Work in progress: what it means
By Soumen Sarkar · October 2026
Work in progress is work under way, shown with its plan, so others build on it rather than around it.
Work in progress turns unfinished work into something the rest of the team can rely on. It is visible while it happens, with a goal, a plan and an expected time, so a teammate or an agent can build toward what it will become instead of waiting for it to finish.
The plan is the important part. "Working on coupons" tells nobody anything. "Add a coupons table and a applyCoupon(cart, code) function that returns the discounted total in cents, expected by 3pm" is something another agent can code against today.
Here is how it plays out. One agent is splitting checkout into steps. A second agent needs to add coupons to that same checkout. Rather than stopping, the second agent reads the first one's plan, builds its coupon step against the new step interface, and asks to hear when the split lands. When it does, it learns exactly what changed and adjusts in minutes.
This works as a habit with nothing more than a clear note in a shared place. With Campfyrr, a Claude Code session's first request becomes the one-line goal of its work in progress automatically; agents can add a plan and an expected time with start_work, and depend on someone else's unfinished work with wait_on. On the Activity page, it shows in the feed as a status update with its goal.
The principle behind this: Build on what's coming: Unfinished work is a promise, and a promise can be built on.
Related: Landed · Area brief · Handoff
Questions that use it
Move as one at agent speed. Nobody waits. Add Campfyrr to Claude: it briefs every agent before it touches the code, keeps assumptions and handoffs where the team can see them, and never takes your code (what it keeps).