Why Todo.txt?
Countless software applications and web sites were built to manage your to do list. But if you're comfortable at the command line and you don't want to depend on someone else's data format or someone else's server, there's an age-old method that's perfect for tracking your stuff: plain text.
Keep on top of all your tasks and projects in a simple file called todo.txt. With a few helper scripts, you can slice, dice, sort, distribute, pipe and munge your lists any way you please. As it should be.
Read more about why plain text makes sense.
Todo.txt Managers
You can just use a simple text editor to work with todo.txt. In addition, a growing repository of useful scripts includes:
- Todo.sh (latest version: 1.7)
A powerful shell script that adds to, edits, sorts and searches your todo.txt file from the command line. Mark items as complete and archive them into a done.txt file with todo.sh as well. - Todo.sh Tab Completion
A bash completion script that completes todo.sh actions, projects and contexts at the press of the Tab key. - Bird's Eye todo.txt Reporter
A Python script reports your current progress broken down by project and context with ASCII graphs. HTML version now available, too. - Todo.txt AIM bot (latest version: 0.4)
A Perl-based AIM bot which accesses your todo.txt via todo.sh. (Requires OSCAR.pm.) - Todo.txt Jabber Bot (latest version: 0.4)
A Python-based Jabber bot which accesses your todo.txt via todo.sh. (Requires xmpppy.) Created and maintained by Shiva KM. - Todo.txt on Google Code
Download all the todo.txt scripts in one giant package from Google Code.
Mailing List contributions
Members of the mailing list often post code snippets to work with todo.txt. A list:
- Todo.txt Export to iPod Notes Download todo_ipod.rb and cfg.yml.
- Todo.txt AppleScript for Mail.app
- AppleScript to start Todo.txt AIM bot
News 
December 17, 2006
Todo.txt managers are now available on Google Code. Thanks to mailing list member Graham Davies, you can now download the entire todo.txt package from the Todo project on Google Code, including the Python and bash versions of the todo.txt script, the tab completion script, birdseye.py as well as the IM bot code. Google Code also provides a wiki and area to report bugs (check the "issues" tab there). Thanks, Graham!
July 20, 2006
New versions of todo.sh and todobot.pl and the todo Jabber bot are now available. New todo.sh features include a listall command that displays items in both todo.txt and done.txt, interactive adding, appending, prepending, and replacing (just do todo.sh add to try that out), and new options. The todobot.pl now supports task deletion, too. Update your versions now at todotxt.com.
July 16, 2006
A Tab key todo.sh completion script is now available, written by mailing list member Pedro Melo. Type less and do more! With todo_completer.sh set up, you can tab complete todo.sh's available actions, and the contexts and projects you've already used in todo.txt. See more at the todo_completer.sh homepage.
July 4, 2006
Released version 1.6 of todo.sh with new features and options. See the CHANGELOG for more information. Mailing list member Shiva KM released a Jabber IM bot that accesses your todo.txt from anywhere, great for use with Google Talk. Thanks to mailing list member Shane Koster, a Python version of todo.sh, todo.py, is also now available!
June 24, 2006
Released new versions of todo.sh and todobot.pl which include bug fixes and new features. See the changelogs for more info. Also, the mailing list is in full swing! Join us for questions, suggestions and support.
June 23, 2006
Todotxt.com launches as a hub for all todo.txt scripts, ideas and ancilliary programs. Join the mailing list for brainstorming, troubleshooting and other todo.txt tomfoolery.
Author
Unless otherwise noted, all the todo.txt scripts published herein are authored by Gina Trapani and licensed under the GNU General Public License.
Scripts and text originally published as an ongoing Todo.txt series at Lifehacker.com. Special thanks to all the Lifehacker readers who contributed to Todo.sh by fixing code, adding features, reporting bugs and making suggestions.
All software comes as is with no warranty. Do back up your todo.txt before you read another word. Questions, support and help is available in the Todo.txt Mailing list.