Todoist CLI Skill

This skill provides procedural guidance for working with Todoist using the td CLI tool.

Prerequisites

The td CLI must be installed and authenticated. Verify with:

td auth status

If td is not installed or not authenticated:

• Not installed: Tell the user to install with npm install -g @doist/todoist-cli
• Not authenticated: Tell the user to run td auth login to authenticate via OAuth

Output Formats for Agents

For machine-readable output, use these flags:

• --json – Output as JSON array
• --ndjson – Output as newline-delimited JSON (one object per line)
• --full – Include all fields in JSON output (default shows essential fields only)

Confirmation Requirement

Before executing any destructive action, always ask the user for confirmation using AskUserQuestion or similar tool. A single confirmation suffices for a logical group of related actions.

Destructive actions include:

• Deleting tasks, projects, sections, labels, or comments
• Completing tasks
• Updating existing resources
• Archiving projects

Read-only operations do not require confirmation.

Quick Commands

Quick Add Examples

td add "Buy milk tomorrow p1 #Shopping"
td add "Call dentist every monday @health"
td add "Review PR #Work /Code Review"

The quick add parser supports:

• Due dates: tomorrow, next monday, Jan 15
• Priority: p1 (urgent) through p4 (normal)
• Project: #ProjectName
• Section: /SectionName
• Labels: @label1 @label2

Tasks

List Tasks

td task list [options]

Filters:

• --project <name> – Filter by project name or id:xxx
• --label <name> – Filter by label (comma-separated for multiple)
• --priority <p1-p4> – Filter by priority
• --due <date> – Filter by due date (today, overdue, or YYYY-MM-DD)
• --filter <query> – Raw Todoist filter query
• --assignee <ref> – Filter by assignee (me or id:xxx)
• --workspace <name> – Filter to workspace
• --personal – Filter to personal projects only

Output:

td task list --json                    # JSON array
td task list --project "Work" --json   # Filtered JSON
td task list --all --json              # All tasks (no limit)

View Task Details

td task view <ref>              # Human-readable
td task view <ref> --json       # JSON output

The ref can be a task name, partial match, or id:xxx.

Create Task

Quick add (natural language):

td add "Task text with #Project @label tomorrow p2"

Explicit flags:

td task add --content "Task text" \
  --project "Work" \
  --due "tomorrow" \
  --priority p2 \
  --labels "urgent,review" \
  --description "Additional details"

Options:

• --content <text> – Task content (required)
• --due <date> – Due date (natural language or YYYY-MM-DD)
• --deadline <date> – Deadline date (YYYY-MM-DD)
• --priority <p1-p4> – Priority level
• --project <name> – Project name or id:xxx
• --section <id> – Section ID
• --labels <a,b> – Comma-separated labels
• --parent <ref> – Parent task for subtask
• --description <text> – Task description
• --assignee <ref> – Assign to user (name, email, id:xxx, or “me”)
• --duration <time> – Duration (e.g., 30m, 1h, 2h15m)

Update Task

td task update <ref> --content "New content" --due "next week"

Options:

• --content <text> – New content
• --due <date> – New due date
• --deadline <date> – Deadline date
• --no-deadline – Remove deadline
• --priority <p1-p4> – New priority
• --labels <a,b> – Replace labels
• --description <text> – New description
• --assignee <ref> – Assign to user
• --unassign – Remove assignee
• --duration <time> – Duration

Complete Task

td task complete <ref>

Reopen Task

td task uncomplete id:xxx

Note: Uncomplete requires the task ID (id:xxx format).

Delete Task

td task delete <ref>

Move Task

td task move <ref> --project "New Project"
td task move <ref> --section <section-id>
td task move <ref> --parent <task-ref>

Open in Browser

td task browse <ref>

Projects

List Projects

td project list                     # Human-readable tree
td project list --json              # JSON array
td project list --personal --json   # Personal projects only

View Project

td project view <ref>
td project view <ref> --json

Create Project

td project create --name "Project Name" \
  --color "blue" \
  --parent "Parent Project" \
  --view-style board \
  --favorite

Options:

• --name <name> – Project name (required)
• --color <color> – Colour name
• --parent <ref> – Parent project for nesting
• --view-style <style> – “list” or “board”
• --favorite – Mark as favourite

Update Project

td project update <ref> --name "New Name" --color "red"

Archive/Unarchive Project

td project archive <ref>
td project unarchive <ref>

Delete Project

td project delete <ref>

Note: Project must have no uncompleted tasks.

List Collaborators

td project collaborators <ref>

Sections

List Sections

td section list <project>           # Human-readable
td section list <project> --json    # JSON array

Create Section

td section create --name "Section Name" --project "Project Name"

Update Section

td section update <id> --name "New Name"

Delete Section

td section delete <id>

Labels

List Labels

td label list              # Human-readable
td label list --json       # JSON array

Create Label

td label create --name "label-name" --color "green" --favorite

Update Label

td label update <ref> --name "new-name" --color "blue"

Delete Label

td label delete <name>

Comments

List Comments

td comment list <task-ref>                    # Comments on task
td comment list <project-ref> --project       # Comments on project

Add Comment

td comment add <task-ref> --content "Comment text"
td comment add <project-ref> --project --content "Comment text"

Update Comment

td comment update <id> --content "Updated text"

Delete Comment

td comment delete <id>

Reminders

List Reminders

td reminder list <task-ref>

Add Reminder

td reminder add <task-ref> --due "tomorrow 9am"

Delete Reminder

td reminder delete <id>

Filters

List Saved Filters

td filter list --json

Show Tasks Matching Filter

td filter show <filter-ref> --json

Create Filter

td filter create --name "My Filter" --query "today & p1"

Completed Tasks

td completed                              # Today's completed tasks
td completed --since 2024-01-01           # Since specific date
td completed --project "Work" --json      # Filtered JSON output
td completed --all --json                 # All completed (no limit)

Options:

• --since <date> – Start date (YYYY-MM-DD), default: today
• --until <date> – End date (YYYY-MM-DD), default: tomorrow
• --project <name> – Filter by project

Activity and Stats

td activity                  # Recent activity
td stats                     # Productivity stats and karma

Pagination

For large result sets, use --all to fetch everything, or handle pagination with cursors:

# First page
result=$(td task list --json --limit 50)

# If there's a next_cursor in the response, continue
cursor=$(echo "$result" | jq -r '.[-1].id // empty')
td task list --json --limit 50 --cursor "$cursor"

Reference Resolution

The <ref> parameter in commands accepts:

• Task/project/label name (partial match supported)
• id:xxx for exact ID match
• Numeric ID (interpreted as id:xxx)

Additional Reference

For detailed information on specific topics, consult:

• references/completed-tasks.md – Alternative methods for completed task history via API
• references/filters.md – Todoist filter query syntax for --filter flag

Workflow Summary

1. Verify authentication – td auth status
2. Read operations – Execute directly without confirmation
3. Write operations – Ask for confirmation before executing
4. Use JSON output – Add --json flag for machine-readable data
5. Handle large datasets – Use --all or pagination with --cursor