OpenTask

Self-hosted, single-user, keyboard-first task manager — a Todoist-compatible open alternative.

_{Formerly OpenDoist — renamed in v0.4.0; every legacy surface (env vars, tokens, backups, data files) keeps working. See Migrating from OpenDoist.}

OpenTask is a task manager you run yourself: one container, one /data volume, one account. It speaks the Todoist workflow you already know — the Quick Add grammar, the filter language, the keyboard map — without the cloud, the subscription, or the second user you never wanted.

Features

Everything below is shipped, tested, and in main.

Capture

Feature	Notes
✅ Quick Add grammar	Full Todoist syntax — natural-language dates (tom 4pm, mid january, bare 6pm → today-or-tomorrow), #project /section @label p1–p4, {deadline}, !reminders, for 45min duration, plus // description and a leading * for uncompletable headers
✅ Recurrence engine	every / every! (advance from schedule vs. completion), workdays, ordinals (every 3rd friday, every last day), day/date lists, starting / until / for bounds — DST-safe and property-tested
✅ Ramble (voice capture)	Hold-to-record → pluggable STT (OpenAI-compatible / Deepgram / ElevenLabs / self-hosted Whisper) → optional LLM task extraction → review & confirm

Organize

Feature	Notes
✅ Tasks & subtasks	Priorities (1 = highest), durations, deadlines, markdown content, comments with attachments, soft delete
✅ Projects & sections	Nested projects, sections, a 20-color palette, favorites, drag-to-reorder
✅ Labels	@label with colors and dedicated label views
✅ Filters	The Todoist filter language — & | ! ( ) , panes, date/deadline/created operators, p1–p4, @label* wildcards, #Project / ##Project (with descendants) / /Section, search:, subtask, view all
✅ Search	SQLite FTS5 across content, descriptions, and comments

Plan

Feature	Notes
✅ Views	Inbox · Today (overdue + reschedule) · Upcoming (week strip, drag between days) · Project / Label / Filter (comma = multiple panes), with per-view layout (list or kanban board), group / sort / filter
✅ Keyboard-first	Full web shortcut map, ? shortcuts overlay, 10 s undo toasts
✅ Command palette	⌘K fuzzy navigation and actions
✅ Productivity	Daily/weekly goals, streaks, karma, vacation mode, an activity feed, and unlimited history

Remind

Feature	Notes
✅ Web Push	Installable-PWA push on desktop and mobile (iOS 16.4+ works after Add to Home Screen), with automatic offsets and recurring reminders
✅ Notification channels	ntfy, Gotify, and webhook delivery as alternatives or backups to Web Push
✅ iCal feed	Read-only tasks calendar for Google / Apple Calendar via a tokenized webcal:// URL

Own your data

Feature	Notes
✅ Todoist importer	Backup ZIP upload or a live API token — projects, sections, tasks, labels, and comments (priorities remapped, since Todoist stores 4 = highest)
✅ Export	Full JSON snapshot plus per-project CSV
✅ Backups	Nightly VACUUM INTO snapshots with retention and one-click restore

Platform

Feature	Notes
✅ PWA + offline	Installable app with a Workbox app shell; last-viewed lists stay readable offline
✅ REST API	Hono, every route zod-typed → OpenAPI + Scalar docs at /api/v1/docs, cursor pagination, SSE live updates, scoped ot_… API tokens
✅ CLI	opentask add "…" with the identical parser; --json on every read command
✅ Auth	Password + TOTP 2FA, generic OIDC SSO; registration auto-locks after the first user

Non-goals (v1): collaboration/sharing, the calendar layout, CalDAV, an email reminder channel, native mobile apps (the PWA is the mobile story), and localization.

