barkbarkgoose/task-archiver

Skill: Task Archiver

Archive completed task projects by compressing artifacts while preserving a human-readable summary.

When to Use

Use this skill when:

• A task project is complete (or abandoned) and no longer actively worked on
• You want to preserve the full history but reduce clutter
• The project has already been moved to .agent-tasks/archive/
• The project is finished but needs to be moved to .agent-tasks/archive (will be requested by user)

Input Requirements

You must be provided:

1. Project path — Full path to the archived project folder (e.g., .agent-tasks/archive/20260130-facebook-api-v24-upgrade)

Behavior

1. Validate Project Structure

Verify the project has:

• An ORCHESTRATOR.md file (required - serves as the summary)
• At least one of: complete/

If ORCHESTRATOR.md is missing, stop and ask the user to create one or provide an alternative summary.

2. Generate Archive Metadata

Create ARCHIVE_INFO.md with:

• Archive date
• Original project name
• File/folder inventory (what's being compressed)
• A quick one sentence summary for each of all completed tasks
• Instructions for restoring

3. Create Compressed Archive

Using tar, compress all subdirectories:

tar -czvf artifacts.tar.gz complete/ pending/ testing/ agent-transcripts/ --ignore-failed-read

Note: --ignore-failed-read handles missing folders gracefully.

4. Clean Up Original Folders

After successful compression, remove the original folders:

• complete/
• pending/
• testing/
• agent-transcripts/

NOTE: you MUST delete these empty directories

Keep these files uncompressed:

• ORCHESTRATOR.md — Primary summary document
• ARCHIVE_INFO.md — Archive metadata
• IMPLEMENTATION_COMPLETE.md — If present, useful summary
• artifacts.tar.gz — The compressed archive

5. Report Results

Provide:

• Confirmation of successful archive
• List of preserved summary files
• Size comparison (before/after)
• Instructions for restoration

Archive Structure (Final)

NOTE: if not done yet, the task/project folder MUST be moved to .agent-tasks/archive/

archive/[project-name]/
├── ORCHESTRATOR.md          # Human-readable project summary
├── ARCHIVE_INFO.md          # Archive metadata and restore instructions
├── IMPLEMENTATION_COMPLETE.md  # (if present)
└── artifacts.tar.gz         # Compressed: all task folders and transcripts

Restoration Instructions

To restore an archived project:

cd .agent-tasks/archive/[YYYYMMDD-task-folder]
tar -xzvf artifacts.tar.gz

Example Invocation

Use the task-archiver skill to archive:
- Project: .agent-tasks/archive/20260130-facebook-api-v24-upgrade

ARCHIVE_INFO.md Template

# Archive Information

**Project:** [Project Name]
**Archived:** [Date]
**Archived By:** Cursor Agent

## Contents

The following folders have been compressed into `artifacts.tar.gz`:

| Folder | File Count | Description |
|--------|------------|-------------|
| complete/ | X files | Completed task definitions |
| pending/ | X files | Remaining/skipped tasks |
| testing/ | X files | Testing strategies |
| agent-transcripts/ | X files | Agent execution logs |

## Restoration

To extract the archived contents:

\`\`\`bash
tar -xzvf artifacts.tar.gz
\`\`\`

## Summary

See `ORCHESTRATOR.md` for the complete project summary, task list, and progress notes.

Quality Checklist

Before archiving, verify:

• [ ] ORCHESTRATOR.md exists and is complete
• [ ] All important progress notes are captured
• [ ] No active work remains (or is documented in pending/)
• [ ] Compression completed successfully
• [ ] Original folders removed only after successful compression

Notes

• The skill preserves ORCHESTRATOR.md uncompressed because it serves as the project's historical record
• If the project has an IMPLEMENTATION_COMPLETE.md or similar summary file, preserve it as well
• Agent transcripts can be large; compression significantly reduces storage
• The archive can always be fully restored with a single tar command