Parser rejects spaced dates from completion

[uNyanda]

• Date: 2026-07-07
• Severity: Low
• Environment:
  • OS: Linux
  • WM: Niri
  • Compositor: Wayland
• Software version: 2.10.0

Description

The date-completion popup (offering @today, @tomorrow, @yesterday) only appears when the user types a space after due: (i.e, due: ).

After selecting an option, the resulting task looks like this (space preserved):

due: YYYY-MM-DD

However, the Tasks Calendar and Kanban views only recognise due dates in the following formats:

• due:YYYY-MM-DD (no space, ISO date) - works

They fail to recognise:

• due: YYYY-MM-DD (with space) - treated as plain text, placed in Today
• due:@tomorrow (no space, but with @ keyword) - placed in Today

The core conflict:
Users must type a space to invoke the completion popup, but must manually delete that space afterward for the date to be parsed correctly - creating a broken, inconsistent workflow.

Steps to reproduce

1. Create a task and type due: (with space) to trigger the popup.
2. Select a date (e.g., @tomorrow) -> results in due: YYYY-MM-DD.
3. Open Tasks with :tasks, press 2 to view the calendar, press 3 for kanban view and observe.

Actual Behaviour

• due: YYYY-MM-DD (spaced) -> not parsed; stays in Today column.
• due:@tomorrow -> not parsed; stays in Today column.
• due:YYYY-MM-DD (no space) -> parsed correctly; appears on the correct calendar date/kanban column.

Expected Behaviour

One of the following fixes would resolve the inconsistency:

• Option A (trigger-side): Make the completion popup trigger without requiring a space - e.g., show suggestions immediately after due: or when due:@ is typed - so the final output naturally becomes due:YYYY-MM-DD or due:@tomorrow without a manual cleanup.
• Option B (parser-side): Make the parser accept all common variations, including due: YYYY-MM-DD (with space), due:@tomorrow and due: @tomorrow, so the existing completion workflow works out of the box.

Either change would eliminate the need for users to manually remove the space after every date insertion.

Screenshots

Case	Result
Kanban view - due: YYYY-MM-DD
Calendar view - due: YYYY-MM-DD

[adibhanna]

Fixed on release/v2.11.0 (c634d76), shipping in 2.11.0. Went with Option B (parser-side) so all the natural variations just work.

The due-date parser required the date immediately after the colon (due:(\S+)), so the space the @-date completion inserts (due: YYYY-MM-DD) broke it and the task fell into Today. It now allows optional whitespace after the colon (due:\s*), so due: YYYY-MM-DD parses the same as due:YYYY-MM-DD. Fixed in all four synced copies of the parser (the shared task parser, the reschedule/strip regex, the MCP parser, and the Go server), and the ISO-date validation stays strict so only real dates parse.

Verified by driving the running app: a task written - [ ] pay rent due: 2026-07-21 renders on July 21 in the Tasks calendar (not Today), same as the no-space form.

One note: a literal due:@tomorrow (typed out instead of picking from the popup) still won't resolve — the @ completion expands the keyword to an ISO date, so the parser deliberately doesn't re-interpret keywords. The spaced-date workflow you described is fully fixed. Thanks @uNyanda!