Tasks
There is no separate task list to maintain. Write a checkbox anywhere in any note and mdai gathers it for you: the notes are the list.
- [ ] Call the accountant #admin @2026-09-01- [x] Book flights #travel- [ ] Draft the replyWhat counts as a task
Section titled “What counts as a task”- The line is a list item with a checkbox:
- [ ]open,- [x]done. *and+work as list markers too —* [ ] aand+ [ ] bare tasks.- The space after
]is required.- [ ]buy milkis not a task;- [ ] buy milkis. So is an indented one, under another list item. - Anything inside a fenced code block (
```or~~~) is left alone. An example in your notes cannot turn into a real task by accident.
Tags on a task
Section titled “Tags on a task”#tag anywhere on the line, in any alphabet, with / for nesting:
- [ ] Send the revised drawing #client/acme #urgentThe # has to follow a space, a tab, or start the line — which is why a URL
like https://example.com/#pricing never becomes a tag. See
Tags for the panel that collects them.
Dates on a task
Section titled “Dates on a task”@YYYY-MM-DD, again after a space:
- [ ] Renew the domain @2026-10-02Three rules worth knowing:
- That format only.
@2026-10-02is a date;@2.10.2026and@Oct 2are ordinary text. - The first date wins. If you write two, the earlier one in the line is the one the task is filed under.
- It must stand on its own.
a@2026-01-01is not a date — the character before the@has to be a space, a tab, or the start of the line.
The date and the tag stay in your text exactly as you typed them. mdai reads them; it does not rewrite your line.
The Tasks panel
Section titled “The Tasks panel”⌘3 / Ctrl+3, or View → Toggle Tasks. It has two modes:
Every task in the vault, grouped by when it is due:
| Group | What lands there |
|---|---|
| Overdue | dated before today |
| Today | dated today |
| Tomorrow | dated tomorrow |
| This week | dated after tomorrow, up to the end of this week (weeks run Monday to Sunday) |
| Later | dated further out |
| No date | no @date at all |
Within that, tasks are split into Open and Done. A long group lists
its first 50 and then says +N more.
Timeline
Section titled “Timeline”Only the open tasks that have a date, in date order — a flat chronological list, not a chart.
Click any task in either mode and the note it lives in opens, scrolled to that line. Editing it is editing the note, because there is nowhere else it exists.
Ticking one off
Section titled “Ticking one off”Click the checkbox in the document. The file on disk changes in exactly the way it would if
you had typed the x yourself — one character, in the line you were looking
at.
No database
Section titled “No database”The index is built by reading your files, and it lives in memory. Your Markdown is the only source of truth: there is nothing to migrate, nothing to corrupt, and nothing to back up beyond the folder itself. If the index ever looks out of date, View → Rescan Vault rebuilds it from disk.