Do not set 'end' on tasks

[KingOfSpades]

I'm feeling a bit stupid but I cant figure this out. I have setup bugwarrior and it's adding tasks from Azure DevOps fine to Taskwarrior but when I try to sync completed tasks it fails.

My workflow is:

1. Run bugwarrior pull, tasks are added to my Taskwarrior
2. Complete issue on Azure DevOps
3. Run bugwarrior pull, produces an error for completed tasks:

Error:

INFO:bugwarrior.db:Updating task f5a527f3-5fd8-46ef-ad99-b4774ae2729a, ADO PROJECT - TASK DESCRIPTION; end: None -> datetime.datetime(2025, 12, 22, 21, 1, 37, tzinfo=tzutc()); adostate: 'Committed' -> 'Done'
ERROR:bugwarrior.db:Unable to modify task: b'Could not modify task 86. You cannot set an end date on a pending task.'

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/user/.config/pyenv/.pyenv/versions/3.10.19/envs/bugwarrior/lib/python3.10/site-packages/bugwarrior/db.py", line 409, in synchronize
    _, updated_task = tw.task_update(issue)
  File "/Users/user/.config/pyenv/.pyenv/versions/3.10.19/envs/bugwarrior/lib/python3.10/site-packages/taskw/warrior.py", line 812, in task_update
    self._execute(task_uuid, 'modify', *modification)
  File "/Users/user/.config/pyenv/.pyenv/versions/3.10.19/envs/bugwarrior/lib/python3.10/site-packages/taskw/warrior.py", line 489, in _execute
    raise TaskwarriorError(command, stderr, stdout, proc.returncode)
taskw.exceptions.TaskwarriorError: [b'task', b'rc.verbose=new-uuid', b'rc.json.array=TRUE', b'rc.confirmation=no', b'rc.dependency.confirmation=no', b'rc.recurrence.confirmation=no', b'rc.uda.adotitle.type=string', b'rc.uda.adotitle.label="Azure Devops Title"', b'rc.uda.adodescription.type=string', b'rc.uda.adodescription.label="Azure Devops Description"', b'rc.uda.adoid.type=numeric', b'rc.uda.adoid.label="Azure Devops ID number"', b'rc.uda.adourl.type=string', b'rc.uda.adourl.label="Azure Devops URL"', b'rc.uda.adotype.type=string', b'rc.uda.adotype.label="Azure Devops Work Item Type"', b'rc.uda.adostate.type=string', b'rc.uda.adostate.label="Azure Devops Work Item State"', b'rc.uda.adoactivity.type=string', b'rc.uda.adoactivity.label="Azure Devops Activity"', b'rc.uda.adopriority.type=numeric', b'rc.uda.adopriority.label="Azure Devops Priority"', b'rc.uda.adoremainingwork.type=numeric', b'rc.uda.adoremainingwork.label="Azure Devops Amount of Remaining Work"', b'rc.uda.adoparent.type=string', b'rc.uda.adoparent.label="Azure Devops Parent Work Item Name"', b'rc.uda.adonamespace.type=string', b'rc.uda.adonamespace.label="Azure Devops Namespace"', b'f5a527f3-5fd8-46ef-ad99-b4774ae2729a', b'modify', b'adostate:"Done"', b'end:"20251222T210137Z"'] #2; 

stderr:"b'Could not modify task 86. You cannot set an end date on a pending task.'"; stdout:"b''"

It looks like its trying to set the end-date before moving the task in Taskwarrior to COMPLETED?

Debug info

Versions:

• task 3.4.2
• bugwarrior 2.0.0
• Python (venv) 3.10.19

Config:

[general]
taskrc = ~/.config/taskwarrior/taskrc

targets = devops

# Set to true to shorten links.
shorten = False

# When false, links are appended as an annotation.
inline_links = False

# When true will include a link to the ticket as an annotation.
annotation_links = True

# When false skips putting issue comments into annotations.
annotation_comments = False

# When false strips newlines from comments in annotations.
annotation_newlines = False

# Set to one of DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR, CRITICAL, or DISABLED to
# control the logging verbosity.
log.level = INFO

# Set to the path at which you would like logging messages written.
# log.file = <by default messages are written to stderr>

# Import maximally this number of characters of incoming annotations.
annotation_length = 100

# Use maximally this number of characters in the description.
description_length = 50

# If false, bugwarrior won't bother with adding annotations to your tasks at all.
merge_annotations = True

# If false, bugwarrior won't bother with adding tags to your tasks at all.
merge_tags = True

# If true, bugwarrior will delete all tags prior to fetching new ones,
# except those listed in static_tags. Only work if merge_tags is true.
replace_tags = False

# A list of tags that shouldn't be *removed* by bugwarrior. Use for tags
# that you want to keep when replace_tags is set to true.
static_tags =

# A list of attributes that shouldn't be *updated* by bugwarrior.  Use for
# values that you want to tune manually. Note that service-specific UDAs
# can be included here.
# static_fields = priority


[devops]
service = azuredevops
ado.PAT = ************************************
ado.project = PROJECT_NAME
ado.organization = ADO_ORGANIZATION
ado.wiql_filter = [System.AssignedTo] = @me
ado.default_priority =
ado.add_tags = freelance, bw
ado.project_template = projects.freelance.PROJECT_NAME
ado.description_template = PROJECT({{adoid}}) - {{adotitle}}

[ryneeverett]

Bugwarrior does not use the issue state to determine which issues to close, but rather makes a query based on configuration and then closes all issues bugwarrior has previously opened which are not returned. Thus, the query should generally return only open tasks. So I think your problem would be solved by using the filter from the docs (ado.wiql_filter = [System.AssignedTo] = @me AND [System.State] = 'Active').

That said, several services set end and they probably shouldn't because it doesn't seem like it could ever be used and the only effect is to create this confusing error for users. Besides, users may as well have the freedom to define their notion of "open" differently from the service.

[KingOfSpades]

Ahhh! Now I understand. Thanks, makes sense as it cuts down on orphaned (delted) tasks from the forge.

For those in the future, I use this query now to get all items that are assigned to me and not closed:

ado.wiql_filter = [System.AssignedTo] = @me AND [System.State] != 'Done'