todo-cli

Simple command-line todo management tool for linux environment.

Requirements

python > 3.8 is recommended.

Main Features

• Basic functionalities of todo management tool are available such as:
  
  • make, delete, rename, show todos, mark them as finished
  • set deadlines, add tags
• Branch enables more hierarchical todo management; branch means a new isolated todo list derived from the current one, and users can organize groups of todos into different branches without adding many tags to them.
• Note feature can be used to add remarks, more datails about the task, or subtasks.

Download and Installation

For the latest stable version, download the .tar.gz from the link above.

Or clone this repository (It may contain more bugs or features under testing)

Move to the downloaded directory and run: ./install.sh
Then you can use just by running todo init .
To check the usage, type todo .

Commands List

Commands below are available and can be run by todo <command>.

command	Description
init	initialize
view [-a] [-t] [-f <tag>]	show current todos
make <name1> <name2> ...	make new todos
rename <target> <newname>	rename existing todo
done <name1> <name2> ...	mark todos as finished
undone <name1> <name2> ...	mark todos as not finished
del <name1> <name2> ...	remove todos which are not finished
note <todo>	write notes (markdown file) linked to the todo (vim opens)
tag [-rm] <todo name1> <todo name2> ... <tag name>	add [remove] a tag on the todos
due [-rm] <todo name1> <todo name2> ... <YYYY-MM-DD>	set [remove] due date for the todos
branch [-rm] <branch name>	create [remove] a branch
switch <branch name>	switch to the branch
clean	delete all the finished todos

Options

• [-a] in view : include finished todo (only remained todos are shown by default).
• [-t] in view : sort todos by tags (todos are sorted by their deadlines by default).
• [-f <tag>] in view : show all the todos with the <tag>.
• [-rm] in tag, due, and branch : remove the targets.

Tips

• Shell completion is available for todo names when you run such as todo done or todo note. Press Tab key to use the completion just as you usually do in command line.

Customize

• The editor used for todo note can be changed by editing constant EDITOR_FOR_NOTES in src/config.py e.g. EDITOR_FOR_NOTES = "nvim". (Default: vim)

• Finished todos are automatically deleted when the number of it become more than 15. This number can be changed by editing CLEAN_NUM in src/config.py . (Finished todos can be deleted manually as well by running todo clean)

• The directory where todos are saved can be changed by editing TODO_SAVE in src/config.py. If one sets TODO_SAVE a directory in the cloud such as Onedrive, one will be able to sync the todos on different devices. Make sure to run todo init again after changing TODO_SAVE, and copy the existing json file and notes file in the former TODO_SAVE directory (it is initially ~/todo_cli).

Examples

• Initialize: todo init

• Add a todo "read an article": todo make "read an article"
  (*Use quotation mark for todo's name, if it contains space!)

• View: todo view
  (Output: - read an article)

• Set the due date: todo due "read an article" 2026-08-01

• Add a tag: todo tag "read an article" research

• View again: todo view
  (Output: - read an article | Due: 2026-08-01 | Tag: research )
  

• Add the link to the article as notes: todo note "read an article"
  (One can paste the link in the todo file)

• Mark it as done: todo done "read an article"