tklr-dgraham

tklr The term tickler file originally referred to a file system for reminders which used 12 monthly files and 31 daily files. Tklr, pronounced "tickler", is a digital version that ranks tasks by urgency, goals by priority, and generally facilitates the same purpose - managing what you need to know quickly and easily. It supports a wide variety of reminder types, a simple, text-based entry format with timely, automatic assistance, the datetime parsing and recurrence features of dateutil and provides both command line (Click) and graphical (Textual) user interfaces. Make the most of your time!

This introduction to tklr is best viewed at GitHub.io - tklr itself is available from PyPi and GitHub and further information at Tklr Discussions.

The ↩︎ links at the end of major sections lead back to this expandable Table of Contents.

Table of Contents

• 1. What makes tklr different

  • 1.1. Form-Free entry
  • 1.2. Reminders to suit the purpose
  • 1.3. Where did the time go?
  • 1.4. Mouse-Free navigation
  • 1.5. Agenda View: Your daily brief
  • 1.6. Weeks, Next and Last Views: What's happening and when
  • 1.7. Bins and Tags Views: Organizing your reminders
  • 1.8 Query and Find Views: Where's Waldo
  • 1.9 SQLite3 Data Store
  2. Details

  • 2.1. Datetimes
  • 2.2. TimeDeltas
  • 2.3. Scheduled datetime
  • 2.4. Extent timedelta
  • 2.5. Notice
  • 2.6. Wrap
  • 2.7. Alert
  • 2.8. Recurrence
  • 2.9. Masked Information
  • 2.10. HashTags
  • 2.11. Anniversaries
  • 2.12. Timezones
  • 2.13. Urgency
  • 2.14. Priority
  • 2.15. Open with default
  • 2.16. Away from your computer? Use the cloud
  3. Getting Started
  4. Using the Command Line Interface
  5. Coming from etm
  6. Developer Guide

1. What makes tklr different

1.1. Form-Free entry

Rather than filling out fields in a form to create or edit reminders, a simple entry field is provided for text input together with a prompt area which provides instantaneous feedback.

Here a new reminder is being created. Below the entry area, the prompt indicates that the first step is to enter the type character for the reminder.

After the type character is entered, the prompt changes to indicate that the next step is to enter the subject of the reminder.

The prompt is updated as the entry changes to assist with the editing of the reminder. This does not interfere with the entry process but, like the speedometer in a car, ensures that the relevant information is there if wanted.

As the subject is entered, the prompt changes to reflect the current value of the entry.

After the subject is entered, adding an @ character changes the prompt to a list of the required and optional attributes which can still be entered.

Entering an available key changes the prompt to a description of the attribute.

Here @s, has been selected and the prompt changes to show that this attibute, which is required for an event, specifies the scheduled datetime at which the event begins.

Fuzzy parsing is supported for entering dates or datetimes in tklr. Since it was January 26, 2026 when this entry was made, the interpretation is that 12p means 12:00pm on Jan 26.

Adding fri changes the interpretation to Friday of this week.

Adding @ again shows the current list of required and optional attributes, but this time with @s removed since it has already been entered.

Adding e changes the prompt to indicate that this attribute is used to specify the extent of the event, i.e., how long the event lasts.

Adding 1h specifies an extent of one hour. With this setting, the event would last from 12pm until 1pm.

In addition to h for hours, other options include m for minutes, d for days and w for weeks. These can be combinded so that, e.g., 2h30m would represent two hours and thirty minutes.

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1.2. Reminders to suit the purpose

tklr has six types of reminders, each with a corresponding type character:

item type	character
event	*
task	~
project	^
goal	!
note	%
draft	?

Here are some illustrations of how the various types and attributes can be put to use.

• 1.2.1. An event: lunch with Ed (extended)
• 1.2.2. A task: pick up milk
• 1.2.3. A repeating event: trash pickup
• 1.2.4. An event that repeats irregularly: dental appointment
• 1.2.5. A complicated but regularly repeating task: vote for president
• 1.2.6. An offset task: fill bird feeders
• 1.2.7. A note: a favorite Churchill quotation
• 1.2.8. A project: build a dog house with component tasks
• 1.2.9. A goal: interval training 3 times each week
• 1.2.10. A draft reminder: meet Alex for coffee - time to be determined

1.2.1. An event: lunch with Ed (extended)

* lunch with Ed
  @s 12p fri @e 1h
  @a 30m: n

  

The * makes this reminder an event with whatever follows until the next @ character as the subject. The @s attribute sets the scheduled or starting time for 12pm on the first Friday after today and the @e 1h attribute sets the extent for one hour. This event will thus be displayed as occupying the period 12-1pm on that Friday. The distinguishing feature of an event is that it occurs at a particular time and the @s attribute is therefore required.

