Actionista Action CLI for Todoist.
Manage your Todoist tasks from the command line, using powerful filters to select, print, reschedule, and complete tasks in a batch-wise fashion.
Do you have dozens or even hundreds of overdue tasks on your agenda? Clear up your task list in seconds, using the Actionista Action CLI for Todoist. You can now take the rest of the day off with a clear conscience.
This Action CLI for Todoist (todoist-action-cli
), operates sequentially on a list of tasks.
You start out with a list of all tasks, and then select tasks using one of the many
filters available. You can then sort, print, and reschedule the selected tasks.
Actionista Action-Chain CLI for Todoist (actionista-todoist)
is inspired by the powerful find
command line tool. It takes the "chain of actions"
approach that find
uses to find and select files on your harddisk,
and applies it for managing your Todoist task list.
The successful find
utility works by supplying a sequence of "actions"
(also known as "expressions" in the find
manual).
Most actions are essentially filters, where you list criteria for the files to find.
However, the real usability of find
is that it can not only print the matching files,
but also use the matching files for other actions, e.g. deleting the files,
or sending them to other command line tools.
The actionista action-chain CLI takes a similar approach.
Starting from the full list of tasks, you can apply filters to find exactly those tasks that you need.
Together with other actions, you can print
, reschedule
, rename
, mark-complete
, or delete
whatever tasks you need.
You can invoke as many actions as you need, both filters and other actions, in any order.
The actions are invoked in exactly the order you specify.
So if you want, you can filter tasks by e.g. project name, and print all tasks in a given project, then filter by due date, and print again, then reschedule the tasks that were just printed, then filter by exact name, then mark that (or those) remaining task(s) as complete, and finally commit the changes to the server. This example is mostly just to show what is possible, and I personally wouldn't recommend having such a complex list of actions, but you are basically free to list as many (or as few) actions as you want or need. For the record, doing the described sequence of actions would look something like this:
$ todoist-action-cli -project Wedding -print \
-due before today \
-print \
-reschedule tomorrow \
-name startswith "Pick up the rings" \
-rename "Remind Tommy to pick up the rings" \
-commit
Usually, for your own sanity, command line usage would be a little more simple, and have only a single "purpose" with each invocation:
# Basic example: Find tasks containing the string "rings":
$ todoist-action-cli -sync -name "*rings*" -sort -print
The generalized command line usage is:
$ todoist-action-cli [-action [args]] [-action [args]] [...]
You can also import the package from python:
>>> import actionista.todoist
>>> import actionista.todoist.action_cli
Note: This package was formerly imported as rsenv.rstodo.todoist_action_cli
,
but has now been separated into its own package, imported as: actionista.todoist_action_cli
.
NOTE: This application is not created by, affiliated with, or supported by Doist. It is a third-party command line utility that is making use of the official Todoist API, as documented by https://developer.todoist.com/sync/v8/.
pipx
:For regular end-users, I recommend using pipx
to install the Actionista-Todoist command line apps:
$ pipx install actionista-todoist
If you don't have pipx installed, you can refer to the pipx installation guide. Briefly:
$ pip install pipx
$ pipx ensurepath
The last step will add ~/.local/bin
to the PATH environment variable.
Please make sure to close and restart your terminal/command prompt after
installing pipx for the first time.
Known installation errors:
conda
, there is a known issue where you receive an error,
"Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory:", when trying to install packages with pipx
.
If you get this error, please update your conda
python and make sure you are only using
the "defaults" channel, not "conda-forge".pip
:To install distribution release package from the Python Packaging Index (PyPI):
$ pip install -U actionista-todoist
Alternatively, install the latest git master source by fetching the git repository from github and install the package in editable mode (development mode):
$ git clone git@github.com:scholer/actionista-todoist && cd actionista-todoist
$ pip install -U -e .
Once actionista-todoist
package is installed, you need to obtain a login token from the todoist website:
Log into your todoist.com account, go to Settings -> Integrations
, and copy the API token.
(You can also go directly to the page: https://todoist.com/prefs/integrations).
Now run:
$ actionista-todoist-config
to set up the login token with your Actionista-Todoist installation.
The API token is stored in ~/.todoist_token.txt
.
The actionista-todoist-config
command will also create a default config file,
~/.todoist_config.yaml
, which you can edit to change default sorting and printing format.
If you re-set your Todoist API token, you can update it either by running:
$ actionista-todoist-config --token <your-token-here>
or by manually editing the file ~/.todoist_token.txt
and place your token in here.
