Elnora Tasks

Tasks are conversations with the Elnora AI Agent. Send messages to generate protocols, iterate on outputs, and reference uploaded files.

Tool Access

Elnora is available via two methods. Use whichever is configured.

Option A — CLI via Bash (preferred)

Run commands via your Bash/Shell tool as elnora <group> <action> .... Verify with elnora --version. CLI uses ~5× fewer tokens than MCP.

Option B — MCP tools (when CLI isn't installed)

Look for tools prefixed mcp__elnora__ in your available tools. Call them with structured parameters (camelCase — e.g. projectId, taskId, not project-id). See the "MCP Tool Names" table below for the mapping.

If neither is available, tell the user to install one:

• CLI: curl -fsSL https://cli.elnora.ai/install.sh | bash (macOS/Linux) or irm https://cli.elnora.ai/install.ps1 | iex (Windows)
• MCP: claude mcp add elnora --transport http --scope user https://mcp.elnora.ai/mcp then /mcp to authenticate.

Never fabricate tool names. Valid commands are in the Commands section; their MCP equivalents are in the MCP Tool Names table.

Invocation

CLI="elnora"

Response Retrieval

The Elnora backend processes agent responses asynchronously. When you send a message, the POST returns immediately with the user message echo — the AI response arrives separately. Use --stream or --wait to collect it.

Mode	Flag	Behavior	Timeout	Use when
Streaming	--stream	Real-time SSE token-by-token output	300s	Default choice. Best UX, longest timeout, pipeable
Polling	--wait	Auto-polls every 2s until assistant message appears	120s	You need the JSON message object, not real-time output
Fire-and-forget	(no flag)	Returns immediately, no response	—	You'll check tasks messages manually later

Recommended: Always use --stream unless you have a specific reason not to. Content tokens go to stdout, status events (think, tool_start, tool_end, progress) go to stderr — so output is pipeable: elnora tasks send ... --stream > response.txt.

MCP mode (elnora_tasks_send): Always collects the full response automatically via streaming, with polling as fallback. The caller receives { sent, taskId, response } with the complete assistant content.

SSE event types:

Event	Payload	Direction	Description
think	content, turn	stderr	Agent reasoning/planning status
tool_start	tool	stderr	Tool execution begins
tool_end	tool, duration_ms, success	stderr	Tool execution completed
progress	content	stderr	Intermediate status message
token	content, agent	stdout	Streamed response content
completed	content (optional)	—	Stream finished, client must close
error	content	stderr	Pipeline error, client must close
timeout	—	stderr	300s inactivity, client must close

IMPORTANT — Always show the full response: When Elnora returns a response (protocol, literature review, analysis, etc.), print the entire assistant content back to the user. No truncation, no summarization, no "here are the key points." The user asked Elnora to generate something — show them everything Elnora said, including comments, suggestions, warnings, and explanations. Strip JSON wrapper/metadata but preserve all human-readable content.

Getting a Project ID

Every task belongs to a project. Use the decision tree in the elnora-projects skill's "Choosing a Project" section to pick one, then reuse the ID for the rest of the session. Don't re-list projects for every task command.

Quick reminder of the decision tree:

1. One project → use it automatically.
2. 2–5 projects → ask user to pick by name or number.
3. 6+ projects → ask user to name/describe; match by name.
4. Zero → tell user to create one first.

$CLI --compact --fields "id,name" projects list

Commands

List Tasks

$CLI --compact tasks list
$CLI --compact tasks list --status archived     # only archived tasks
$CLI --compact tasks list --status all
$CLI --compact tasks list --page 2 --page-size 50

--project is deprecated — projects were removed from the platform and the option is a no-op that returns a deprecation notice instead of tasks.

--status is active (default — hides archived), archived, or all. Pagination: --page (default 1), --page-size (default 25, max 100).

Response:

{"items":[{"id":"<UUID>","projectId":"<UUID>","title":"...","status":"active","messageCount":4,"lastMessageAt":"...","createdAt":"..."}],"page":1,"pageSize":25,"totalCount":N,"totalPages":N,"hasNextPage":false,"hasPreviousPage":false}

Get Task

$CLI --compact tasks get <TASK_ID>

Returns full task detail. Use this to inspect a task before interacting.

