A minimal, Things 3-inspired task manager for macOS. Lives in your menu bar with a global quick capture shortcut.
- Menu Bar App — Always one click away from your system tray
- Quick Capture (⌥ Space) — Spotlight-style floating panel to capture tasks instantly
- Smart Lists — Inbox, Today, Later with live task counts
- Scheduling — Set a "When" date and tasks auto-promote to Today when the day arrives
- Deadlines — Due dates with color-coded countdown badges (overdue, today, upcoming)
- Categories — User-created areas with custom SF Symbol icons and colors
- Main Window — Full Things 3-style NavigationSplitView with sidebar
- Context Menus — Move between sections, schedule, assign categories, delete
- SwiftData Persistence — Everything saved locally, no account required
The quick capture modal (⌥ Space) provides:
- Section selection via pills (⌘1 Inbox, ⌘2 Today, ⌘3 Later)
- Quick date scheduling (Today, Tomorrow, Next Monday)
- Deadline shortcuts (Today, Tomorrow, Next Friday)
- Optional category assignment
- ⏎ to save, ⎋ to close
- macOS 15.0+
- Xcode 16+
- Swift 6.0
git clone https://github.com/claudioavgo/simple-task.git
cd simple-task
open Simple/Simple.xcodeprojBuild and run with ⌘ R.
Simple/Simple/
├── App/ Entry point, app delegate, scene configuration
├── Model/ SwiftData models — TodoItem, Category, TodoSection
├── Views/ SwiftUI views — main window, sidebar, task list, quick capture
├── Utilities/ FloatingPanel, keyboard helpers, date formatting, Color+Hex
└── Resources/ Assets, Info.plist, entitlements
Inspired by Things 3's dual-date approach:
| Field | Purpose | Behavior |
|---|---|---|
whenDate |
When should I start? | Auto-promotes task to Today when the date arrives |
deadline |
When is it due? | Color-coded badge — red (overdue), orange (today), yellow (soon) |
Tasks without dates stay in their assigned section. The effectiveSection computed property handles auto-promotion transparently.
| Layer | Technology |
|---|---|
| UI | SwiftUI |
| Persistence | SwiftData |
| Platform | AppKit (menu bar, floating panels) |
| Dependencies | KeyboardShortcuts |
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| ⌥ Space | Open quick capture |
| ⌘1 / ⌘2 / ⌘3 | Inbox / Today / Later |
| ⏎ | Save task |
| ⎋ | Close quick capture |
| ⌘O | Open main window (from menu bar) |
| ⌘Q | Quit |
Contributions are welcome! Please read CONTRIBUTING.md for details on:
- Branch naming (
feat/,fix/,refactor/, ...) - Commit messages (Conventional Commits)
- Pull request process
- Code style guidelines
See CHANGELOG.md for a detailed history of changes.
MIT License — see LICENSE for details.
- Inspired by Things 3 by Cultured Code
- KeyboardShortcuts by Sindre Sorhus