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Lifecycle Hooks & Events

Critical Path includes an asynchronous lifecycle event system that enables plugins and custom code to hook into task and project mutations.

Supported Lifecycle Hooks

Hook Name	Parameters	Purpose
`beforeTaskCreate`	`(task: Partial<Task>)`	Intercept, validate, or enrich a task before insertion
`afterTaskCreate`	`(task: Task)`	Post-creation side effects (e.g. notify Slack)
`beforeTaskUpdate`	`(task: Task, updates: Partial<Task>)`	Intercept or disallow unauthorized field updates
`afterTaskUpdate`	`(task: Task, previous: Task)`	Detect status transitions, trigger unblock checks
`beforeTaskDelete`	`(taskId: string)`	Verify permissions before deletion
`afterTaskDelete`	`(taskId: string)`	Clean up related dependencies

Example: Enforcing Tags with `beforeTaskCreate`

import type { CriticalPathPlugin } from '@critical-path/core';

export const tagValidatorPlugin: CriticalPathPlugin = {
  id: 'tag-validator',
  name: 'Tag Validator Plugin',
  version: '1.0.0',
  hooks: {
    beforeTaskCreate: async (task) => {
      // Auto-assign default environment tag if missing
      const tags = task.tags || [];
      if (!tags.includes('ENVIRONMENT:WEB')) {
        return { ...task, tags: [...tags, 'ENVIRONMENT:WEB'] };
      }
      return task;
    },
  },
};