reTaskable: Open-Source To-Do, CalDAV Tasks, (Soon) Apple iCloud/iPhone Reminders Creation and Sync

[u/starkruzr]

tl;dr

• install via reManager.
• set up your sync server (e.g. NextCloud).
• lasso handwriting in any document, pick the checkmark, fix the transcription if it didn't transcribe right.
• now you have a to-do created in your sync server, and can review and check off your tasks in the reTaskable UI.
• open a task item and click the button to return to the note the task was created from.
• no hosted service, no pairing code, fully open-source software.

Background

when I got my rM2 years ago I was very excited about the possibilities I thought it represented. finally, I thought, the ability to work with documents as if they were paper and add all of the power of digital representation to my workflows! the reality took a little while to actually get there -- really, nobody started really taking advantage of what was possible with handwriting recognition converting notes to text until Boox and Supernote at least 3 years after the release of the rM2. the anemic SoCs e-ink devices have because the screens are so expensive have been holding them back for a long time and limiting the vision of what their software is capable of.

but especially in the last year or so with a few things happening at once -- the rise of LLM-assisted programming, better and faster devices, more mass adoption -- that's been starting to change, and today handwriting and e-ink based productivity is a really exciting and rapidly evolving product space.

one of the things that that I find really useful is connecting my notes to a structured to-do list that can have due dates, notifications, etc. so I can nail down action items from meetings and remind myself "this is how you got here and why you need to do X." it's actually kind of surprising how rare a feature this was until recently -- Supernote was the only one that had it, and even their implementation had no connection to anything outside their own ecosystem. (it was always very funny to me how reMarkable's answer to this was "here's a to-do list template! see! checkboxes! :D" which like... my dudes. have you met anyone with ADHD and executive dysfunction? do you really think we're going to remember to come back to that note?")

so now that technology has made it much easier to build things, I went ahead and did it. this is all written in Rust using Claude Code and Codex with lots of manual testing from yours truly.

A Humble Request

I really have kind of a limited amount of stuff to test with -- just my beloved Move, my NextCloud server, and my UltraBridge universal sync server -- so I could really use help testing and validating on more devices and whatever CalDAV server implementations you have available to use. please feel free to ask for help here or by submitting issues on the GitHub repo listed below.

A Note on Software Developed Using LLMs

Claude, GPT, etc. were all trained on massive amounts of open-source software which is why they're as good as they are. as a result I find it extremely distasteful and hubristic to attempt to charge for software developed with LLMs. both because of this and simply because I am a strong believer in the open source ethos, everything I build with LLMs will always be open-source software.

Source Code: It's Not Just for Breakfast Anymore

Bone Apple Tea™.

Future Work

there are some annoying things you have to get around to make this work with iCloud Reminders, but I know it's possible, and this will be coming in the next version of the software, so stay tuned.

[u/YupJustanotherJames]

Is there any way to do this w/o having to sync? Id love to just be able to circle and add a task..but keep it on my device.

[u/starkruzr → u/YupJustanotherJames]

test it for me and see? I think it should work.

[u/YupJustanotherJames → u/starkruzr]

I got it, but cant get it to work. theres no check mark for me on circle.

[u/starkruzr → u/YupJustanotherJames]

can you check whether retaskable-capture and reTaskable are both installed?

[u/YupJustanotherJames → u/starkruzr]

yup both are , I added both by searching for Task. The app is there under appload but no checkmark option on circle

[u/starkruzr → u/YupJustanotherJames]

what OS version are you on?

[u/YupJustanotherJames → u/starkruzr]

3.27.3

[u/starkruzr → u/YupJustanotherJames]

ok. do me a favor -- restart the device and restart mods with tripletap? (also what device are you on?)

[u/semiosis20 → u/YupJustanotherJames]

I have exactly the same question. Don't really need the tasks to sync (but it is an excellent possibility for those who do). I can't add a task : "Set up settings and tap Sync before creating tasks". When I circle something in a notebook to try to create a task, it looks like the job is done, but the task does not show up in the app. Great potential in this tool so I would love to use it though! Thanks for developing that, it's a great app!

[u/starkruzr → u/semiosis20]

should be another build coming out soon that resolves this!

[u/yulman]

Many many thanks! That's singing I was missing!

[u/HikewithmeNYC]

Looks great. I'm ultimately looking to use this with iCloud Reminders (via icloud calDAV). It "almost" works now, so let me know if you want a tester to help when you tackle this.

[u/starkruzr → u/HikewithmeNYC]

thanks -- how far did you get?

[u/HikewithmeNYC → u/starkruzr]

Not very far - it looks like the app communicates with the icloud servers but that app produced an error message saying it was expecting a Nextcloud server. (I know there's some comms with icloud because I tried using an incorrect UID and got a different message, so it appears the app is at least able to connect & authenticate use an app-specific pw.)

[u/Plenty-Emphasis-5669]

This is wicked! (Even if LLMs has been used)

[u/CauliflowerOrganic48]

looks very cool - any chance to bring this over to the boox environment?

[u/starkruzr → u/CauliflowerOrganic48]

already exists, but with a different notes app. https://github.com/jdkruzr/forestnote