Items can be assigned and reassigned. There are two cases: claiming an unclaimed item (no handshake) and hand-off (item moves between two assigned people — handshake required).
Claiming an unclaimed item
If an item has no assignee yet, anyone can claim it. Click the item’s “⋯” menu → I’ll bring this. The item is now assigned to you. No handshake — it was up for grabs.
Same flow: from the “⋯” menu, you can also use Assign to… to drop an unclaimed item on someone else (real or placeholder member). Again, no handshake — unclaimed means available.
Hand-offs (reassignment)
If an item is already assigned to someone, and you reassign it to a different person, that’s a hand-off. The receiving person must accept before the item moves.
What happens:
- You assign an already-assigned item to a new person
- The new person sees a notification (in-app and/or email per their preferences)
- The new person gets an inline accept/decline prompt on the item in the checklist
- The new person also sees the offer in their account → Pending Items tab
- If they accept: the item moves to them, the packed status resets to unpacked
- If they decline: the item stays with the original assignee, and the original assignee gets a notification
Reassigning to a placeholder
Hand-offs to placeholder members don’t need a handshake (placeholders can’t accept anything). The item just moves.
Unassigning
From the “⋯” menu, choose Assign to… → Unclaimed [VERIFY exact UI]. The item returns to unclaimed status, available for anyone to claim.
The pending offer indicator
While a hand-off is pending acceptance, the item shows:
- Current assignee (still showing them; they still “own” it until the receiver accepts)
- A pending indicator with the proposed new assignee’s name
- A small “→ Name (pending)” note
Multiple pending offers
Last-write-wins. If item X is assigned to Alice and you reassign to Bob (pending), and then someone else reassigns to Carol (pending) before Bob acts on it — Carol’s offer overwrites Bob’s. Bob’s offer is canceled silently.
Self-assignment
“I’ll bring this” is technically a hand-off if the item is currently assigned to someone else. It follows the same handshake rules — the current assignee must accept that you’re taking it from them. Useful for “hey, I’ll handle that one” moves.