Start Task

Concept

Built-in Tasks is a concept feature. It's still being developed and can change before it's released. It's available only when the site's license includes the Concept feature Tasks.

Audience: Low-code Engineers

Skill Prerequisites: Actions, Tokens

The assignee starts working on a task, which moves it from Open to In progress.

Typical Use Cases

• Show the requester and the Task administrators that a buyer is working on an order
• Add a Start button to your own list of tasks
• Start a task right after the user assigns it to themselves

Don't use it to

• Assign the task. Use Assign Task to Current User first. Starting doesn't assign the task.
• Complete the task. Use Complete Task. A task doesn't have to be started before it's completed.

Related Actions

Action Name	Description
Assign Task to Current User	The current user takes an unassigned task.
Complete Task	Completes the task with an outcome.
Unassign Task	Gives the task back to its roles, which also moves it back to Open.

Input Parameter Reference

Parameter	Description	Supports Tokens	Default	Required
Task Id	The id of the task, usually a token such as [Id] in a grid row.	Yes	empty	Yes
Output Token Name	The name of a token, without brackets, that receives the task after the change, for example Task. See Task fields in tokens.	No	empty	No
On Error	Actions to run when the task can't be started. [ExceptionMessage] holds the reason. See Errors and refusals.	No	empty	No

Output

Token	Description
[<Output Token Name>]	The id of the task.
[<Output Token Name>:Status], [<Output Token Name>:StatusName] and the other fields	The task after the change: inProgress and In progress. See Task fields in tokens.

Considerations

• Only the assignee may start the task. An escalation step's workflow acts as the system, which may start any open task.
• Back to Open. When an In progress task is unassigned, or reassigned to roles without a user, it goes back to Open.
• The Started event. The workflow the type binds to Started runs after the change.

The action can fail with these messages, besides the ones in Errors and refusals:

Message	Why
This task is already in progress.	The task was started before.
Assign this task to yourself before starting it.	The task is unassigned.
Only the assignee can start this task.	The task is assigned to someone else.

Examples

tip

To understand how to use the below examples, please see Running Examples.

1. A Start button

Add this action to a row button of a grid that lists the user's tasks. [Id] holds the task's id. If the task can't be started, for example because it's already In progress, the user sees why.

{
    "Title": "Start Task",
    "ActionType": "PlantAnApp.Tasks.StartTask",
    "Description": "Start working on the task",
    "Condition": null,
    "Parameters": {
        "TaskId": "[Id]",
        "OutputToken": "Task",
        "OnError": [
            {
                "Title": "Display Error Message",
                "ActionType": "ShowError",
                "Parameters": {
                    "Message": "<p>[ExceptionMessage]</p>"
                }
            }
        ]
    }
}

Revised 11/12/2026