Provided that tklr ui is running, @a 30m: n will trigger a built-in notify alert thirty minutes before the start of the event which sounds a bell and posts a message on the tklr display showing the subject and time of the event.

1.2.2. A task: pick up milk

~ pick up milk

  

The beginning ~ type character makes this reminder a task with the following pick up milk as the subject.

Using an @s attribute is optional and, when specified, it sets the time at which the task should be completed, not begun. The @e attribute is also optional and, when given, is intepreted as the estimated time period required for completion.

1.2.3. A repeating event: trash pickup

* trash pickup @s 8a mon @n 1d @r w &w MO

  

This event repeats because of the @r w &w MO each week on Mondays. Because of the @n 1d a notice will be posted in Agenda View when the current date is within one day of the scheduled datetime or, in this case, on Sundays. This serves as a reminder to put the trash at the curb before 8am Mondays. Why not use a task for this? A task would require being marked finished each week to avoid accumulating past due instances - even when out of town with neither trash nor opportunity for placement at the curb.

1.2.4. An event that repeats irregularly: dental appointment

* dental exam and cleaning
  @s 2p feb 5
  @e 45m
  @+ 9am Sep 3

  

This event specifies an appointment for a 45 minute dental exam and cleaning starting at 2pm on February 5 and then again, because of the @+ attribute, at 9am on September 3.

Need to add another datetime to an existing reminder? Just add an @+ attribute with a comma separated list of as many additional dates or datetimes as needed.

1.2.5. A complicated but regularly repeating task: vote for president

~ vote for president
  @s nov 1 2020
  @r y &i 4 &w TU &d 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 &m 11

  

Here is another, more complicated, but still regularly repeating reminder. Beginning with November, 2020, this task repeats every 4 years on the first Tuesday after a Monday in November (a Tuesday whose month day falls between 2 and 8 in the 11th month).

This is a good illustration of the power of the dateutil library. Note that the only role of @s nov 1 2020 is to limit the repetitions generated by @r to those falling on or after November 1, 2020 and occur on that year or a multiple of 4 years after that year.

1.2.6. An offset task: fill bird feeders

~ fill birdfeeders @s 3p sat @n 1d @o 12d

  

Because of the @o 12d offset attribute, when this task is completed the @s scheduled datetime will automatically reset to the datetime that falls precisely 12 days after the completion datetime. Whether they are filled early or late, they will still need to be refilled 12 days after they were last filled. Because of the @n 1d notice attribute, this task will not appear in the Agenda View task list until the the current datetime is within one day of the scheduled datetime.

Since the @o attribute involves resetting attibutes in a way that effectively repeats the task:

1. @o can only be used with tasks
2. Using @o precludes the use of @r

It is worth noting the different roles of two attributes in events and tasks.

1. The scheduled datetime attribute describes when an event begins but when a task should be completed.
2. The notice attribute provides an early warning for an event but postpones the disclosure of a task.

1.2.7. A note: a favorite Churchill quotation

% Give me a pig - #Churchill
  @d Dogs look up at you.
  Cats look down at you.
  Give me a pig - they look you in the eye
    and treat you as an equal.
  @b quotations

  

The beginning % makes this reminder a note with the subject, Give me a pig - #Churchill. The optional details attribute follows the @d and is meant to be more expansive - analogous to the body of an email. The hash character that precedes 'Churchill' in the subject makes that word a hash tag for listing in Tags View. The @b entry adds this reminder to the 'quotations' bin for listing in Bins View.

1.2.8. A project: build a dog house with component tasks

^ Build dog house
  @~ pick up materials &r 1 &e 4h
  @~ cut pieces &r 2: 1 &e 3h
  @~ assemble &r 3: 2 &e 2h
  @~ sand &r 4: 3 &e 1h
  @~ paint &r 5: 4 &e 4h

  

The beginning ^ makes this a project. This is a collection of related tasks specified by the @~ entries. In each task, the &r X: Y requires attribute sets X as the label for the task and sets the task labeled Y as a requirement or prerequisite for X. E.g., &r 3: 2 establishes "3" as the label for assemble and "2" (cut pieces) as a prerequisite. The &e extent entries give estimates of the times required to complete the various tasks.

