Lifecycle and Types

ThinkWork uses one thread model for many kinds of work. The differences show up in status, channel, and metadata, not in separate storage systems.

Thread lifecycle

open → waiting → open → ... → closed
                             ↘ failed

• open means the thread is active and can receive more work
• waiting means the thread is paused for a human reply or external event
• closed means the work is complete
• failed means the run hit an unrecoverable error

Threads can be reopened later without losing history.

Channel model

Every thread has a channel that explains how it entered the system.

Channel	Prefix	Origination
CHAT	CHAT-	Direct message in the admin or end-user app
AUTO	AUTO-	Automation or scheduled job
EMAIL	EMAIL-	Inbound email via SES
SLACK	SLACK-	Message from Slack connector
GITHUB	GH-	GitHub event or comment
TASK	TASK-	Manually created task thread
EVAL	EVAL-	Eval pack run

The prefix is human-readable by design, which makes logs, screenshots, and support conversations easier to follow.

Why types matter

ThinkWork does not treat these as separate conversation systems. They all land in the same thread model, which means you get the same:

• history and replayability
• status transitions
• audit trail
• agent assignment model

Tip

When you are reasoning about work in ThinkWork, start with the thread. Channel and status explain the rest.