Things 3 Task Manager

A Tessl skill that gives AI coding agents full control over Things 3 on macOS. View, create, complete, move, and delete tasks and projects across all Things 3 lists -- powered by AppleScript with zero external dependencies.

Requirements

• macOS with Things 3 installed
• No additional dependencies -- uses osascript (built into macOS)

Install

tessl install ssong-skills/things-skill

For local development with auto-reload:

tessl install file:./tiles/things-skill --watch-local

What It Does

Once installed, the skill activates when you ask your AI agent about tasks, to-dos, or Things 3. It teaches the agent to use two helper scripts:

Query tasks

things-query.sh today              # Today's tasks
things-query.sh inbox              # Inbox tasks
things-query.sh upcoming           # Upcoming tasks
things-query.sh projects           # All projects
things-query.sh project "Name"     # Tasks in a project
things-query.sh search "term"      # Search by name
things-query.sh tags               # All tags
things-query.sh areas              # All areas

Also supports: anytime, someday, tomorrow, logbook.

Create and manage tasks

# Create a task with all options
things-create.sh task "Review PR" \
  --notes "Check auth changes" \
  --due "2026-04-01" \
  --tags "Work,Urgent" \
  --project "Sprint 12" \
  --list "Today"

# Create a project
things-create.sh project "Q2 Planning" --notes "Goals" --area "Work"

# Complete, move, or delete
things-create.sh complete "Review PR"
things-create.sh move "Review PR" --list "Today"
things-create.sh delete "Old task"

Advanced operations

For operations not covered by the scripts (bulk updates, checklist items, relative deadlines), the skill teaches agents to compose AppleScript directly using locale-safe patterns and structured JSON output via _private_experimental_ json.

Example Prompts

• "What's in my Things inbox?"
• "Add a task called 'Write blog post' with a due date of next Friday"
• "Create a project called 'Q2 Planning' with 5 tasks"
• "Complete 'Review PR' and show me what's left in Today"
• "Move all my Inbox tasks to the appropriate lists"

How It Works

The skill provides:

• SKILL.md -- Instructions that teach AI agents when and how to use Things 3
• scripts/things-query.sh -- Shell script for all read operations (outputs JSON)
• scripts/things-create.sh -- Shell script for all write operations (returns JSON)
• references/applescript-api.md -- Detailed AppleScript API reference for advanced operations

All scripts use Things 3's AppleScript dictionary via osascript. No external tools, packages, or API keys required.

Evaluation

The skill is tested against 5 scenarios covering task creation, show-before-modify workflows, destructive action safety, advanced AppleScript operations, and inbox processing with ambiguity handling.

# Run evals
cd tiles/things-skill
tessl eval run . --label "my eval run"

License

MIT