Quick start

OpenTask is one container writing to one volume:

docker run -d --name opentask -p 7968:7968 -v ./data:/data ghcr.io/pranav-karra-3301/opentask

Or with Docker Compose:

services:
  opentask:
    image: ghcr.io/pranav-karra-3301/opentask:latest
    container_name: opentask
    ports: ["7968:7968"]
    volumes: ["./data:/data"]

Then open http://localhost:7968 and create your account. Registration locks automatically after the first user; re-open it with OPENTASK_ALLOW_REGISTRATION=true. HTTPS is required for Web Push and PWA install (localhost is exempt) — see docs/install.md.

Migrating from OpenDoist

OpenTask v0.4.0 is a rename of OpenDoist — same data model, same API, same image lineage. An existing deployment upgrades in place; every legacy surface is honored:

Legacy surface	What happens
OPENDOIST_* env vars	Still honored as fallbacks (a boot warning suggests renaming to OPENTASK_*)
opendoist.db in the data dir	Renamed to opentask.db (with WAL sidecars) automatically on first boot
od_… API tokens	Keep working — verification is by hash; new tokens mint as ot_…
Old backup zips (opendoist.db entry)	Still restorable
opendoist / od CLI names	Kept as aliases of opentask / ot (Docker image and npm bin)
ghcr.io/pranav-karra-3301/opendoist	Frozen at ≤ 0.3.x — switch to ghcr.io/pranav-karra-3301/opentask

The old GitHub repo URL redirects. The JSON export format marker is now opentask-export.

Command line

The CLI talks to your instance with the same Quick Add parser as the web app. It ships inside the container (with an ot short alias; the legacy opendoist/od names still work), so the quick start above already installed it — create an API token in Settings → Integrations, then:

docker exec -e OPENTASK_TOKEN=ot_… opentask opentask add "Pay rent tomorrow 9am p1 #Home"
docker exec -e OPENTASK_TOKEN=ot_… opentask opentask today

(The image already points OPENTASK_URL at the bundled server, so the token is all it needs.)

npm package: npm install -g opentask is planned but not published yet at 0.1.0. Until it lands, use the bundled binary above, or build from a source checkout with pnpm --filter opentask build and run node packages/cli/dist/index.js.

Full command reference — including opentask login and env-var configuration — in docs/cli.md.

Screenshots

Documentation

Full docs live in docs/:

• Documentation index
• Install & first run
• Configuration (environment variables)
• Import from Todoist
• Voice capture (Ramble & STT)
• Backups & restore
• REST API
• Command-line client
• FAQ

Development

Requires Node ≥ 22 and pnpm 10.

git clone https://github.com/pranav-karra-3301/opentask.git
cd opentask
pnpm install
pnpm verify   # lint + typecheck + test + build, everything CI runs

Handy during development:

pnpm --filter @opentask/core test   # core engine test suites (golden tables + property tests)
pnpm --filter @opentask/web dev     # web app (Vite)
pnpm seed                            # load a demo account with example data
pnpm lint:fix                        # Biome, auto-fix

See CONTRIBUTING.md for commit conventions and the design-token rules.

Stack

Layer	Choices
Runtime	Node.js ≥ 22 · single Docker container · SQLite on one /data volume
Monorepo	pnpm workspaces + catalog · TypeScript (strict) · Biome 2 · Vitest 4 + fast-check
Core (packages/core)	zod 4 · chrono-node · date-fns 4 + @date-fns/tz · temporal-polyfill + rrule-temporal — pure, zero-IO, shared by web/server/CLI
Server (apps/server)	Hono 4 + @hono/zod-openapi · Drizzle + better-sqlite3 · better-auth · croner · web-push
Web (apps/web)	Vite 8 · React 19 · Tailwind 4 · TanStack Query + Router · Base UI · dnd-kit · cmdk · vite-plugin-pwa
CLI (packages/cli)	commander · tsdown · bundled in the Docker image as opentask / od (npm publish planned)
Releases	Conventional commits · git-cliff changelog · GHCR images (amd64 + arm64)

License

AGPL-3.0 © Pranav Karra.

Brand icon derived from "List" by Glyphy (Noun Project), licensed CC BY 3.0 — details in assets/brand/ATTRIBUTION.md.