1.2.9. A goal: interval training 3 times each week

! interval training @s 2026-01-05 @o 3/1w

  

The beginning ! type character makes this reminder a goal with the following interval training as the subject. The @t 3/1w attribute is required and sets the target to be 3 completions during the period of one week starting at midnight on '2026-01-05', because of the @s attribute, and ending one week later at midnight on '2026-01-12', because of the '1w' target period.

When a goal is created, the attribute @k 0 is automatically added to indicate that the current completion count is zero. When a completion is recorded for the goal, this count is automatically increased by one. This process continues until

1. the period allowed for completing the goal expires or
2. the completion count reaches the target number of completions

In either case, @k is reset to zero and @s is reset to the previous value plus the period allowed for completion of the goal, i.e, to the end of the period originally allowed for completion.

1.2.10. A draft reminder: meet Alex for coffee - time to be determined

? Coffee with Alex @s fri @e 1h

  

The beginning ? type character makes this a draft reminder. This can be changed to an event when the details are confirmed by replacing the ? with an * and adding the time to @s fri.

This is a reminder that is not yet finished and, in almost every respect, will be ignored by tklr. The exception is that it will appear highlighted on the current day in Agenda View until it is revised. It can be changed to an event when the details are confirmed by replacing the ? with an * and adding the time to @s.

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1.3. Where did the time go?

Tracking where a resource goes is the key to managing any scarce resource - your time is no exception. A jot is a reminder type different from those listed above which is designed to facilitate this purpose by providing a way of quickly recording the small bits of time-stamped information.

Imagine that tklr is running on your computer and that, in the midst of your hectic day, you could reach over, press “+” to create a new greminder, enter “-“ to make it a jot, add “working on …” or “thinking about …” or any other any brief expression that might be useful later - and then press Ctrl+S to save with an automatic timestamp. Whenever convenient, you can press “J” to see a list of your jots in cronological order. At the cost of a few seconds per jot you can have a daily record of when and what you were doing or thinking. Your jots will be displayed by week and weekday and, as with all other reminder views in tklr, tagged with lower case letters, a, b, c, …. for easy access.

What might you do with these jots.

As is, these jots can provide a record of what you were doing and when. Later, when you have time, you might want to edit some of them:

• to flush out an idea. An @d details entry can be added to provide as much extra detail as you like.
• to record the time spent. You could, e.g., add @e 1h15, to indicate that an hour and fifteen minutes of your precious time was spent on whatever you were doing when the jot was recorded.
• to record the particular use to which the jot applies, e.g., @u exercise.walking to indicate that this time should be attributed to the use “exercise.walking”. Press “U” whenever you like to see a report of your Jot Uses by month and use with totals.
• to add a hashtag to the subject or the details of a jot to make it easy to find in the Tags View.
• to convert it to another type of reminder. E.g. - book a lunch reservation for Friday might be converted to the event * lunch with Ed @s fri 1pm when you make the reservation.

Simple idea - in the heat of battle, jot down just enough to trigger your memory later when things have calmed down.

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1.4. Mouse-Free navigation

Each of the main views in tklr can be opened by pressing a single key - the first letter of the view’s name.

View	Key	Displays
Agenda	A	events, goals, tasks
Bins	B	Tree view of Bins
Completed	C	Completion datetimes for completed tasks
Find	F	Case insenstive search in subjects and details
Last	L	The last instance of reminders before today
Jots	J	Jots by week and weekday
Modified	M	All reminders sorted by the modified timestamp
Next	N	The next instance of reminders after today
Query	Q	List matches for a specified query
Remaining	R	List remaining alerts for the today
Tags	T	List reminders with tags grouped by tag
Uses	U	Jots by Month and Use
Weeks	W	List scheduled reminders by week and weekday

Each of these views displays a vertical list of reminders, with each reminder row beginning with a tag from “a”, “b”, …, “z”, followed by the pertinent details of the reminder including its subject. When necessary, lists are split into pages so that no more than 26 reminders appear on any one page and the left and right cursor keys are used to move back and forth between pages.

The view keys and the list tags are the key to navigating tklr.

On any page, pressing the key corresponding to a tag will open a display with all the details of the corresponding reminder. This is worth emphasizing. You don’t need the cursor keys or the mouse to select a reminder - just press the key corresponding to its tag.

When the details of reminder are being displayed, pressing enter will open a menu of various commands applicable to the selected reminder, pressing the key corresponding to the tag of another reminder will switch the details display to that reminder or pressing the upper case letter corresponding to another view will switch to that view.

