual team members don't need their own API keys
  • Brief management — Tasks are organized into collaborative briefs
  • Team invitations — Invite up to 10 team members by email

Working with Briefs

In team mode, tasks are organized into briefs — collaborative workspaces on Hamster:

# List all briefs in your workspace
tm briefs

# Switch between briefs
tm context

# Set context to a specific brief directly
tm context --set <brief-id>

When you switch context, all Taskmaster commands operate on that brief's tasks.

Real-Time Task Monitoring

# Watch tasks update in real-time as teammates make changes
tm list --watch

In team mode, --watch uses real-time cloud sync instead of local file watching, so you see changes from all team members as they happen.

Rich Task Details

Team mode tasks include additional implementation metadata:

  • Relevant files — Files to create, modify, or reference
  • Codebase patterns — Coding patterns to follow
  • Scope boundaries — What's in and out of scope
  • Implementation approach — Step-by-step guidance
  • Acceptance criteria — Definition of done checklist

Authentication

# Log in (opens browser for OAuth)
tm login

# Log out
tm logout

Authentication supports multi-factor authentication with retry logic and live countdown timers.

Solo vs Team

Feature Solo Team
Storage Local JSON files Hamster cloud
Collaboration Single user Multi-user with real-time sync
API keys Your own keys Hamster provides inference
Offline support Full Requires internet
Task organization Tags Briefs

You can start in solo mode and export to team mode later.