claude-todo-skill

Capture ideas without leaving Claude Code.

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The Problem

You're deep in a Claude session, something clicks — "oh, I should add dark mode" or "need to write tests for that auth flow" — and you think, I'll remember that. You won't. It's gone by the next session.

You could switch to a notes app, open an issue tracker, or drop it in a Slack message to yourself. But you're mid-thought, mid-flow, and any context switch costs you momentum.

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Who This Is For

Developers who think of things mid-session and lose them by the next one. This is the lightest tool in the Code Katz suite — no structure, no categories, no overhead. Just a flat list of things you don't want to forget.

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See the Difference

You just realized something needs to happen, but you're in the middle of something else.

Without the todo skill:

You: Oh wait, I also need to write tests for that auth module. Let me open a note somewhere...

(switches to Notes app, writes it down, switches back, loses train of thought)

With the todo skill:

You: /todo write unit tests for the auth module

Claude: Added. You now have 3 open items. Back to what we were doing — you were asking about the refresh token rotation.

No context switch. No app to open. The idea is captured and you're still in flow.

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Commands

Command	What happens
/todo <text>	Appends - [ ] <text> to your project's TODOS.md
/todo	Claude asks what you want to add, then adds it
/todos	Lists all your open (unchecked) items
/todos review	Walks through each open item interactively

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Your TODOS.md

Lives in your project root — right next to your DEVLOG.md and ROADMAP.md if you use those. Looks like this:

# TODOS
<!-- project: my-cool-project -->

- [ ] write unit tests for the auth module
- [ ] look into dark mode toggle
  - Update 2026-03-20: tried it, needs a theme context refactor first
- [x] add error handling to the API client

Flat list. No categories. No due dates. No overhead. Completed items stay right where they are, just checked off. That's intentional — this is a scratchpad, not a project management suite.

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Installation

This skill is for Claude Code. Install it once and it's available across all your projects:

mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills/todo
curl -o ~/.claude/skills/todo/SKILL.md \
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/code-katz/claude-todo-skill/main/SKILL.md

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Usage

Once installed, the skill activates automatically in Claude Code. You can:

• Quick capture — type /todo followed by the idea
• Brain dump review — type /todos review to walk through open items one by one
• Check status — type /todos to see what's still open
• Lint check — on first use per session, verifies your project has a linter configured and flags if missing

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Works Well With

Project	What it does
claude-team-cli	Ten specialist personas for Claude Code — capture action items from any specialist session
claude-devlog-skill	Structured development changelog — the devlog captures decisions, the todo list captures everything else
claude-roadmap-skill	Living product roadmap — strategic priorities live in the roadmap, tactical tasks live here
claude-plans-skill	Archives finalized implementation plans — plans capture the approach, todos capture the loose threads
claude-publish-agent	Publish markdown to blogging platforms — write about what you've built and ship it from the terminal

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Repository Contents

File	Purpose
SKILL.md	The skill source file — Claude's instructions for how todo capture works
DEVLOG.md	Development log for this project
README.md	This file

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License

See LICENSE for details.