Everything you might want to do to a reminder, to edit, finish, reschedule, delete or whatever is available using these steps:

1. press the key corresponding to the tag of the reminder you want to select
2. press enter to open the menu of commands for the selected reminder
3. press the first letter (any case) of the desired command or escape to cancel and close the commands menu

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1.5. Agenda View: Your daily brief

Agenda view displays

1. The next few days of events beginning with today
2. Active goals ordered by their priority
3. Available tasks ordered by their urgency

Times are displayed in the screenshots using 24-hour notation. An option can be set to display times using am/pm notation instead.

While the listing of events begins with the current day, any all-day events or events whose ending times have already passed such as the one tagged a will be dimmed. Additionally an event, such as the one tagged b whose active period overlaps the current moment will be highlighted.

The first day of events will always include any notices of upcomming events or draft reminders needing completion in addition to any scheduled events for today. In this case the reminder tagged d indicates that there is an event beginning in 5 days (+5d) with a subject beginning with "Amet porro ..." and a notice attribute, @n x, in which x > 5d. This attribute is the reason this notice of the event is being displayed before its scheduled datetime - it will continue to be displayed on the first day (current date) of Agenda View each day until the day of the event.

There is also a draft entry tagged e and displayed in red. This is simply a reminder whose item type is ?. This is used to flag a reminder as incomplete as would be the case, e.g., if a final datetime for the event had not yet been finalized. Draft reminders are also displayed on the current, first day in Agenda view until the item type is changed.

The list for *goals* includes all goals which have not been completed on the current date, sorted and color coded by their *priorty*, which is listed in the first column after the tags. The details for precisely how *priority* is calculated will be described later but the basic idea involves comparing

1. the rate at which completions would currently need to occur to complete the goal
2. the rate originally specified in the goal

The higher the current rate relative to the original, the higher the *priority*.

The list for *tasks* includes all tasks with the possible exception of tasks with both an `@s` (specifying a *due datetime*) and an `@n` entry (specifying a *notification period*). Suppose, for example, that `@s 2026-01-30` and `@n 2d`. The role of these combined entries is to say that the task needs to be finished by `2026-01-30` but you don't want to be bothered about it until two days before that date. This task won't appear in the list until `2026-01-28`.

Tasks are sorted by their *urgency*. This calculation is fairly complicated and will be described later. Many factors are involved including the priority of the task, its due datetime, how many tags it has, whether it has a details attribute and so forth. The *weights* attached to these and other characteristics are options which can be set in the user configuration file.

*Agenda* is the default view and represents the place to go for what you need to know right now.

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1.6. Weeks, Next and Last Views: What’s happening and when

Weeks View is dedicated to displaying each instance of your scheduled reminders one week at a time with a busy bar at the top to show the busy days during the week at a glance followed by a day by day listing of the scheduled reminders.

Two supporting views are limited to displaying a single instance of each scheduled reminder. Next View, bound to N, lists the first instance occurring on or after the current date in ascending order and Last View, bound to L, lists the most recent instance occurring before the current date in descending order. When did you last have your car serviced? Last View is the place to look. When is your next dental appointment? Next View has the answer.

Press W to open Weeks View on the current week or press J and enter a date to open the view on the week containing that date. The header displays the date range, year and week number for the displayed week. Left and right cursor keys shift the displayed week backward or forward by one week. Pressing the shift key at the same time increases the shift from one to four weeks. Pressing the space key will jump back to the current week.

As with the other tagged views, pressing the key corresponding to the tag of a reminder opens a panel with the details of that reminder. In this case, the details for tag j are being displayed.

The busy bar underneath the header provides graphical illustration of the busy times for events during the week. The area under each weekday name has spaces for five blocks. The first (furthest to the left) will be colored orange if one or more all day events are scheduled for that day. The next four blocks correspond to the four 6-hour periods during the day beginning with 00:00 - 05:59 and ending with 18:00 - 23:59 - night, morning, afternoon and evening.

The block corresponding to a period will be green if the scheduled time for an event occupies any part of the period. E.g., a single event scheduled for 05:00 - 07:00 would cause both the first and second blocks for that day to be colored green. A block is changed from green to red if the busy periods for two or more events overlap and thus conflict. The red block for Tuesday, e.g., reflects the conflict during the period 11:00 - 11:15 by the events tagged b and c.

Note that only events with an extent contribute to the busy bar. E.g., the event tagged i on Friday has no extent and thus no effect on the busy bar "morning" slot for that day. Similarly, the task tagged j whose details are displayed, is scheduled for 10:15 - 11:15 and yet, being a task, also has no effect on that "morning" slot.

