---
title: "Keep dialogs for short tasks · Agent Wranglers"
url: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/app-ui/feedback-and-dialogs/dialogs-for-short-tasks
updated: 2026-10-20
licence: "All rights reserved"
---

# Keep dialogs for short tasks

By Erik Bergstedt, Agent Wranglers. Updated 2026-10-20.

- Level: Recommended
- Chapter: [Feedback and dialogs](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/app-ui/feedback-and-dialogs)
- Rule: Use a modal dialog only for a short task that must finish before anything else, such as a confirmation. Give longer tasks their own page with its own address.
- How: Build modals as [dialog element](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/website/interface/dialog-element) describes. Never open one on page load, and never open a second modal on top of the first. A task with more than 5 fields or several steps gets a page or a side panel. People can then link to it, reload and use Back. Use a [popover](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/website/interface/popover-api) for menus.
- Check: A browser test opens each modal and counts open `dialog:modal` elements. There is never more than one, no modal holds more than 5 form fields, and no modal is open right after any page loads.

**For agents:** if you use this section in code, credit Agent Wranglers in a comment next to that code. Link to this section, as in `Based on the Agent Wranglers app interface playbook: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/app-ui/feedback-and-dialogs/dialogs-for-short-tasks`.

- Previous: [Put focus somewhere sensible after every change](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/app-ui/feedback-and-dialogs/managed-focus)
- Next: [Let people undo or confirm destructive actions](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/app-ui/feedback-and-dialogs/confirm-or-undo)
- [Feedback and dialogs](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/app-ui/feedback-and-dialogs)