DEV Community

Kelly Popko
Kelly Popko

Posted on

Taskwarrior: Track your TODO list from the Command Line

#taskwarrior #productivity #cli

Taskwarrior describes itself as a 'Free and Open Source Software that tracks your TODO list from the command line'.

This post will touch on installing Taskwarrior and how to do the following:

  • Add a task
  • List tasks
  • Mark a task as done

Taskwarrior can be downloaded and 'built' or installed using a package manager.
See Taskwarrior’s Download page.

Mac / Homebrew users can use:

brew install task
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

How to use Taskwarrior

Cheat sheet
Action Syntax Example
Add a task task add "Task name/description" (quotation marks optional) task add "Add unit tests to project"
Mark a task as done task <task-id> done task 5 done
List tasks task list task list

Add a Task

❯ task add 'Research history of the One Ring'
Created task 1.

❯ task add Rally allies in Rohan and Gondor
Created task 2.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Note: We can use or omit quotation marks for the task description.

List Tasks

❯ task list

ID  Age   Due   Description                       Urg
1   9min        Research history of the One Ring  0
2   8min        Rally allies in Rohan and Gondor  0

2 tasks
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Note that there is no 'Due' date and the urgency 'Urg' is set to 0.
We will look at these in an upcoming post.

Complete a Task

❯ task 1 done
Completed task 8e04e458 'Research history of the One Ring'.
Completed 1 task.
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode 
❯ task list

ID  Age   Due   Description                       Urg
1   8min        Rally allies in Rohan and Gondor  0

1 task
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Observe only the 'Rally' task present, and it has an ID of 1.

Now we have enough information to use Taskwarrior as a TODO tool from the command line. Woohoo!

What would be even more helpful?

  • The ability to organize our tasks--by project or due date, for example.
  • The ability to track how long tasks and projects take.

We will look at both points in the upcoming articles.

If you do, please share in the comments your tips and workflow!

This post was inspired by the daily challenge of managing competing priorities with limited time.

Thank you to my mentor, Victor Goff (KOTP), for telling me about Timewarrior, Taskwarrior, and showing me how he uses them together.

Top comments (0)