Task - a simple task management utility

Task is a simply task management utility written in Go. It stores its state in a JSON file that's local to each project.

Because the tasks are represented in JSON on disk, they're version controlled along with the code.

Usage

task help/task -h

Show the standard help command listing all subcommands and global arguments.

task init

Initialise the directory to use task by creating the .task/ directory and the .task/task.json.

task list

Display a list of tasks in the project. Optional arguments:

• --json to show the full JSON structure rather than the pretty print
• -l/--label to filter the list by tasks with this label
• -t/--type to filter the list by tasks with this type
• -s/--status to filter the by tasks with this status

task new

Create a new task. First positional argument is the task name. All tasks start as todo. New tasks are given an automatically generated 3 character hash as an ID. Optional arguments:

• -d/--description taking a string for the description
• -l/--label taking a list of strings to add as labels to the task
• -t/--type taking task, bug, or feature

When no flags are provided, task new opens $EDITOR with YAML frontmatter for the task fields and the description below it. Avoid using the bare task new form in non-interactive shells or automation, since it will block waiting for an editor.

task edit

Edit a task in $EDITOR. The editor opens with YAML frontmatter containing the task fields and the description below it. Avoid using task edit in non-interactive shells or automation, since it will block waiting for an editor.

task update

Update an existing task. The first positional argument is the task ID. Optional arguments:

• -n/--name taking a string for the task name
• -d/--description taking a string for the description
• -l/--label taking a list of strings to add as labels to the task
• -t/--type taking task, bug, or feature
• -s/--status taking todo, progress, blocked, abandon, or done

task show

Show a task in full with all of its fields and notes. First positional argument is task ID. Can be run with --json to show the full JSON structure rather than the pretty print.

task note

Append a note to the task with ID passed as the first positional argument. The second positional argument is a string that is the content of the note. Also accepts stdin for the note content. In such cases, the first positional argument is still the task ID.

Aliases

• task ready -> task list -s todo
• task take $id -> task update $id -s progress
• task complete $id -> task update $id -s done
• task block $id -> task update $id -s blocked
• task abandon $id -> task update $id -s abandon

Schema

The schema for a task is as follows. The tasks.json file is just an array of them until we feel the need to optimise.

{
    "id": "9nk",                      // Generated on creation
    "created_at": "ISO datetime",
    "updated_at": "ISO datetime",     // Updated on every mutation, default DESC sort order for list
    "title": "Task title",
    "description": "Task description",// Optional, initialised as null
    "status": "progress",             // Required, initialised as todo
    "labels": ["label1", "label2"],   // Required, initialised as []
    "notes": [                        // Required, initialised at []
        {
            "id": "9nk-81f",          // Required, initialised with task ID plus new note key
            "created_at": "ISO datetime",
            "content": "Note content"
        }
    ]
}

Development

To build locally with existing tags:

make build             # Builds with version from git tag

To tag and create a release:

git tag -a v1.0.0 -m "Release name"
git push origin v1.0.0
goreleaser release    # Requires goreleaser and GITHUB_TOKEN