Task Manager (tm, tmtui, tmgui)

Installation

TO BE DETERMINED!

Objective is a single line install via brew, choco, etc

Usage Guide

CLI

TBD - but should end up like some of the following commands for v1

• tm add Task Name
• tm new Task Name
• tm new project ProjectName
• tm new -p ProjectName hoping to keep the syntax fast - the faster someone can create a task - the better!

TUI

TBD

GUI

Mostly same as TUI, but also has buttons 😄

Features

• ⚡ Blazing fast startup — sub-250ms even with thousands of tasks. Markdown for storage + SQLite/FTS for speed.
• 🎹 Vim-like motions for tasks — j/k, gg/G, /, :ex commands, and status cycles (x, X, 1/2/3). It feels like editing code, but for tasks.
• 🖥️ Triple frontends — one codebase, three interfaces:
  • CLI for scripts and automation
  • TUI for terminal-first workflows
  • GUI for point-and-click users
    All consistent, all powerful.
• 🧩 Extensible plugin system — Lua-based (Neovim-style), load from git repos with use {}. Planned plugins include Todoist, Jira, GitLab, GitHub syncs.
• ⚙️ Config via Lua — ~/.config/tm/config.lua controls keymaps, colors, and defaults. Hot-reload with :config.reload.
• 📜 Ex command language — inspired by Vim/Taskwarrior. Examples:
  • :new "Pick up dry cleaning" +home due:2025-09-01
  • :done 01ABC…
  • :view.save today
• 📂 Projects + subtasks — native support for hierarchical projects, tasks, and subtasks. Roll-up statuses, due-date inheritance, reorder & reparent.
• 🌍 Cross-platform — macOS, Linux, Windows (incl. WSL). Single binary distribution with Brew/Chocolatey/Scoop planned.
• 🔒 Offline-first, local-first — everything works without network. Markdown vault is always the source of truth; sync via plugins is optional.
• 🔄 Live reload — external edits (e.g. Obsidian/Vim) detected automatically via file-watcher.
• 🔍 Saved views & filters — persist reusable queries like “today”, “work”, or “high-priority” and recall them instantly.
• ⏪ Future: Undo & history — append-only event log enables session undo (u, Ctrl-r) and full audit trail.
• 🤝 Community-friendly — MIT-licensed, plugin registry planned, with a roadmap toward secure plugin permissions.

Goal: the “Neovim of task management” — fast, extensible, local-first, and hackable. A solid base you can bend to your workflow instead of bending to someone else’s.

Why build another task manager?

In short, nothing met my requirements. Used every task management tool possible and I could never get cli + tui + gui + a syntax to interact with tasks like vim motions. With a majority being web based or GUI app based this seemed unintuitive with nvim/terminal/vscode focused flows.

I want a optimized language to manage tasks because as a manager, architect, mentor, devops/infra engineer, and tech lead - theres too damn much!

I've always loved vim and terminal based workflows and apps. In this case nothing else met my needs so I want to officially create what I would call the "vim/nvim of task management". Super fast, super easy to use, and a extension/modification layer to allow myself and others to easily add plugins.

Running for develpment

Run cargo run -p tm -- ls to list tasks

Run cargo run -p tm -- tui to launch the TUI (press q to quit).

Run cargo run -p tm -- gui to launch the TUI (press q to quit).

Development Installation

MacOS

brew install rust brew install sqlite brew install lua cargo install cargo-watch

warning: be sure to add /Users/jwalters/.cargo/bin to your PATH to be able to run the installed binaries

brew install just

Building & Running

cargo build cargo run -p tm -- init cargo run -p tm -- add "Try me" --project inbox cargo run -p tm -- ls cargo run -p tm -- tui

Contributing

• MIT license, feel free to do what you want!
• Would love for ppl to contribute and make this thing amazing

AI Use

• Vibecoding allowed, but scrutanize it a ton
• Goal is simple, efficient, and easy to work with both in the tool and in the code
• If it doesnt mean that goal, it shouldn't get merged!
• I will be transparent, I used AI to build a large chunk of the inital version here but I wish to decompose it and make it understandable to me and others! (A nightmare probably but its a good way to decompose and learn a new lang IMO)