NesSan commented 2026年06月25日 19:55:15 +02:00

Feature request: todo.txt compatibility

First of all, thank you for Helix Notes. I'm currently evaluating it as a replacement for my notes and task workflow, and I really appreciate its focus on simplicity, local files, and markdown.

I would like to suggest support for the todo.txt format, either through direct compatibility or import/export functionality.

Why?

Helix Notes tasks already share several concepts with todo.txt:

• Task status (open / completed)
• Priorities (!high, !med, !low)
• Due dates (due:YYYY-MM-DD)
• Plain text storage

For example:

Helix Notes:

- [ ] Buy groceries !high due:2026年06月30日

todo.txt:

(A) Buy groceries due:2026年06月30日

The mapping between both formats is relatively straightforward.

Potential benefits

• Better interoperability with CLI tools and existing workflows
• Preservation of a fully text-based and portable workflow
• Integration with the wider todo.txt ecosystem

todo.txt also provides useful conventions such as:

+project
@context

In addition, the todo.txt specification allows tools to define custom metadata using the key:value format:

Tool developers may define additional formatting rules for extra metadata. Developers should use the format key to define additional metadata (e.g. due:2010年01月02日 as a due date).

This fits well with Helix Notes' current task syntax and would allow additional metadata to remain human-readable and searchable.

For example, some todo.txt tools such as Tuxedo support recurrence using:

rec:1d

while remaining fully compatible with the plain-text format.

Possible implementations

• Open a todo.txt file as a task list
• Import/export todo.txt files

I understand that maintaining multiple task formats may not fit the project's goals, but I would be interested to know whether this kind of interoperability would be considered acceptable for Helix Notes.

Thanks for your work and for considering the idea.

# Feature request: todo.txt compatibility First of all, thank you for Helix Notes. I'm currently evaluating it as a replacement for my notes and task workflow, and I really appreciate its focus on simplicity, local files, and markdown. I would like to suggest support for the [todo.txt format](https://github.com/todotxt/todo.txt), either through direct compatibility or import/export functionality. ## Why? Helix Notes tasks already share several concepts with todo.txt: - Task status (`open` / `completed`) - Priorities (`!high`, `!med`, `!low`) - Due dates (`due:YYYY-MM-DD`) - Plain text storage For example: Helix Notes: ```text - [ ] Buy groceries !high due:2026年06月30日 ``` todo.txt: ```text (A) Buy groceries due:2026年06月30日 ``` The mapping between both formats is relatively straightforward. ## Potential benefits - Better interoperability with CLI tools and existing workflows - Preservation of a fully text-based and portable workflow - Integration with the wider todo.txt ecosystem todo.txt also provides useful conventions such as: ```text +project @context ``` In addition, the todo.txt specification allows tools to define custom metadata using the key:value format: > Tool developers may define additional formatting rules for extra metadata. Developers should use the format key to define additional metadata (e.g. due:2010年01月02日 as a due date). This fits well with Helix Notes' current task syntax and would allow additional metadata to remain human-readable and searchable. For example, some todo.txt tools such as [Tuxedo](https://github.com/webstonehq/tuxedo#todotxt-format) support recurrence using: ```text rec:1d ``` while remaining fully compatible with the plain-text format. ## Possible implementations - Open a todo.txt file as a task list - Import/export todo.txt files I understand that maintaining multiple task formats may not fit the project's goals, but I would be interested to know whether this kind of interoperability would be considered acceptable for Helix Notes. Thanks for your work and for considering the idea.

ArkHost commented 2026年06月25日 20:08:24 +02:00

Going to pass on this one. Tasks in HelixNotes are markdown-native: any - [ ] in a note is a task, with !high / due:2026年06月25日 inline, aggregated in the Tasks view, so they're already plain-text, portable and greppable, just in your notes instead of a separate file. todo.txt would only add a second place for tasks to live, which is the opposite of the single-source-of-truth model we're going for. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Going to pass on this one. Tasks in HelixNotes are markdown-native: any - [ ] in a note is a task, with !high / due:2026年06月25日 inline, aggregated in the Tasks view, so they're already plain-text, portable and greppable, just in your notes instead of a separate file. todo.txt would only add a second place for tasks to live, which is the opposite of the single-source-of-truth model we're going for. Thanks for the suggestion though.