Create Task

$CLI --compact tasks create --project <PROJECT_ID> --title "PCR protocol for BRCA1" --message "Generate a simple PCR protocol for BRCA1 exon 11"

Flag	Required	Notes
--project	Yes	Project UUID
--title	No	Task title (auto-generated if omitted)
--message	No	Initial message to start the conversation
--stream	No	Stream agent response in real-time via SSE (300s timeout). Requires --message
--wait	No	Poll for agent response (120s timeout). Requires --message

Returns the created task with its id. If --message is provided without --stream or --wait, the response is fire-and-forget — use tasks messages to check later.

Send Message

# Stream response in real-time (recommended)
$CLI --compact tasks send <TASK_ID> --message "Use Taq polymerase" --stream

# Wait for response (returns message object)
$CLI --compact tasks send <TASK_ID> --message "Use Taq polymerase" --wait

# Fire-and-forget (returns immediately, check messages later)
$CLI --compact tasks send <TASK_ID> --message "Use Taq polymerase and set annealing to 58C"

# Reference uploaded files
$CLI --compact tasks send <TASK_ID> --message "Optimize based on this template" --file-refs "<FILE_ID_1>,<FILE_ID_2>" --stream

Flag	Required	Notes
--message	Yes	Message content
--file-refs	No	Comma-separated file UUIDs to attach as context
--stream	No	Stream agent response in real-time via SSE (300s timeout)
--wait	No	Poll for agent response (120s timeout)

Streaming details: Status events (think, tool_start, tool_end, progress) go to stderr, content tokens go to stdout. This makes streaming pipeable: elnora tasks send ... --stream > response.txt.

Get Messages

$CLI --compact tasks messages <TASK_ID>
$CLI --compact tasks messages <TASK_ID> --limit 10
$CLI --compact tasks messages <TASK_ID> --cursor <CURSOR>

Response — messages ordered by sequence, with role (user/assistant):

{"items":[{"id":"<UUID>","role":"user","content":"...","sequence":1,"createdAt":"..."},{"id":"<UUID>","role":"assistant","content":"...","metadata":"{\"status\":\"completed\"}","sequence":2,"createdAt":"..."}],"nextCursor":null,"hasMore":false}

Cursor-based pagination: if hasMore is true, pass nextCursor as --cursor. Default limit is 50 (max 100).

Update Task

$CLI --compact tasks update <TASK_ID> --title "Updated title"
$CLI --compact tasks update <TASK_ID> --status completed

Must provide at least one of --title or --status.

Archive / Unarchive Task

$CLI --compact tasks archive <TASK_ID>
# -> {"archived":true,"taskId":"<UUID>"}
$CLI --compact tasks unarchive <TASK_ID>
# -> {"unarchived":true,"taskId":"<UUID>"}

Archive is destructive-ish (hides the task) — confirm with user. Archived tasks are found with tasks list --status archived and restored with tasks unarchive.

Task Attachments

$CLI --compact tasks attachments <TASK_ID>                        # list attached files
$CLI --compact tasks attachment-content <TASK_ID> <ATTACHMENT_ID>  # read one attachment

MCP Tool Names

All commands are auto-registered as MCP tools with the elnora_ prefix:

CLI command	MCP tool name
tasks list	elnora_tasks_list
tasks get	elnora_tasks_get
tasks create	elnora_tasks_create
tasks send	elnora_tasks_send
tasks messages	elnora_tasks_messages
tasks update	elnora_tasks_update
tasks archive	elnora_tasks_archive
tasks unarchive	elnora_tasks_unarchive
tasks attachments	elnora_tasks_attachments
tasks attachment-content	elnora_tasks_attachmentContent

MCP tools accept the same parameters as CLI flags (camelCase). elnora_tasks_send always waits for the full agent response.

Agent Recipes

Typical workflow (list projects → create task → stream response):

# Step 1: Get the project ID (do this once, reuse for all commands)
$CLI --compact --fields "id,name" projects list
# Pick the project that matches the user's context. Example with one project:
# PROJECT="bfdc6fbd-40ed-4042-9ea7-c79a5ec90085"

# Step 2: Create task and stream
$CLI --compact tasks create --project "$PROJECT" --title "PCR BRCA1" --message "Generate PCR protocol for BRCA1 exon 11" --stream

Continue a conversation (reuse task ID):

$CLI --compact tasks send "$TASK" --message "Add gel electrophoresis step" --stream
$CLI --compact tasks send "$TASK" --message "Reduce annealing temperature to 55C" --stream

Read conversation history:

$CLI --compact tasks messages <TASK_ID> | jq '.items[-1] | select(.role == "assistant") | .content'