Quarterback

Read the field. Call the play.

Strategic task prioritization and agent orchestration for multi-project operators.

Every other AI task manager breaks down one project into subtasks. Quarterback helps you decide which of your ten projects to prioritize right now — using a 5-factor weighted scoring engine, organizational context, and time-aware planning. It runs locally, costs nothing, and works as both a standalone CLI and an MCP server for Claude.

What Makes Quarterback Different

Quick Start

# Install
pip install quarterback

# Initialize (creates ~/.quarterback/)
quarterback init

# Add your first project and tasks
quarterback add "Launch landing page" --project "My Startup" --priority 4 --effort 3 --impact 5
quarterback add "Write blog post" --project "Content" --priority 3 --effort 2 --impact 3

# See what to work on
quarterback priorities

# Find quick wins
quarterback quick-wins

# Plan your day with time awareness
quarterback plan-day

MCP Server (for Claude Desktop / Claude Code)

# Install with MCP support
pip install quarterback[mcp]

Add to your Claude Desktop config (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "quarterback": {
      "command": "quarterback-server"
    }
  }
}

Or for Claude Code (~/.claude/settings.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "quarterback": {
      "command": "quarterback-server"
    }
  }
}

Then ask Claude: "What should I work on today?" — it will use all 22 Quarterback tools to analyze your priorities.

Features

5-Factor Prioritization Engine

Every task is scored across five dimensions:

Advisory Document System

Analyze external articles, books, and advice against your organizational context:

# Import and auto-analyze an article
quarterback advisory-add --title "Growth Strategy" --url https://example.com/article

# Review the analysis
quarterback advisory-view --id 1

# Approve recommendations (optionally create tasks)
quarterback advisory-approve --id 1 --approve 1,3,5 --create-tasks

The analyzer checks every recommendation against your goals and constraints, flagging conflicts and synergies.

Agent Orchestration

Mark tasks for autonomous agent execution with configurable autonomy:

• Draft: Agent creates a draft for your review
• Checkpoint: Agent pauses at key decisions for approval
• Autonomous: Agent runs to completion

Webhooks notify your automation layer (n8n, Zapier, custom) when tasks are ready.

CI/CD Pipeline Integration

Quarterback's CLI and webhook system make it a natural fit for automated pipelines — update task status, log deliverables, and trigger downstream work without a human in the loop.

Direct CLI in pipelines

Add Quarterback commands to any CI/CD step. The CLI is stateless and scriptable:

# GitHub Actions example: auto-update task on deploy
- name: Mark deploy task complete
  run: |
    pip install quarterback
    export QUARTERBACK_HOME=${{ runner.temp }}/.quarterback
    quarterback update 42 --status completed --notes "Deployed via CI, SHA: ${{ github.sha }}"

# After test suite passes, log results to a task
- name: Report test results
  run: |
    quarterback update 38 --notes "Tests passed: 106/106, coverage 87%. Build #${{ github.run_number }}"

# Nightly: check for overdue deliverables and alert
- name: Nightly priority check
  run: |
    quarterback alert-check
    quarterback priorities today --limit 5

Agentic CI/CD with webhooks

Register a webhook and let your automation layer react to task events in real time:

# Register a webhook pointing at your n8n/Zapier/custom endpoint
quarterback-server  # MCP tools available, or use CLI:

# In your automation script: mark a task agent-ready after PR merge
import subprocess
subprocess.run([
    "quarterback", "update", "55",
    "--status", "completed",
    "--notes", f"PR #{pr_number} merged. Deployed to staging."
])

Use cases:

Shared database across environments

Point multiple environments at the same Quarterback instance:

# All CI runners share one database via mounted volume or network path
export QUARTERBACK_HOME=/shared/quarterback

# Or per-environment with migration
quarterback migrate /path/to/source

This lets your local CLI, CI pipelines, and MCP-connected agents all read and write to the same task graph — giving you a single source of truth across manual and automated workflows.

Time-Aware Planning

quarterback plan-day

Considers your working hours, lunch break, buffer time for meetings, and current time to suggest tasks that actually fit in your remaining day.

Configuration

Organizational Context

After quarterback init, configure your context in ~/.quarterback/org-context/:

~/.quarterback/org-context/
├── goals.md          # Your strategic, workflow, and project goals
├── projects.yaml     # Active projects with metadata
├── workflows.yaml    # Groups of related projects
└── constraints.md    # Time, budget, and strategic boundaries

Example templates are included — copy from .example files and customize.

Alert Configuration

Configure notifications in ~/.quarterback/config/alerts.yaml:

• Quiet hours (no notifications at night)
• Priority thresholds (only notify for P4+ tasks)
• Time-sensitive projects (always notify for Bills, Tax, etc.)
• Working hours and lunch break settings

CLI Commands

MCP Tools (22 total)

When used as an MCP server, Quarterback exposes these tools to Claude:

Task Management: get_priorities, add_task, update_task, get_quick_wins, detect_conflicts, assess_task_value, get_blocking_tasks

Project Management: add_project, list_projects, update_project, get_organizational_summary

Advisory System: add_advisory_document, list_advisory_documents, get_advisory_document, analyze_advisory_document, discuss_advisory_recommendations, adopt_advisory_recommendations

Webhooks: register_webhook, list_webhooks, update_webhook, delete_webhook

Agent Orchestration: mark_task_agent_ready, get_agent_ready_tasks, update_agent_status

Environment Variables

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for development setup, code style, and PR process.

License

MIT - see LICENSE

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