User guide
Everything TASK does, in plain terms: how to add tasks fast, how the views differ, and how to keep your list at task zero.
Getting started
Register an account at register.html, then log in. The app opens on the Horizons view, your home screen, with your tasks already lined up by when they are due.
The chrome around the views stays the same wherever you go: on desktop, a sidebar on the left holds your workspace switcher, the view tabs, and the theme toggle; on a phone, the same navigation collapses into a glass bar fixed to the bottom of the screen. A quick-add bar sits in the header on desktop; on phone it becomes a single + button.
The idea: task zero
TASK is built around one habit: deal with every task instead of letting it pile up. Each task only ever needs one of three outcomes: done (you finished it), deferred (not now, push it later), or killed (it no longer matters, remove it). There is no fourth option of quietly ignoring it forever.
When your Overdue and Today lanes in Horizons are both empty, you have reached task zero, the daily goal the app is designed around.
Adding tasks
The fastest way to add a task is the quick-add bar (desktop header) or the + button (phone). Type a short line of natural language and TASK reads out the structured parts, leaving the rest as the title.
| Token | Meaning |
|---|---|
!high / !low | Importance |
~high / ~low | Urgency |
@tag | Adds a tag |
#workspace | Assigns the task to a workspace |
| A trailing date word | today, tomorrow, a weekday like fri, or YYYY-MM-DD |
Everything left over becomes the task title. Press n at any time to open the full task editor instead, for fields the quick-add line does not cover, like a description or dependencies.
Renew passport !high ~high #personal fri creates an important, urgent task in the Personal workspace, due Friday.
Read design doc @reading tomorrow creates a plain task tagged "reading", due tomorrow.
Water the plants with no tokens at all just creates an undated task with that title.
Horizons
Horizons is the home view: your tasks laid out in time buckets so you always know what is next. The lanes run Overdue, Today, Tomorrow, This week, Next week, This month, Next month, This year, Next year, and finally Someday for anything with no date at all.
Every card carries the same three verbs: done, defer, and kill. Deferring a task pushes it one horizon later, so a Today task deferred once becomes a Tomorrow task. On desktop you can also drag a card straight from one lane to another to re-date it directly.
Clear the Overdue and Today lanes and the view greets you with TASK ZERO.
List
List groups your tasks by status and lets you drill in. Tasks with sub-tasks expand into a small tree, with a rollup bar showing how much of the group is complete. Filter by tag, importance, or urgency, and use the show-done toggle to reveal or hide finished items. A checkbox on each row completes the task in one click, with an undo toast in case you tapped the wrong one.
Board
Board is a column view: by default, columns follow status, or you can switch to columns by due-date bucket. Drag a card from one column to another to change it. On a touch device, long-press a card first to pick it up before dragging.
Calendar
Calendar shows a month grid with tasks placed on their due dates. Drag a task from one day to another to reschedule it. To add a task due on a specific day, tap that day on phone, or double-click it on desktop.
Flow
Flow is the dependency graph for a single workspace. Tasks that are blocked by unfinished work are marked as such, and the connecting edge between a task and its blocker turns green the moment that blocker is done. Pan around the graph by dragging the background, and zoom with the on-screen buttons.
Gantt
Gantt lays tasks out on a timeline, with a bar running from each task's start date to its due date. Dependency arrows connect related tasks, and an arrow turns red if its blocker is running late. Drag the middle of a bar to move the whole task, or drag either edge to resize its start or due date. The earlier, today, and later buttons shift the visible window along the timeline.
Workspaces
Workspaces group your tasks by project or area of life. Create, rename, recolour, archive, or delete a workspace from the sidebar on desktop, or from the menu sheet on phone. Alongside your own workspaces there are two built-in views: All tasks, which spans everything, and Personal, the default home for anything not otherwise assigned.
Deleting a workspace does not delete its tasks: they move to Personal instead. Archiving a workspace hides it, and its tasks, from the main navigation without deleting anything.
Sub-tasks
Add sub-tasks from within the task editor. Nesting goes one level deep: a sub-task cannot itself have sub-tasks. A parent task shows a rollup indicator for how many of its sub-tasks are done, and completing the last remaining sub-task prompts you to complete the parent too.
Dependencies
Use "Depends on" in the task editor to say one task cannot start until another finishes. Dependencies can only link tasks within the same workspace, and TASK will not let you create a cycle (task A depending on task B which depends back on task A). A task with unfinished dependencies is marked blocked until all of them are done.
Importance vs urgency
TASK keeps importance and urgency as two separate dials you set yourself, in the spirit of an Eisenhower matrix, rather than one combined "priority" score. Importance shows as a flag pill, urgency as a bolt pill. The due-date colour on a task is separate again, and escalates automatically as a date approaches or passes, without you having to set anything.
Command palette & shortcuts
Press Ctrl/⌘+K, or just /, to open the command palette: a fuzzy search across your tasks and the app's actions.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl/⌘+K or / | Open the command palette |
| 1 – 6 | Switch between views |
| n | New task (full editor) |
On your phone / iPad
On a phone or iPad, navigation lives in a glass bottom bar with five stops: Now, Views, +, Find, and Menu. Views and Menu open as sheets that slide up over the current screen rather than replacing it. On Board, long-press a card to pick it up before dragging it between columns.
Add TASK to your home screen (Add to Home Screen in your browser's share menu) to run it as a standalone app with its own icon, no browser chrome, and it keeps working offline.
Backup, export & import
Export downloads a complete JSON backup of your workspaces, tasks, tags, and dependencies. Import reads that file back in, restoring it into fresh workspaces.
Export every so often, especially before making large changes. It takes one click and gives you a plain file you control.
Themes
TASK ships with a light and a dark theme, and follows your system setting by default. Switch manually with the toggle in the sidebar on desktop or the menu sheet on phone; your choice is remembered on that device.
Offline
If your connection drops, TASK keeps showing the tasks it last synced. Any changes you make while offline are queued and sent automatically once you are back online.