fix: next-task correctly handles READY parent and COMPLETED sibling cases

READY state means a parent task whose subtasks should now run — select
its first PENDING child, not a global fallback. COMPLETED state means
continue the series via the next PENDING sibling. Only fall back to the
priority+age queue when neither yields a task.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

1 files changed, 11 insertions, 7 deletions

diff --git a/scripts/next-task b/scripts/next-task
index eeeca2e..e74ca26 100755
--- a/scripts/next-task
+++ b/scripts/next-task
@@ -3,9 +3,10 @@
 #
 # Selection logic:
 #   1. Find the most recently updated COMPLETED or READY task.
-#   2. If COMPLETED, prefer its next PENDING sibling (same parent) to continue a series.
-#   3. If no sibling exists (series done, or READY state), fall back to the
-#      highest-priority oldest PENDING task across the whole queue.
+#   2. If READY, run its first PENDING child (subtask) to begin the series.
+#   3. If COMPLETED, run its next PENDING sibling to continue the series.
+#   4. If neither yields a task, fall back to highest-priority oldest PENDING
+#      task across the whole queue.
 #
 # Usage: next_id=$(scripts/next-task)
 # Example: scripts/start-next-task
@@ -21,13 +22,16 @@ fi
 
 IFS='|' read -r id state parent_id <<< "$target"
 
-if [ "$state" == "COMPLETED" ]; then
-    # 2. Find next sibling task that is currently PENDING
-    next_task=$(sqlite3 "$DB_PATH" "SELECT id FROM tasks WHERE parent_task_id = '$parent_id' AND state = 'PENDING' LIMIT 1;")
+if [ "$state" == "READY" ]; then
+    # 2. READY = parent task; run its first PENDING child to begin the series
+    next_task=$(sqlite3 "$DB_PATH" "SELECT id FROM tasks WHERE parent_task_id = '$id' AND state = 'PENDING' ORDER BY created_at ASC LIMIT 1;")
+elif [ "$state" == "COMPLETED" ]; then
+    # 3. Find next PENDING sibling to continue the series
+    next_task=$(sqlite3 "$DB_PATH" "SELECT id FROM tasks WHERE parent_task_id = '$parent_id' AND state = 'PENDING' ORDER BY created_at ASC LIMIT 1;")
 fi
 
 if [ -z "$next_task" ]; then
-    # 3. No sibling found (or READY state): find next task by priority then oldest
+    # 4. No child/sibling found: fall back to highest-priority oldest PENDING task
     next_task=$(sqlite3 "$DB_PATH" "SELECT id FROM tasks WHERE state = 'PENDING' AND id != '$id'
         ORDER BY
             CASE priority