# Task lifecycle

> Six stages from request to merge.

A task goes through six stages, and all six are always visible — together with what each of them produced:

1. **Request** — you described what is needed.
2. **Formulation** — the analyst asks [clarifications](/en/docs/tasks/clarifications) and brings the formulation [for approval](/en/docs/tasks/gate).
3. **Decomposition** — splitting into subtasks.
4. **Development** — building the subtasks wave by wave.
5. **Review** — a person [checks the changes](/en/docs/review).
6. **Merged** — the changes have gone into the repositories.

## The stage strip

In the task card the stages are shown as a single strip: completed ones carry a tick, the current one is highlighted, and under each is what happened there: the request date, “approved”, how many subtasks, “7 of 7 done”, “awaiting a decision since 13 Aug”. Stages the task has not reached yet promise nothing.

_Illustration: The stage strip — in the task card, above the metrics_

The heading above the strip puts the position into words: “Stages · 5 of 6 · now review”. For a [stopped task](/en/docs/pipeline/run-control) it says at which stage the task was stopped, and the strip colours exactly that stage.

## In the task list

In the task table on the project home page, the same path is folded into six squares and a stage label: green — passed, blue — under way now, red — stopped. This way you see where every task stands at once, without opening any of them.