vgtd

vGTD is the Volt Package's task management tool. It is based on David Allen's Getting Things Done® system.

Currently, vGTD only serves as a CLI tool, usable in the terminal in command form. In the future, however, we plan to add TUI and GUI modes for the tool.

vGTD works within workspaces, which are files that hold arrays of lists and other settings. Lists are containers that hold projects and tasks. A project is a container that holds tasks. A task has a name, description, and status and is used to describe a single actionable task.

Creating a workspace

To start with, you need a workspace. A workspace is nothing but a file in the local directory called .gtd.toml. In order to create it, use the init command:

vgtd init # Create the workspace file with default contents

If your workspace is corrupted or you tried to create the file manually but failed, use the reset command to reset a workspace:

vgtd reset # Reset the workspace file to the default contents

Dealing with lists

Next, you can take a look at the currently available lists using the lists command:

vgtd lists # Show the lists in the current workspace

This will show you the lists in the workspace, and the amount of tasks and projects contained within them after their name.

You can create a list using list create and remove a list using list remove:

vgtd list create "example" # Creates the list "example"
vgtd list remove "example" # Removes the list "example"

To see the contents of a list, use list show:

vgtd list show "example" # Show the contents of the list "example"

This will show the tasks and projects within the list. The projects will be shown in a single line, with the amount of tasks held in them to the right of their name. To see each project's tasks along with them, append the --all option or its shortform -a to the end of list show:

vgtd lists show "example" --all # Show the projects' tasks as well

Right now, your lists are probably empty, so you'll see a "list is empty" message instead.

Item and container paths

vGTD wants its users to think of the location of projects and tasks like they think of folders and files in their system. The names of projects and tasks are often long and descriptive, so picking tasks and projects by their name in order to use them in commands would prove to be a tiresome task. In order to prevent this, indexes are used to refer to projects and tasks instead (hence why you see indexes before project and task names when using list show and project show). Indexes are currently one-based increasing numbers but will work with an index-to-letter system that we plan to implement in the near future.

All of that means that the path to the first task of the "inbox" list is inbox/1, the second inbox/2 and so on. Interestingly, the path to the first project of the "inbox" list is also inbox/1. vGTD knows how to differentiate one from the other by context, as it is often intuitive whether a command wants a path to a task or to a task container (which can be a list or a project). An example of a path to a task contained within a project is inbox/1/3, that is, the task with index 3, inside the project with index 1, inside the list inbox.

Dealing with projects

It is often useful to organize yours tasks not only within lists, but also within projects inside those lists. Not only that, but according to Mr. David Allen, projects are often the source of many tasks. To create a project, use project create, providing it with the name of the list to create the project at and the name of the project:

vgtd project create "inbox" "test" # Create project "test" within the list "inbox"

You can see the contents of it using project show:

vgtd project show "inbox/1" # Show the contents of the first project within "inbox"

And if you ever want to get rid of a project, use project remove:

vgtd project remove "inbox/1" # Remove the first project within the "inbox" list

Dealing with tasks

You now know how to deal with lists and projects and item paths, which is great, but knowing how to manipulate task containers is useless if you don't know how to deal with tasks, so here we go.

To create a task, use task create, providing the path to the container that will hold the task and the name of the task to be created:

vgtd task create "inbox" "Implement the global workspace" # Create a task inside the "inbox" list

To remove a task you added by mistake or want to get rid of, use task remove and provide the task's path:

vgtd task remove "inbox/1" # Remove the first task of the "inbox" list

To change the status of a task, use task mark and provide it with the task's path. You can also provide it with the status to change the task to; by default, vGTD assumes you want to mark it as "Done". Currently, tasks can only be "Done" or "Todo", but in the future you'll be able to add your own statuses or change the default ones.

vgtd task mark "inbox/1" # Mark the first task of the "inbox" list as done

Moving things around

Now you can create, remove, and manipulate tasks, projects, and lists. Awesome! But what if you create a task inside the wrong list? Do you have to remove it and then create it again inside the right list? No! All you need to do is move things around. To move a task from a task container to another, use task move and provide it with the task's item path and the target task container's path (yes, you can move tasks from projects to lists or from projects to projects in other lists).

vgtd task move "inbox/1" "next" # Move the first task of the "inbox" list to the "next" list

You can move not only tasks, but entire projects as well! Using project move you can move a project from a list to another:

vgtd project move "inbox/1" "next" # Move the first project of the "inbox" list to the "next" list

Global mode

The initial and fundamental purpose of vGTD is to work with local repositories of tasks, so you can control individual projects more easily. However, it is often useful to be able to have a user-wide repository of tasks, so you can, for instance, store your personal tasks and projects.

To address that necessity, vGTD has brought the Global Workspace feature to 2.0.

To access the Global Workspace from anywhere, just use any command like you normally would, but add the --global option (or its shortform -g) after the executable's name.

For instance, the command

vgtd task create inbox "Some personal task"

Becomes

vgtd --global task create inbox "Some personal task"

This won't create the task in the local workspace, but in the global one (unless you are in the global workspace's directory, in which case they are the same).

Getting help

If you forget the syntax of a command, want to know the meaning of an argument, or discover which options are available to change the behavior of the command, you can always use the help subcommand.

• vgtd help will summarize the major commands.
• vgtd list help will summarize the commands used to deal with lists.
• vgtd task help will summarize the commands used to deal with tasks.
• vtd task create help will provide information about the task create command.
• And so on.