Work Items

Work items are the atomic unit of executable work in matic. Every task decomposes into one or more work items, each bound by a mandatory work contract that defines a floor (minimum deliverable) and a ceiling (maximum scope). This contract-driven structure prevents both under-delivery and scope creep, while immutable run records capture full execution context for auditability and replay.

This section explains how work items are defined, how they move through execution states, and how agents decompose and prioritize them in practice. It also maps the core documentation for structure, lifecycle, acceptance, decomposition, and queue management.

Overview

What a work item is, how it differs from a task, and where it fits in the matic work lifecycle. See Overview.

Schema

The canonical fields and structure of a work item spec, including the mandatory work contract with its floor and ceiling obligations. See Schema.

States

The work item state machine, from queued through running, blocked, complete, failed, and retrying, and what triggers each transition. See States.

Acceptance Criteria

How quality standards are defined and evaluated, and how acceptance criteria relate to, but differ from, work contract coverage checks. See Acceptance Criteria.

Decomposition

How tasks break down into work items during the Plan step, including estimation, dependency identification, and work plan assembly. See Decomposition.

Work Pile

The agent's ordered queue of pending work items, how it is populated and prioritized, and how it is kept within a 24-hour clearance window. See Work Pile.