Hello

I wanted to share a few interesting ways to use ttdl that extend its functionality.

Goal: Share usage ideas, suggest possible solutions, and get advice on improvements.

1. Linked Notes

This has been the most useful addition for me!

I create a task through a separate shell function that gives each task a unique id as a timestamp:

(A) Buy Milk id:20260212215707

After entering the task information and pressing Enter, the next step is a prompt to create a markdown note or skip it.

All markdown notes are stored in a single folder and named after the task id:

20260212215707.md

Example folder structure:

~/Documents/todo
 ├── done.txt
 ├── notes 
 │  ├── 20251231130745.md 
 │  ├── 20260212215707.md 
 └── todo.txt 

The remaining step is to write a function that accepts the task line number (as shown in ttdl l), retrieves the task id, scans the md files in the notes folder, and opens the corresponding note in the default editor.

This gives a dedicated document for adding extra information, links, and observations for each task.

2. Task Relationships

I often have a main task and multiple subtasks.

Currently, ttdl does not support linking tasks or displaying them as part of a parent task.

I use a new attribute:

link:

and specify the id of the related task. Then, I have a Python script that shows relationships between tasks:

At first, I thought of proposing adding such links into ttdl, but I went further:

• I display certain headers in the task markdown notes to see context
• I can assign an id to a header and link tasks to it

So this goes beyond the default functionality of ttdl.

3. Letting the Imagination Run

ttdl isn’t just a CLI for tasks.

I used linkding for storing interesting links, but I realized I mostly read the short description and then open the link.

I need tags and search, which ttdl already supports.

So I moved interesting links to a separate text file and use it in ttdl --todo-file ~/.../web.txt:

«Fresh» +term based +ide https://github.com/sinelaw/fresh # «» id:20260214012426

Notice that each link also has an id — this allows creating a note for the tools and adding observations or descriptions.

I also have a function that extracts links in http/https format and opens them using xdg-open.
The # marker on a task indicates that it has a link (the link is hidden and not displayed; only the # symbol is shown).
So, I simply pass the task line number to the function in order to open the link.

Lifehack

Install Termux and build ttdl via cargo.

I synchronize via FTP, run sshd in Termux, and sync files.
When I need to add tasks on my phone, I write them to a separate file droid.txt.

nushell

    if $nu.os-info.name == "android" {
        ttdl add $text --todo-file $"($env.HOME)/Documents/($type)/droid.txt"
    } else {
        ttdl add $text --todo-file $path
    }

After syncing to my PC, I merge tasks from droid.txt into todo.txt.

Summary

These were a few exciting months using ttdl.

I assume the developer never intended it for such a scale, but I moved my tasks, web link database, and quick notes into ttdl because it is fast, convenient, and provides a single interface for multiple use cases — probably a habit left over from Emacs…😁