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1.7. Bins and Tags Views: Organizing your reminders

Tklr provides two complementary methods for organizing your reminders:

1. Using the attribute @b to attach the the name of a bin to a reminder and the related Bins View
2. Using a hash tag, i.e., # followed without spaces by an arbitrary word, in either the subject or the details attribute of reminders and the related Tags View

1.7.1 Bins View

The Bins View displays a hierarchical, tree view of bins and reminders.

Think of bins as directories, reminders as files and Bin View as a file browser. The main difference is that reminders can belong to more than one bin or to none at all.

As an illustration of the power of being able to place a reminder in many bins consider a note describing a visit to Lille, France on November 11, 2025 which involved meeting a dear friend, Mary Smith for lunch. This note might belong to all of these bins:

• travel (in activities)
• 2025:11 (in journal)
• Mary Smith (in people:S)
• Lille (in places:France)

Many note taking applications provide a means for establishing links between notes. The terms Zettelkasten and Second Brain come to mind. A different approach is taken in tklr where bins serve as containers for both reminders and other bins. While a system of links between reminders might be broken by the removal of a reminder, when a reminder is removed from tklr, it simply disappears from the relevant bin membership lists. Bins themselves and their membership lists are otherwise unaffected.

These are the important facts about Bins:

• Bin names are unique
• A bin can contain many other bins (children)
• A bin can belong to at most one other bin (parent)
• A reminder can belong to one or more bins by adding an @b NAME attribute with a unique NAME for each

This is the opening, root level in Bins view.

Press c to open the library bin with its tagged list of children which now includes both bins and reminders.

• Use the tag for a bin to open the bin
• Use the tag for a reminder to display the details of the reminder
• Use tag 0, root,in the bread crumb trail to go up to that bin

Press e to open the quotations bin with its tagged list of children which now includes only reminders.

• Use the tag for a reminder to display the details of the reminder
• Use tag 1, library, in the bread crumb trail to go up to that bin
• Use tag 0, root, in the bread crumb trail to go up to that bin

1.7.2 Tags View

Press T to open the Tags View which lists reminders with hash tag entries grouped by the tag name.

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1.8. Query and Find Views: Where’s Waldo

What is the name of that plumber we used and liked so much?

Just press Q to open the Query View, enter your query at the prompt and press Enter.

This query asks for reminders that include in their subject or their details a match for plumber and found one matching reminder.

The key corresponding to the tag, a, was pressed to display the details of the match. Note that Plumber is in the details and was matched despite being capitalized.

Here the query asks for reminders that pass the exists test for the attribute r, i.e., for all reminders with an @r attribute.

Press ? to display the help information for queries.

Find View. Looking for a case-insensitive match for a word in either the subject or the details of a reminder is such a common need that tklr provides a short-cut for this query - Find View. Instead of pressing Q and entering

includes subject d plumber

you can instead press F to open the prompt for Find View and just enter the word being sought

plumber

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1.9. SQLite3 Data Store

SQLite offers tangible advantages over TinyDB’s JSON store which - used for tklr’s predecessor - especially at the required scale. The embedded SQL engine keeps queries fast even as data grows, thanks to indexed storage and compiled query plans rather than repeatedly parsing whole JSON file. Reliability improves because SQLite wraps writes in ACID transactions so crashes or concurrent edits won’t corrupt the data, whereas TinyDB depends on rewriting the JSON blob. Finally, SQLite’s standard file format means other tools (command-line clients, BI dashboards, scripting languages) can open the same .db directly or even run read-only analytics in parallel, something that’s awkward with a bespoke JSON structure.

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2. Details

2.1. DateTimes

Intelligent parsing of the user’s entry of a datetime is supported. Suppose it is Thursday, November 6 2025 in the US/Eastern timezone. When a datetime is entered it is interpreted relative to the current date, time and timezone. When entering the scheduled datetime for a reminder using @s, the following table illustrates how various entries would be interpreted and the resulting user feedback.

@s entry	interpretation	user feedback
wed	2025-11-12	Wed, Nov 12 2025
9a	2025-11-06 09:00 EST	Thu, Nov 6 2025 09:00 EST
9a fri	2025-11-07 09:00 EST	Fri, Nov 7 2025 09:00 EST
10 9p z none	2025-11-10 21:00	Mon, Nov 10 2025 21:00
3p z US/Pacific	2025-11-06 18:00 EST	Thu, Nov 6 2025 18:00 EST
10 13:30 z CET	2025-11-10 07:30 EST	Mon, Nov 10 2025 07:30 EST
10 20h z none	2025-11-23 20:00	Mon, Nov 10 2025 20:00

Datetimes entered with “z none” and dates are naive - have no timezone information. Datetimes entered with “z TIMEZONE” are interpreted as aware datetimes in TIMEZONE. Datetimes without a “z” entry are also interpreted as aware but in the timezone of the user’s computer. Aware datetimes are always reported using the timezone of the user’s computer, wherever it might be. Times can be entered using the suffix of either a/p or am/pm for AM/PM times or h for 24-hour times. Times are reported using the preference of the user, here as 24-hour times.

