Lock

ait lock

Lock and unlock tasks to prevent two users or agents from working on the same task simultaneously. Uses atomic git operations on a separate aitask-locks branch.

ait lock 42                        # Lock task t42 (auto-detects email)
ait lock 42 --email user@co.com    # Lock with explicit email
ait lock --unlock 42               # Release lock on t42
ait lock --check 42                # Check if t42 is locked
ait lock --list                    # Show all active locks

Email Auto-Detection

When locking a task without --email, the command resolves the email in this order:

1. aitasks/metadata/userconfig.yaml – the email: field
2. aitasks/metadata/emails.txt – the first line

This matches the behavior of the board TUI lock button.

How It Works

Locks are stored as YAML files (t<N>_lock.yaml) on a separate orphan git branch (aitask-locks) that exists only on the remote. Atomicity is achieved via git’s push rejection on non-fast-forward updates – if two users try to lock the same task simultaneously, only one push succeeds and the other retries (up to 5 attempts).

Each lock file contains:

task_id: 42
locked_by: user@example.com
locked_at: 2026-02-24 14:30
hostname: my-laptop

Locking does not change task metadata. The task’s status and assigned_to fields are not modified – locking is purely a reservation mechanism. The status changes to Implementing later when the task is actually picked for implementation (via /aitask-pick or similar).

When to Use ait lock

You do not need to call ait lock before /aitask-pick. The /aitask-pick and /aitask-pickrem skills automatically handle locking as part of their workflow – they acquire the lock, set the task status to Implementing, and update assigned_to all in one step.

ait lock is a manual pre-reservation tool for signaling to other users or agents that you intend to work on a task. Common use cases:

• Before /aitask-pickweb – Claude Code Web cannot acquire locks (it lacks push access to the aitask-locks branch), so pre-locking from your local machine prevents another agent from picking the same task. Even without pre-locking, /aitask-pickweb will still work – it just won’t have lock protection against concurrent work.
• Reserving tasks for later – Lock a task now to signal intent, then start /aitask-pick later when ready.
• Multi-agent coordination – When multiple agents are running simultaneously, pre-locking helps avoid duplicate work.

Locking vs Ownership

Pre-Locking for Claude Code Web

When using /aitask-pickweb on Claude Code Web, the Web environment cannot acquire locks (it lacks push access to the aitask-locks branch). Pre-locking from your local machine is recommended but not required – /aitask-pickweb will work either way, but without a lock another agent could pick the same task concurrently.

Local machine          Claude Code Web           Local machine
---------------        ---------------           ---------------
1. ait lock 42         2. /aitask-pickweb 42     3. /aitask-web-merge
   (lock task)            (implement + commit)      (merge + archive)

Setup

The aitask-locks branch is created during ait setup. If you see an error about missing lock infrastructure, run:

ait setup        # Interactive -- includes lock branch initialization
ait lock --init  # Direct initialization