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The Queue tab in an Encord Annotate Project gives you a centralized view of all tasks across every Workflow stage. Use it to assign tasks to annotators and reviewers, set priorities, apply filters, and start labeling or reviewing work — all without leaving the Project dashboard.
The order of data units (tasks) with the same priority in the Task Queue is completely random. However, each user sees the same random order of tasks.

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Queue Layout by Role

The Queue tab adapts based on the logged-in user’s role.

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Queue (Admin, Team Manager)

  • A — The list of Workflow stages shows the number of data units currently in each stage. Click a stage to view its task queue.
  • B — Shows the task’s priority number. Tasks are listed in descending order of priority by default.
  • C — Search, sort, and filter the list of data units by Dataset, Assignee, Data Type, Status, or Issue Status.
  • D — Shows the task’s Status (New, Reopened, Skipped). For tasks that have moved through previous stages, an info icon appears next to the status badge. Hover over the icon to see details about the previous stage, including the stage name, who performed the action, and when it occurred.
  • E — Task Actions. Assign or release selected tasks, adjust priority, or move tasks to a different Workflow stage.
  • F — Switch between List and Explorer view.
  • G — Use the Start task button to begin labeling or reviewing a task.
  • H — Click the Initiate button to open a specific task in the Label Editor.
The Queue tab lists tasks in the same order they appear in the Label Editor.

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Queue (Annotator)

Annotators only see tasks in the Annotate stage that are assigned to them. They cannot view tasks in the Review stage or tasks assigned to other users.

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Queue (Reviewer)

Reviewers only see tasks in the Review stage that are assigned to them. They cannot view tasks in the Annotate stage or tasks assigned to other users.

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Queue (Annotator + Reviewer)

Users with the Annotator + Reviewer role can see both the Annotate and Review tabs in the Queue. They are limited to tasks assigned to them in each respective stage.

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Paused Agent Indicator

When any Agent stage in your Workflow is paused, the Queue tab displays an information icon next to its name. This indicator alerts you that tasks in paused Agent stages do not execute automatically until the Agents are unpaused.
Click the information icon to see which Agent stages are paused and need attention.

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Agent Stages

When viewing an Agent stage, the Queue displays additional controls and status information for Workflow agents. Agent Status Banner For Agent stages, a status banner appears above the task list showing the agent name and icon (click to view detailed agent configuration), a status indicator showing whether the agent is Live (green) or Paused (orange), and control buttons that Admins and Team Managers can use to pause/resume agents or view agent settings. Agent Controls
Only Workspace and Project Admins and Team Managers can control agent execution.
Use manual execution when testing agent configurations or troubleshooting specific data units before resuming live processing.
Agent Execution Status For Projects using Agents in their Workflow, tasks display execution status badges showing the current state of automated processing: Retry Failed Tasks You can retry tasks that failed or timed out by selecting one or more affected tasks in the Queue, then clicking Retry failed to re-run the agent on those tasks. The system will attempt to execute the Agent again on the selected tasks.
The Retry failed button is only available for Agent stages with catalog agents and only appears when you have selected tasks that failed or timed out.
Moving Agent Tasks When moving agent tasks to the next stage, the system skips tasks that are currently running or dispatched (they remain in the current stage), only moving tasks that are not actively being processed. A confirmation dialog will show how many tasks are moved and how many are skipped.
Tasks that are currently running or dispatched cannot be moved and remain in their current stage until execution completes.

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Queue View Options

The Queue offers different view modes to help you work with tasks more effectively:
  • List view — The default tabular view showing tasks in a structured list format
  • Grid view — A visual grid layout for browsing tasks and labels
  • Visual Queue — An enhanced visual interface for task management (when available)
Use the view switcher in the top-right corner of the Queue to change between available options.
Visual Queue availability varies based on your Project settings and enabled features. Some Projects may only show the List and Grid view options.

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Filters and Sorting

Filters Sort by Click Sort by next to the filter button to sort the queue by:
  • Task priority, or alphabetically by data unit name
  • Object count (when available)
  • Ascending or descending order
The default sort is descending order of task priority.
Object count filtering and sorting are available based on your organization’s feature access.
Use the keyboard shortcut S to open the sort dropdown, or Ctrl + O to quickly toggle between ascending and descending order.

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Task Status

The task Status indicates what actions have previously been taken on a task. For tasks that have moved through previous Workflow stages, an info icon appears next to the status badge. Hover over the icon to see details about the previous stage, including the stage name, who performed the action, and when it occurred.
The previous stage information helps you track task history and understand the workflow progression for each data unit.