Why would you want to use a “z” in specifying a time? Suppose a colleague in Europe at asked you to call Friday at 18:00 CET time. Then setting “@s fri 18h z CET” will schedule your reminder for the correct time to call wherever you might be. In the US/Eastern timezone, this would be “Fri, Nov 12 2025 12:00 EST”. As a second example, suppose you want to take a daily medication at 4pm in whatever timezone you happen to be. Then you will want to schedule the reminder for “@s 4p z none”.

When dates and datetimes are recorded, aware datetimes are first converted to UTC time and then stored with a “Z” appended. E.g., the “3p z US/Pacific” datetime would be interpreted as “2025-11-06 18:00 EST” but would be recorded as “20251106T2300Z”. Dates and naive datetimes are recorded without conversion and without the trailing “Z”. When aware datetimes are displayed to the user, they are first converted to the timezone of the user’s computer. Thus the “PST” example would be displayed as scheduled for 6pm today in US/Eastern. Dates and naive datetimes are displayed without change in every timezone.

When an @s scheduled entry specifies a date without a time, i.e., a date instead of a datetime, the interpretation is that the task is due sometime on that day. Specifically, it is not due until 00:00 on that day and not past due until 00:00 on the following day. The interpretation of @b and @u in this circumstance is similar. For example, if @s 2025-04-06 is specified with @b 3d and @u 2d then the task status would change from waiting to pending at 2025-04-03 00:00 and, if not completed, to deleted at 2025-04-09 00:00.

Note that times can only be specified, stored and displayed in hours and minutes - seconds and microseconds are not supported. Internally datetimes are interpreted as having seconds equal to 0.

2.2. TimeDeltas

An timedelta is just a period of time and is entered in tklr using expressions such as

entry	period of time
2h	2 hours
-2h	- 2 hours
1w7d	1 week and 7 days
2h30m	2 hours and 30 minutes
1m27s	1 minute and 27 seconds

Note that w (weeks), d (days), h (hours), m (minutes) and s (seconds) are the available units for entering intervals. Seconds are ignored save for their use in alerts - more on alerts later.

Arithmetic. A timedelta, D, can be added to a datetime, T, to get a datetime, T + D, that will be after T if D > 0 and before T if D < 0. Similarly, one datetime, A, can be subtracted from another, B, to get a timedelta, T = B - A, with T > 0 if B is after (greater than) A and T < 0 if B is before (less than) A.

One example of this arithmetic is that an event with @s 10a fri @e 1h30m will span the period 10:00 - 11:30 on Friday, the ending datetime corresponding to the sum of the scheduled datetime and the extent timedelta.

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2.3. Scheduled datetime

For the discussion that follows, it will be assumed that the current date is 2025-10-01 and that the scheduled datetime for the illustrative reminder is

@s 2025-10-21 10:00am

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2.4. Extent timedelta

The entry @e 2h30m would set the extent for the reminder to two hours and 30 minutes.

If the reminder were an event, this would schedule the “busy time” for the event to extend from 10am until 12:30pm.

For a task, this same entry would indicate that attention to completing the task should begin no later than 10am and that 2 hours and 30 minutes is the estimate of the time required for completion. The period from 10am until 12:30pm is not displayed as a busy time, however, since the task could be begun before or after 10am and could take more or less than 2 hours and 30 minutes to complete. For a task, both @s and @e are best regarded as estimates.

For a project, this same entry would similarly indicate that attention to completing the project should begin no later than 10am and that two hours and 30 minutes is estimated for completion subject to additional times specified in the jobs. A job entry containing &s 2d &e 3h, for example, would set the scheduled time for this job to be two days after the @s entry for the project and would add three hours to the estimate of total time required for the project.

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2.5. Notice timedelta

The entry @n XYZ where XYZ is a positive timedelta specifies that a notice for the reminder should begin to be noticed on the date in which scheduled - XYZ falls. For the example, adding @n 1d12h would cause the reminder to be noticed beginning on

  2025-10-21 10am - 1d12h = 2025-10-19 10pm

If the reminder is an event, then the agenda view would display an notice for the event beginning on 25-10-19 and continuing on the 25-10-20, i.e., from the date of the notice through the date before the scheduled datetime. For an event think of this notice as a visual alert of the proximity of the event.

