---
title: "Todo Lists Code Agent SDK"
source: https://docs.autohand.ai/agent-sdk/observability/todo-lists
---

# Todo Lists

Todo Lists let agents track their progress through multi-step tasks. Agents can add, complete, and manage todo items, giving you visibility into what they're working on and what remains to be done.

## What are Todo Lists?

Todo Lists are a structured way for agents to plan and track their work. Instead of executing tasks blindly, agents can create a todo list, check off items as they complete them, and provide visibility into their progress.

**Note:** Todo Lists are automatically managed by the agent loop when enabled. You can also manually create and manage todo lists for custom workflows.

## Enabling Todo Lists

Configure agents to use Todo Lists for task tracking.

## Managing Todo Lists

Access and manipulate todo lists through the result object or session.

## Manual Todo Management

Create and manage todo lists manually for custom workflows.

## Streaming Todo Updates

Monitor todo list changes in real-time during agent execution.

## Use Cases

-   **Progress tracking:** Monitor agent progress on long-running tasks
-   **Task breakdown:** Agents can plan complex work by creating a todo list first
-   **Resume capability:** Save todo lists to resume interrupted tasks
-   **UI integration:** Display progress bars and task lists in web UIs
-   **Debugging:** Understand what an agent is working on when it gets stuck
-   **Reporting:** Generate reports of completed vs. remaining tasks

## Best Practices

-   **Enable for complex tasks:** Use todo lists for multi-step operations
-   **Monitor progress:** Use streaming to get real-time progress updates
-   **Save todo lists:** Persist todo lists for long-running tasks to enable resumption
-   **Review completed items:** Check what the agent completed to verify correctness
-   **Adjust granularity:** Balance between too many and too few todo items
-   **Handle failures gracefully:** Check which items remain when a task fails