The actionista-todoist
package contains several command line apps (CLIs):
todoist-action-cli
- also available as actionista-todoist
.todoist-cli
.actionista-todoist-config
.The todoist-action-cli
CLI program uses the "action chain" approach, where you specify a sequence
of "actions", which are used to filter/select tasks from Todoist and then sort, print, or reschedule
the selected tasks in a batch-wise fashion.
The todoist-cli
CLI program is used mostly for things that doesn't fit the "action chain" philosophy.
For instance, if you want to add a new task, that doesn't really fit into the todoist-action-cli
workflow.(*) Instead, you can use todoist-cli add-task
command to add a new task to Todoist.
The todoist-cli
is also used for other things, e.g. printing a list of your projects, etc.
You can run todoist-cli --help
to see all available commands.
Finally, the actionista-todoist-config
CLI program is used to set up Actionista-Todoist,
configuring your API login token, and creating a default configuration file.
(*) The todoist-action-cli
can technically be used to add tasks to Todoist, using the
-add-task
action command - however, this is not the recommended approach.
todoist-action-cli
usage:The general command line usage is:
$ todoist-action-cli [actions]
$ todoist-action-cli [-action [args]]
Where action
is one of the following actions:
# Sorting and printing tasks:
-print Print tasks, using a python format string.
-sort Sort the list of tasks, by task attribute in ascending or descending order.
# Task selection (filtering):
-filter Generic task filtering method based on comparison with a specific task attribute.
-has Generic task filtering method based on comparison with a specific task attribute.
-is Special -is filter for ad-hoc or frequently-used cases, e.g. `-is not checked`, etc.
-not Convenience `-not` action, just an alias for `-is not`. Can be used as e.g. `-not recurring`.
-due Special `-due [when]` filter. Is just an alias for `-is due [when]`.
-contains Convenience filter action using taskkey="content", op_name="contains".
-startswith Convenience filter action using taskkey="content", op_name="startswith".
-endswith Convenience filter action using taskkey="content", op_name="endswith".
-glob Convenience filter action using taskkey="content", op_name="glob".
-iglob Convenience filter action using taskkey="content", op_name="iglob".
-eq Convenience filter action using taskkey="content", op_name="eq".
-ieq Convenience filter action using taskkey="content", op_name="ieq".
-content Convenience adaptor to filter tasks based on the 'content' attribute (default op_name 'iglob').
-name Convenience adaptor to filter tasks based on the 'content' attribute (default op_name 'iglob').
-project Convenience adaptor for filter action using taskkey="project_name" (default op_name "iglob").
-priority Convenience adaptor for filter action using taskkey="priority" (default op_name "eq").
-priority-eq Convenience filter action using taskkey="priority", op_name="eq".
-priority-ge Convenience filter action using taskkey="priority", op_name="ge".
-priority-str Convenience adaptor for filter action using taskkey="priority_str" (default op_name "eq").
-priority-str-eq Convenience filter action using taskkey="priority_str", op_name="eq".
-p1 Filter tasks including only tasks with priority 'p1'.
-p2 Filter tasks including only tasks with priority 'p2'.
-p3 Filter tasks including only tasks with priority 'p3'.
-p4 Filter tasks including only tasks with priority 'p3'.
# Updating tasks:
-reschedule Reschedule tasks to a new date/time.
-mark-completed Mark tasks as completed using method='close'.
-mark-as-done Mark tasks as completed using method='close'.
# Synchronizing and committing changes with the server:
-sync Pull task updates from the server to synchronize the local task data cache.
-commit Commit is a sync that includes local commands from the queue, emptying the queue. Raises SyncError.
-show-queue Show list of API commands in the POST queue.
-delete-cache Delete local todoist data cache.
-print-queue Show list of API commands in the POST queue.
# Program behavior:
-verbose, -v Increase program informational output verbosity.
-yes, -y Disable confirmation prompt before enacting irreversible commands, e.g. -commit.
-help, -h Print help messages. Use `-help <action>` to get help on a particular action.
To see how to use each filter, type:
$ todoist-action-cli -help <action_name>
E.g.:
$ todoist-action-cli -help project
$ todoist-action-cli -help filter
$ todoist-action-cli -help reschedule
As you can see, typical usage is:
$ todoist-action-cli -sync [one or more filter actions to select the tasks] -sort -print
The filter actions could be e.g. filtering by -name
(same as -content
),
project
, due_date_local_iso
, etc.
The -sync
action is optional; if you do not specify -sync
, the program will just re-use the old cache,
from last time you invoked -sync
. You must invoke -sync
at least once, when you first install this package,
and you should always -sync
if you have made any changes (e.g. from your phone) since your last sync.
Finally, the -sort
and -print
commands will sort and print the selected tasks.
If you need to refine your filters, just run the command again. The data is cached locally,
so if you omit the -sync
action, commands can be executed in rapid succession.
Another example, to reschedule the due date for a bunch of tasks, would look like:
$ todoist-action-cli [-sync] [filter actions] [-sort] [-print] -reschedule "Apr 21" -commit
NOTE: I strongly recommend that you -print
the filtered tasks before you
-rename
or -reschedule
the tasks. When you invoke -commit
, the changes cannot be undone automatically,
so you may easily end up with a bunch of identically-named tasks with the same due date, if you forgot to
apply the correct selection filters before renaming or rescheduling the tasks!
For this reason, the program will, by default, ask you for confirmation before every -commit
.
Each action can be provided a set of arguments which are listed sequentially, separated by space. If one argument contains spaces, e.g. you are filtering by tasks in the project "Meeting notes", then you need to quote the argument as such:
$ todoist-action-cli -sync -project "Meeting notes" -sort "project_name,content" ascending -print
Here, we provided one argument to the -project
action ("Meeting notes"
),
and two arguments to the -sort
action ("project_name,content"
and ascending
).
Some of the actions attempts to be "clever" when interpreting the arguments given. For instance, when filtering by project, you can do either:
$ todoist-action-cli -project "Wedding*"
$ todoist-action-cli -project glob "Wedding*"
$ todoist-action-cli -project startswith Wedding
The general signature for the -project
action is:
$ todoist-action-cli -project [operator] value
Here, [operator]
is the name of one of the many registered binary operators.
These are used to compare the tasks against a given value.
In the example above, if you do not specify any operator, then the "glob" operator is used.
The "glob" operator allows you to use wild-cards for selecting tasks, the same way you select files on the command line.
In our case, we "glob" against tasks with project name starting with the string "Wedding*".
We could also have used the "startswith" operator, and omit the asterisk: startswith Wedding
.
For more info on how to use operators, see:
$ todoist-action-cli -help operators
Installing this project (actionista-todoist
) with pip
will also give you some
"ad-hoc" command line interface entry points:
$ todoist-adhoc <command> <args>
$ todoist-adhoc print-query <query> [<print-fmt>]
$ todoist-adhoc print-completed-today [<print-fmt>]
$ todoist-adhoc print-today-or-overdue-items [<print-fmt>]
# And a couple of endpoints with convenient defaults, e.g.:
$ todoist_today_or_overdue
todoist-cli -
A command line interface for batch creating Todoist tasks from a file.
Makes manual requests against the web API url (rather than using the official todoist-python package).
No updates since January 2016 (except setup.py
and requirements.txt
).
This probably doesn't work, given that it uses an old, obsolete API endpoint URL.
todoicli - A rather new project (as of April 2018).
Focuses on pre-defined queries for listing tasks, e.g. "today and overdue", "next 7 days", etc.
Lots of other functionality, pretty extensive code base.
Has integration with the toggl.com time tracking service.
Uses the official todoist-python
package, but still uses the
"universal UTC" time format from the old v7 Sync API, and the v7 due-date structure.
That means it probably won't work anymore, given that the v7 Sync API has been deprecated,
and the todoist-python
package has switched to Sync API v8.
For instance, the list td
and list n7
uses item['due_date_utc']
, which will raise
a KeyError
with the new v8 data structure.
The CLI also expects IDs
(task_id
, label_id
, project_id
), rather than text names,
making it rather difficult to use for the end user.
pydoist - A basic CLI to add Todoist tasks from the command line.
Uses the official todoist-python
python API from Todoist.
Lastest release was November 2016, so may not work with the new v8 Sync API.
python-todoist - The official python 'Todoist' package from Doist (the company behind Todoist). Is currently using the version 8.0 "Sync" API.
pytodoist - An alternative Todoist API package. Also uses the v7 Sync API. A rather different approach to API wrapping, perhaps more object oriented. Focused on modelling individual Users/Projects/Tasks/Notes, where the official todoist-python package has managers as the central unit (ItemsManager, ProjectsManager, NotesManager).