Task dependencies show the order work should happen in. You can now make Baton enforce that order: a task can't be marked Complete while the tasks it depends on are still open. This is off by default everywhere, so nothing changes until an admin turns it on.
Set the workspace default
Open Manage Workspace → Task Settings. This page used to be called Task Automations.
Turn on Blocking task completion.
Override it for a project or template
Open the project or template and select Settings → Task Dependencies.
Under Blocking task completion, choose Inherit from workspace (the default), Block completion or Allow completion.
What changes when it's on
In a task's status picker, Complete is greyed out while a task it depends on is still open, and Baton tells you which task is holding it up.
The rule applies everywhere a task can be completed, not just in Baton itself. It also covers bulk edits, the Jira and ServiceNow integrations, and the MCP server.
Optional dependencies never block, because optional tasks aren't required.
Tasks that are already Complete are left alone.
Forms are the one exception. A form that completes a task on submission skips the blocked task instead of rejecting the whole submission, since the person filling in the form often can't see or fix the dependency.
No more circular dependencies
Baton now stops you from creating a loop, for example when Task A waits on Task B and Task B waits on Task A. You'll see a message explaining that the change would create a circular dependency.