RusTask

A simple task manager CLI built with Rust. Created as a learning project to understand Rust fundamentals.

What it does

Manages your tasks from the terminal with an interactive prompt. Tasks are automatically saved to and loaded from a JSON file for persistence across sessions.

Features

• Interactive mode - no need to type commands repeatedly
• Create and manage tasks with titles, descriptions, and tags
• Filter tasks by status (completed/pending) or by tag
• Basic CRUD operations (Create, Read, Update, Delete)
• Built-in quote parsing for multi-word titles
• Task scheduling - set due dates and times for reminders
• Smart notifications - automatic reminders for scheduled tasks
• Snooze functionality - postpone reminders when you're busy
• JSON persistence - tasks are automatically saved and restored

Getting Started

You'll need Rust installed.

git clone https://github.com/gonchihernandez/rustask.git
cd rustask
cargo run

macOS Notifications (Optional)

For native macOS notifications, install terminal-notifier:

brew install terminal-notifier

Without it, you'll still get terminal notifications for scheduled tasks.

How to use it

Just run cargo run and you'll get an interactive prompt:

🦀 RusTask - Interactive Mode
Type 'exit' to quit

rustask>

Creating tasks

# Simple task
add "Learn Rust"

# With description
add "Exercise" --description "30 min run"

# With tags
add "Buy groceries" --tags shopping --tags urgent

Listing tasks

# Show all
list

# Only completed
list --completed

# Only pending
list --pending

# Filter by tag
list --tag urgent

Managing tasks

# Mark as done
complete 1

# See details
show 1

# Delete
delete 1

# See stats
stats

Working with tags

# Add a tag
add-tag 1 important

# Remove a tag
remove-tag 1 important

# Clear all tags
clear-tags 1

# Remove a specific tag
rustask remove-tag 1 urgent

# Clear all tags
rustask clear-tags 1

Update tasks

# Change title
update 1 --title "New title"

# Change description  
update 1 --description "New description"

# Update tags
update 1 --tags work --tags important

Task scheduling

# Schedule a task for a specific date and time
schedule 1 "06/11/2025 14:30"

# Schedule for a date (defaults to 9:00 AM)
schedule 1 "07/11/2025"

# View scheduled tasks
scheduled

# Snooze a reminder (postpone for 10 minutes by default)
snooze 1

# Snooze for a custom duration
snooze 1 30

Example session

$ cargo run

🦀 RusTask - Interactive Mode
Type 'exit' to quit

rustask>
add "Learn Rust" --tags programming
✅ Tarea creada con ID: 1

rustask>
add "Exercise" --description "Run 5km" --tags health
✅ Tarea creada con ID: 2

rustask>
list
📋 Lista de tareas:

⏳ [1] Learn Rust [programming]
⏳ [2] Exercise [health]
    📄 Run 5km

rustask>
complete 1
✅ Tarea 1 marcada como completada

rustask>
stats
📊 Estadísticas de tareas:
   📝 Total: 2
   ✅ Completadas: 1
   ⏳ Pendientes: 1
   🎯 Progreso: 50.0%

rustask>
exit

Project structure

src/
├── main.rs      - Entry point, interactive loop, command parsing
├── cli.rs       - Command definitions using clap
├── task.rs      - Task struct and methods
├── storage.rs   - JSON file persistence and in-memory task storage
└── scheduler.rs - Background task scheduler and reminder system

Tech stack

• clap - Command-line argument parsing
• chrono - Date/time handling and scheduling
• serde - Data serialization for JSON persistence
• serde_json - JSON file format for task storage

What I learned

This project helped me understand:

• Rust ownership and borrowing
• Lifetimes
• Pattern matching
• Result types and error handling
• Iterators and closures
• Writing custom parsers
• Building CLIs with clap
• Working with threads and Arc<Mutex> for shared state
• File I/O and JSON serialization in Rust
• Building background services and schedulers

Roadmap

Things I might add:

• MCP Server:
  • Expose CLI functionality through MCP API for use from MCP hosts
  • Integration using Rust MCP SDK
• Plugins system:
  • Abstract notifications into a Notifier trait allowing different notification implementations (Slack, Discord, email, etc.)
  • This would exercise trait implementation and crate creation patterns
  • Currently using terminal-notifier directly for macOS

Contributing

Feel free to open issues or submit PRs. This is a learning project, so suggestions are welcome!

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.