If the reminder is a task, then the task would not appear in the agenda view until 25-10-19, i.e., it would be hidden before that date.

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2.6. Wrap

The entry @w BEFORE, AFTER, where BEFORE and AFTER are timedeltas, can be used to wrap the scheduled datetime of a reminder. Possible entries and the resulting values of BEFORE and AFTER are illustrated below:

wrap	before	after
@w 1h, 30m	1 hour	30 minutes
@w 1h,	1 hour	None
@w , 30m	None	30 minutes

Consider an event with @s 2025-10-21 10am @e 2h30m, which starts at 10am and ends at 12:30pm and suppose that it will take an hour to travel to the location of the event and 30 minutes to travel from the event to the next location. The entry @w 1h, 30m could be used to indicate these travel periods from 9am until 10am before the event begins and from 12:30pm until 1pm after the event ends. The event will be displayed with its actual starting and ending times but the entire period including the wrap will be treated as busy.

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2.7. Alert

An alert is specified using @a <list of invervals> : <list of commands>. An @s <datetime> is required and the result is to execute the commands in <list of commands> at the datetimes resulting from subtracting the intervals in <list of intervals> from <datetime>. E.g., with @s 17:00 fri and @a 1h, -15m: n, v, the commands n and v would each be executed at 17:00 - 1h = 16:00 and 17:00 + 15m = 17:15 on Friday.

The command n in the example is built into tklr - it sounds a bell and pops up a message on the tklr display which lasts for a minute (or until clicked on). Other commands such as v in the example must be specified in the user configuration file. This is the relevant section:

[alerts]
# dict[str, str]: character -> command_str.
# E.g., this entry
#   v: '/usr/bin/say -v Alex "[[volm 0.5]] {subject}, {when}"'
# would, on my macbook, invoke the system voice to speak the subject
# of the reminder and the time remaining until the scheduled datetime.
# The character "v" would be associated with this command so that, e.g.,
# the alert entry "@a 30m, 15m: v" would trigger this command 30
# minutes before and again 15 minutes before the scheduled datetime.

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2.8. Recurrence

2.8.1. When @r and, by requirement, @s are given

When an item is specified with an @r entry, an @s entry is required and is used as the DTSTART entry in the recurrence rule. E.g.,

* datetime repeating @s 2025-11-06 14:00 @r d &i 2

With this entry, the @s 2025-11-06 14:00 and @r d &i 2 parts would be combined by tklr to generate this rruleset:

      "rruleset": "DTSTART:20251106T1900Z\nRRULE:FREQ=DAILY;INTERVAL=2"

Two aspects of this rruleset are worth emphasizing

1. “DTSTART:20251106T1900Z\nRRULE:FREQ=DAILY;INTERVAL=2” is a string and can therefore be stored without conversion in SQLite3 - the database used for tklr.
2. Even though it is only 50 characters long, it actually represents an infinite number of datetimes - every datetime matching the recurrence rule which occurs on or after 2025-11-06 19:00 UTC.

In the hands of the wonderful python library dateutil, this rruleset string can be asked a variety of useful questions which will be answered almost instantly. E.g, What datetimes does it represent which lie between 2025-06-23 08:00 and 2026-01-01 00:00?, What is the first datetime after 2025-10-15 00:00? What is the last datetime before 2025-12-15 00:00? And so forth.

For every reminder in tklr which involves datetimes, a rruleset is used to represent all of those datetimes.

Note: The datetimes generated by the rruleset correspond to datetimes matching the specification of @r which occur on or after the datetime specified by @s. The datetime corresponding to @s itself will only be generated if it matches one of the instances generated by @r.

2.8.2. When @s is given but not @r

On the other hand, if an @s entry is specified, but @r is not, then the @s entry would be stored as an RDATE in the recurrence rule. E.g.,

* datetime only @s 2025-11-06 14:00

would be serialized (stored) as

  "rruleset": "RDATE:20251106T1900Z"

The datetime corresponding to @s itself is, of course, generated in this case.

2.8.3. When @+ is specified, with or without @r

When @s is specified, an @+ entry can be used to specify one or more, comma separated datetimes. When @r is given, these datetimes are added to those generated by the @r specification. Otherwise, they are added to the datetime specified by @s. E.g., is a special case. It is used to specify a datetime that is relative to the current datetime. E.g.,

   ... @s 2025-11-06 14:00 @+ 2025-11-13 21:00

would be serialized (stored) as

  "rruleset": "RDATE:20251106T1900Z, 20251114T0200Z"

This option is particularly useful for irregular recurrences such as annual doctor visits. After the initial visit, subsequent visits can simply be added to the @+ entry of the existing event once the new appointment is made.