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Task Actions

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Per-Row Task Actions

Every task row in the Queue has a three-dot (⋯) menu that gives you quick access to actions for that individual task without selecting it first.
Assign, Release, Change priority, and Move to stage are only available to Workspace and Project Admins and Team Managers. View, Activity log, and API details are available to all users who can see the queue row.
The following actions are available from the per-row menu, grouped into sections:
If any mutating action (Assign, Release, Change priority, or Move to stage) fails, Encord displays an error notification. No changes are applied to the task in that case.

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Bulk Task Actions

The Actions button lets you perform operations on multiple selected tasks at once. The button appears only after you select one or more tasks:
  • List and Grid views — The Actions button appears inside the floating selection toolbar at the bottom of the screen.
  • Explorer view — The Actions button appears in the top action bar alongside other controls.
The floating selection toolbar displays items in this order: [N] selected · Clear · Select all · Actions.
Hover over Select all to see a tooltip with the hint that you can hold Shift to select a range of tasks.

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View a Task

You can open any task from the Queue in view-only mode without assigning it to yourself.
To edit labels while viewing a task, click Edit or use Ctrl + E. When finished, click Save and return to view to return to view mode.

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Assign Tasks

Only Workspace and Project Admins and Team Managers can assign tasks.
You can assign tasks in two ways:
  • Per-row — Click the ⋯ menu on any task row and select Assign, then choose a project member from the submenu.
  • Bulk — Select one or more tasks and use the Actions menu to assign them to a specific annotator or reviewer.
Assigned tasks appear in the assignee’s personal Queue view. To release an assignment, use the ⋯ menu on the task row and select Release, or select multiple tasks and choose Release from the Actions menu.

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Move Tasks

Only Workspace and Project Admins and Team Managers can move tasks.
You can move tasks from their current stage directly to any other stage in the Workflow:
  • Per-row — Click the ⋯ menu on any task row, select Move to stage, then choose the target stage from the submenu.
  • Bulk — Select one or more tasks and use the Actions menu to move them to a different stage.
  • Moving tasks skips all intermediate Workflow stages, placing them immediately into the selected stage.
  • All labels (objects and classifications) are automatically approved when tasks move to a COMPLETE stage.
  • Webhooks do not fire when tasks are moved this way.
  • Tasks cannot be moved into Consensus stages.
  • Tasks in a Consensus Annotate block cannot be moved to Consensus Review blocks.
  • The following analytics do not apply to moved tasks: Labels created, Approved labels, Rejected labels.
  • Agent configuration controls are disabled when a Workflow stage has queued tasks. You must move tasks to another stage before changing the agent configuration.

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Set Task Priority

Only Workspace and Project Admins and Team Managers can set task priority.
You can set task priority in two ways:
  • Per-row — Click the ⋯ menu on any task row and select Change priority. Enter a new priority value in the modal that appears and confirm.
  • Bulk — Select tasks in the Queue and use the Actions menu to assign a priority number.
Higher priority numbers cause tasks to appear earlier in the queue. Tasks with the same priority are displayed in random order.

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Consensus Annotation Subtasks

In a Consensus Annotation stage, each task expands to show individual subtask rows — one per annotator assigned to that consensus group. Each subtask row has its own Initiate button.

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Peer Annotation Gating

When the Show peer annotations setting is enabled on a Consensus Annotation Workflow node, Encord gates peer annotators from starting their subtask until the first annotator completes theirs.
This gating applies only to consensus annotation stages where Show peer annotations is enabled. Consensus stages without this setting are unaffected.
The gating works as follows:
  • The first annotator’s Initiate button is always available immediately.
  • The Initiate button for all other peer annotators (every subtask after the first) is disabled until the first annotator completes their subtask.
  • When a peer annotator hovers over their disabled Initiate button, a tooltip displays: “The first annotation must be completed before peer annotations can be initiated.”
  • Once the first annotator completes their subtask, the Initiate button becomes enabled for all remaining peer annotators.
This gating ensures that peer annotators can view the initial annotation before adding their own, which is the intended purpose of the Show peer annotations setting.
For full details on configuring the Show peer annotations setting, see the Consensus Annotation Workflows page.

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Agent Configuration Protection

When a Workflow stage contains queued tasks, agent configuration controls are disabled to prevent disruption of active processing.
If you need to modify an agent configuration for a stage that has tasks:
  1. Navigate to the Queue and select the stage containing the tasks
  2. Move the tasks to another stage using the ⋯ row menu or the Actions menu
  3. Return to the Workflow editor to modify the agent configuration
  4. Move the tasks back to the stage if needed
This protection ensures that tasks are not left in an inconsistent state when agent configurations change.

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Starting Annotation or Review

To begin working on tasks directly from the Queue:
  1. Navigate to the relevant Workflow stage using the stage list on the left.
  2. Click Start task to pick up the next available task, or click Initiate next to a specific task to open it directly.
  3. The task opens in the Label Editor.
Use the Start task button for a faster, queue-driven workflow. Use Initiate when you need to open a specific task by name.