id: task-4.6 title: "CLI: Add empty assignee array field for new tasks" status: Done assignee: @MrLesk reporter: @MrLesk created_date: 2025-06-08 updated_date: 2025-06-08 labels: ["cli", "command"] milestone: "M1 - CLI" dependencies: ["task-4.1"] parent_task_id: task-4

Description

Ensure every task created via the CLI includes an empty assignee array in its frontmatter. Investigate the current parsing and serialization logic which uses a single string value. If assignees are not handled as an array, update the code to support string[].

Acceptance Criteria

• [x] New tasks contain assignee: [] by default.
• [x] Parsing and serialization read and write the assignee field as an array.
• [x] Documentation provides instructions to migrate existing logic if needed.

Implementation Notes

YAML Flexibility Support: Implemented proper YAML specification support where assignee field accepts both string and array formats. The parser (src/markdown/parser.ts:19-23) automatically normalizes single strings to arrays using Array.isArray() check.

Core Normalization: Added assignee normalization in createTask, createDraft, and updateTask methods (src/core/backlog.ts) with biome-ignore comments for TypeScript any usage required for YAML flexibility.

CLI Integration: Updated buildTaskFromOptions function (src/cli.ts:108) to create arrays by default, and edit command to handle array assignment properly.

Comprehensive Testing: Fixed all 99 tests by adding missing assignee: [] fields and updating expectations from .toBe("string") to .toEqual(["string"]) to match array format.

Type Safety: Maintained Task interface with assignee: string[] type while supporting both input formats through runtime normalization.