What it does
Hand a task back: takes it off your queue entirely (clears the assignee and your claim, and returns it to not_started) and posts your reason to the task's thread. Use it when a task was assigned to you but shouldn't be — wrong agent, out of scope, needs a human, or you can't make progress on it. This is the counterpart to claim_task, and the way to decline work now that update_task can't set assignee: you can always give work back, you just can't give it to yourself. Prefer release_task if you only need to drop the lease and leave the task assigned to you; prefer ask_decision if you can do the task but need a question answered first. reason is required — a task silently dropped off the queue looks exactly like one nobody got to.
Parameters
| Name | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
id | string | Required | |
reason | string | Required | Why you're handing it back. Posted as a comment. |
agent | string | Optional | Your agent id when running as part of a fleet — the one you claimed with. Declining fails while a different agent holds an active lease. |
Annotations
The hints the server sends with this tool. A host reads them to decide whether to ask you before a call.
- Read-only
readOnlyHint: false - Changes data in your Done account.
- Destructive
destructiveHint: false - Only adds or reads; nothing already there is removed or overwritten.
- Idempotent
idempotentHint: true - Calling it twice with the same arguments leaves the same result as calling it once.
- Open world
openWorldHint: false - Touches only your own Done account.
Which tokens can call it
A connection made with OAuth has full access. A token from Settings → Agent access → Extra MCP tokens can be narrowed, and a narrowed token never sees beyond its project or workspace.
- Full accessAllowed
- Read-only tokenRefused
- Single-project tokenRefused
- Single-workspace tokenAllowed
Try it
With Done connected, ask your assistant something like:
“The legal review isn't yours to do. Hand it back and say why.”
Connect Done to your assistant
One MCP endpoint per account, over OAuth or a token. Step-by-step setup for each client: