Taskell
A CLI kanban board/task manager for Mac and Linux
- Per project task lists
vim
style key-bindings- Stored using Markdown
- Clean diffs for easy version control
- Support for sub-tasks and due dates
- Trello board imports
- GitHub project imports
Follow @taskellcli on Twitter for updates
Contents
Installation
Homebrew (Mac)
You can install Taskell on your Mac using Homebrew:
brew install taskell
There are usually bottles (binaries) available. If these are not available for your computer, Homebrew will build Taskell from scratch, which can take a while, particularly on older machines. Occasionally the build fails the first time, but usually works on a second attempt.
Debian/Ubuntu
A .deb
package is available for Debian/Ubuntu. Download it and install with dpkg -i <package-name>
. You may also need to install the libtinfo5
package (sudo apt install libtinfo5
).
Fedora
Not officially supported, but try running sudo dnf install ncurses-compat-libs
then download and run the binary as described below. If that doesn't work you may need to build from scratch (Cabal/Stack).
Binaries
A binary is available for Mac and Debian/Ubuntu. Download it and copy it to a directory in your $PATH
(e.g. /usr/local/bin
or /usr/bin
).
Cabal
You can install Taskell with cabal
:
cabal install taskell
Make sure you run cabal update
if you haven't run it recently.
Stack
If none of the above options work you can build taskell using Stack. First install Stack on your machine. Then clone the repo and run stack build && stack install
: this will build taskell and then install it in ~/.local/bin
(so make sure that directory is in your $PATH
). Building from scratch can take a long time and occasionally doesn't work the first time (if this happens try running it again).
Using Taskell
taskell
: will usetaskell.md
in the pwd - offers to create if not foundtaskell filename.md
: will usefilename.md
in the pwd - offers to create if not found
Options
-h
: show help-v
: show version number-t <trello-board-id>
: import a Trello board (see below)-g <github-project-id>
: import a GitHub project (see below)
Tips
- If you're using a simple two-column "To Do" and "Done" then use the space bar to mark an item as complete while staying in the "To Do" list. If you're using a more complicated column setup then you will want to use
H
/L
to move tasks between columns.
Storage
By default stores in a taskell.md
file in the working directory:
## To Do
- Do this
## Done
- Do That
Importing Trello Boards
Taskell includes the ability to fetch a Trello board and store it as local taskell file.
Authentication
Before fetching a Trello board, you'll need to create an access token and store it in ~/.taskell/config.ini
.
-
First, get a Trello token
-
Then add it to
~/.taskell/config.ini
:[trello] token = <your-trello-access-token>
You can revoke access tokens on Trello
Fetching
Running the following would pull down the Trello board with the ID "TRe1l0iD" into a file named trello.md
and then open taskell with that file.
taskell -t TRe1l0iD trello.md
Make sure you have permission to view the Trello board, otherwise you'll get an error.
Limitations
- This is a one-off procedure: it effectively imports a Trello board to taskell
- Currently imports:
- Lists
- Cards
- Card descriptions
- Card due dates
- Card checklists (merged into one list per card)
Importing GitHub Projects
Taskell includes the ability to fetch a GitHub project and store it as local taskell file.
Authentication
Before fetching a GitHub board, you'll need to create a person access token and store it in ~/.taskell/config.ini
.
-
Make sure to tick the
repo
scope -
Then add it to
~/.taskell/config.ini
:[github] token = <your-github-personal-access-token>
You can delete personal access tokens on GitHub
Fetching
Projects can belong to organisations or to individual repositories.
Make sure you have permission to view the GitHub project, otherwise you'll get an error.
Organisations
To import a project for an organisation called "test-org" you would use the following:
taskell -g orgs/test-org github.md
This would then show you a list of possible projects to import. Enter the number of the project you wish to import.
Repositories
To import a project for the repository "test-repo" for the user "test-user":
taskell -g repos/test-user/test-repo github.md
This would then show you a list of possible projects to import. Enter the number of the project you with to import.
Limitations
- This is a one-off procedure: it effectively imports a GitHub project to taskell
- Currently imports:
- Columns
- Cards
Configuration
Taskell uses the XDG Base Directory Specification, so it will look for an $XDG_CONFIG_HOME
environmental variable and create a directory named taskell
inside it. If this variable is not found it will create the taskell
directory in ~/.config/
. (If you've been using Taskell since <= 1.3.5 then it will be in a ~/.taskell
directory, feel free to move this to the XDG directory.)
Taskell has a config.ini
file:
[general]
; the default filename to create/look for
filename = taskell.md
[layout]
; the width of a column
column_width = 30
; the padding of a column
; for both sides, so 3 would give a gap of 6 between two columns
column_padding = 3
; the icon to use when a task has a description
; the default icon may not display on all systems
description_indicator = "≡"
[markdown]
; the markdown to start a title line with
title = "##"
; the markdown to start a task line with
task = "-"
; the markdown to start a sub-task line with
subtask = " *"
Make sure that the values in the [markdown]
section are surrounded by double-quotes.
If you always use sub-tasks, an alternative setup for [markdown]
might be:
[markdown]
title = "##"
; each task is a header
task = "###"
; subtasks are list items under the header
subtask = "-"
Warning: currently if you change your [markdown]
settings any older files stored with different settings will not be readable.
Controls
You can edit keyboard bindings in the bindings.ini
config file.
The default bindings can be found in bindings.ini
.
Available special keys: <Space>
, <Enter>
, <Backspace>
, <Left>
, <Right>
, <Up>
, <Down>
On a Mac you can use the alt
characters: e.g. quit = œ
is equivalent to alt+q
.
You shouldn't try to assign the 1
-9
keys, as it will not overwrite the default behaviour.
Theming
You can edit Taskell's colour-scheme by editing theme.ini
:
[other]
; list title
title.fg = green
; status bar
statusBar.bg = magenta
statusBar.fg = black
; current list title
titleCurrent.fg = blue
; current task
taskCurrent.fg = magenta
You can also change the background and default text colour:
[default]
; the app background colour
default.bg = brightBlack
; the app text colour
default.fg = white
The available colours are: black
, red
, green
, yellow
, blue
, magenta
, cyan
, white
, brightBlack
, brightRed
, brightGreen
, brightYellow
, brightBlue
, brightMagenta
, brightCyan
, brightWhite
, or default
Roadmap
See roadmap.md for planned features
Contributing
Please check the roadmap.md before adding any bugs/feature requests to Issues.
Anyone is welcome to contribute to the project, but please read through CONTRIBUTING.md and make sure that you agree with the Code of Conduct before getting involved.
Acknowledgements
Built using Brick. Thanks to Jonathan Daugherty for answering all my questions and pointing me in the right direction. Also thanks to Jack Leigh and Thom Wright for helping me get started. Also thanks to Katja Durrani for submitting Taskell to homebrew-core
.