things3-cli

CLI for Things 3 by Cultured Code, implemented in Go.

This project ships a single Go binary with unit and integration tests.

Status

Work in progress. The goal is full end-to-end coverage for the Things URL scheme interactions on macOS.

Installation (from source)

make install

Installation (Homebrew)

brew install ossianhempel/tap/things3-cli

Features

• add Add a new todo
• update Update an existing todo (requires auth token)
• delete Delete an existing todo
• add-area Add a new area
• add-project Add a new project
• update-area Update an existing area
• delete-area Delete an existing area
• update-project Update an existing project (requires auth token)
• list-project-tasks List tasks for a project ID from the database
• rename-project Rename an existing project (requires auth token)
• delete-project Delete an existing project
• show Show an area, project, tag, or todo from the database (--recursive includes checklist items for todos)
• search Search todos and projects in the database
• inbox List inbox tasks
• today List today tasks
• upcoming List upcoming tasks
• repeating List repeating tasks
• templates List repeating template tasks
• anytime List anytime tasks
• someday List someday tasks
• logbook List logbook tasks
• logtoday List tasks completed today
• createdtoday List tasks created today
• completed List completed tasks
• canceled List canceled tasks
• trash List trashed tasks
• deadlines List tasks with deadlines
• all List key sections from the database
• help Command help and man page
• --version Print CLI + Things version info

Auth token setup (for URL-scheme updates)

Ordinary update operations use the Things URL scheme and require an auth token. Repeat-only updates write directly to the database and do not require the URL token. A command that combines ordinary fields with repeat fields requires both the token and writable database access.

1. Open Things 3.
2. Settings -> General -> Things URLs.
3. Copy the token (or enable “Allow ‘things’ CLI to access Things”).
4. Export it:

export THINGS_AUTH_TOKEN=your_token_here

Tip: add the export to your shell profile (e.g. ~/.zshrc) to persist it. You can run things auth to check token status and print these steps.

Database access

In addition to the URL-scheme commands above, this CLI can read your local Things database to list content:

• things projects List projects
• things areas List areas
• things tags List tags
• things tasks List todos (with filters)
• things today List Today tasks
• things templates List repeating template tasks
• things list-project-tasks --id List todos for a project

things today follows Things’ Today/This Evening ordering using the raw today_index_reference_date and today_index database fields. Select the ordering metadata with --select start_bucket,today_index_reference_date,today_index.

By default it looks for the Things database in your user Library under the Things app group container (the ThingsData-* folder). You can override the path with THINGSDB or --db.

Read commands need database access; repeat commands need writable database access. Because the database lives inside the Things app sandbox, both normally require Full Disk Access for your terminal or agent host.

Repeating todos and projects

Use --repeat flags with add, add-project, update, or update-project to create or change repeating templates. These changes write directly to the Things database, so Full Disk Access is required. Repeating updates require a single explicit title (for add) or --id (for update).

Use things templates to list the hidden template rows that control future instances of recurring todos and projects. Template UUIDs can be passed to things update / things update-project when you need to move or edit the source template rather than the visible generated instance.

Supported patterns are every N day/week/month/year. Use after-completion mode (the default) when the next copy should be based on completing the current copy; use schedule mode for a fixed calendar cadence. --repeat-start anchors the recurrence pattern and is separate from the item’s ordinary --when date. --repeat-deadline=N adds a deadline so each copy appears in Today N days earlier. Multi-day weekly patterns are not supported yet. Bound a schedule with either --repeat-until=YYYY-MM-DD (stop after a date) or --repeat-count=N (stop after N occurrences); the two are mutually exclusive and count-based rules omit an end date entirely.

--dry-run previews the normalized repeat operation without opening Things or writing the database. After a real write, the CLI re-reads the template and only reports verified repeat state. If a multi-stage add partially succeeds, its output identifies the completed and failed stages and includes a trusted UUID when available; re-read that UUID before retrying instead of guessing by title.

Note: the CLI verifies the template row after writing. Things itself spawns the visible current occurrence on its own schedule (typically a nightly pass), so a verified template may not produce a visible instance until then.

Examples:

things add "Daily standup" --repeat=day --repeat-mode=schedule
things update --id  --repeat=week --repeat-every=2
things update --id  --repeat-clear
things add-project "Sprint review" --area "Work" --repeat=week --repeat-mode=schedule
things add-project "20 videos in 20 weeks" --repeat=week --repeat-start=2026-08-17 \
  --repeat-count=20 --repeat-deadline=6
things update-project --id  --repeat=month
things update-project --id  --repeat-clear
things update --id  --complete-checklist-item "Book hotel"
things update --id  --incomplete-checklist-item "Book hotel"

Agent Skills

This repo includes a Things agent skill at skills/things/SKILL.md.

That canonical file is mirrored to ../agent-scripts/skills/things/SKILL.md so local agent setups can consume the same guidance. Run make check-things-skill to check a sibling checkout and make sync-things-skill to update the exact active mirror safely.

The skill-sync.yml workflow runs on every main push and compares both repositories’ published main artifacts. It uses a read-only deploy key stored as the AGENT_SCRIPTS_DEPLOY_KEY Actions secret to fetch the private ossianhempel/agent-scripts mirror.

Maintainer release guidance lives in .codex/skills/release-flow/SKILL.md and docs/RELEASING.md. Use it when preparing a public release or updating the Homebrew formula.

Notes

• macOS only (uses the Things URL scheme and open under the hood).
• Authentication for update operations follows the Things URL scheme authorization model.
• Write commands open Things in the background by default; use --foreground to bring it to the front, or --dry-run to print the URL without opening.
• show --recursive includes checklist items in both table and JSON output.
• Delete commands (todo/project/area) use AppleScript and require Things automation permission for your terminal (you may see a macOS prompt).
• Delete commands prompt for confirmation when run interactively; pass --confirm in non-interactive scripts. Use --dry-run to preview.
• Aliases: create-project -> add-project, create-area -> add-area.
• Scheduling: use --when=someday to move to Someday; use update --later (or --when=evening) to move to This Evening.