Note: Without @r, the @s datetime is included in the datetimes generated but with @r, it is only used to set the beginning of the recurrence and otherwise ignored.

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2.9. Masked Information

A @m attribute can be used to record information in a reminder that will be stored in an obfuscated format. Only someone running tklr with the secret from the configuration file used to create the entry will see the clear value. Useful for passwords, account numbers, diary entries or whatever.

For example, this entry:

@m This is a masked entry - it should be readable in
the details view of the UI but otherwise obfuscated.

would be displayed in the SQLite3 database as

@m wrnClsOSwprDmMKKwrrDnGTDiGTCpsK0w5_CnMOPwq9twr3DlMOE
wrXDjMKDecKNw4_DqHHCqcOgw4jCp8Kuw45Rw4fDj3HDm8Kpw4jCqMK
awrXDmMKWworCtMK7eMOawrjCqHPDh8Kxw6HDh8Odwr3CqcKYw4_Cm8
Knw6FRw5TDkHHDncKsw4xkwo7CnMKMwpPDn8K_bcOHw5r CuMKow4XD
msK1w6DDi8KUw4DCmMOew47CpcKlw4vCpcOKw45_

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2.10. HashTags

A single word, without spaces, preceded by a hash character # and included in either the subject or the details (@d attribute) of a reminder is treated as a hashtag and displayed in Tags View under the tag. This provides a way to flag a word that would be included anyway. E.g., @d A useful #python trick would be to ....

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2.11. Anniversaries

* Max's {XXX} birthday
  @s 2016-10-23
  @r y &m 10 &d 23

  

Reminders that repeat using an @r attribute can automatically display the number of the anniversary. The anniversary expression, {XXX}, when placed in the subject will be replaced in the listing of the reminder in Agenda, Next and Weeks views by the relevant number of the anniversary. For example, in the listing for October 23, 2026, the subject of this reminder would appear as Max's 10th birthday. Note that the appropriate suffix from [st, nd, rd or th] is automatically applied and, because of the yearly frequency specified by @r y, the count represents the number of years separating the instance from the scheduled datetime.

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2.12. Timezones

When a datetime is specified without an z component, the timezone is assumed to be aware and represented using the local timezone. The datetime is converted to UTC for storage in the database. When an awared datetime is displayed, it is displayed using the local timezone of the computer.

Suppose you’re in the US/Eastern timezone and want to schedule a call to a friend at 3:00pm Friday, US/Pacific time. This could be entered as @s 3p fri z US/Pacific. This datetime would first be converted to UTC time and then stored as a string in the SQLite3 database. It would then be displayed to you in the local timezone of your computer, where ever it might be.

This remains true with recurrence and daylight savings time but is a little more complicated. As always, the recurrence rules are stored in UTC and the datetimes generated by the rules are also in UTC. When these datetimes are displayed, they are converted to the local timezone.

   ... @s 2025-10-31 14:00 @r d &i 1 &c 4

With this entry, the rruleset and datetimes generated show the effect of the transition from daylight to standard time:

"rruleset": "DTSTART:20251031T1800Z\nRRULE:FREQ=DAILY;INTERVAL=1;COUNT=4"

  Fri 2025-10-31 14:00 EDT -0400
  Sat 2025-11-01 14:00 EDT -0400
  Sun 2025-11-02 13:00 EST -0500
  Mon 2025-11-03 13:00 EST -0500

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2.13. Urgency

Since urgency values are used ultimately to give an ordinal ranking of tasks, all that matters is the relative values used to compute the urgency scores. Accordingly, all urgency scores are constrained to fall within the interval from -1.0 to 1.0. The default urgency is 0.0 for a task with no urgency components.

There are some situations in which a task will not be displayed in the “urgency list” and there is no need, therefore, to compute its urgency:

• Completed tasks are not displayed.
• Hidden tasks are not displayed. The task is hidden if it has an @s entry and an @b entry and the date corresponding to @s - @b falls sometime after the current date.
• Waiting tasks are not displayed. A task is waiting if it belongs to a project and has unfinished prerequisites.
• Only the first unfinished instance of a repeating task is displayed. Subsequent instances are not displayed.

There is one other circumstance in which urgency need not be computed. When the pinned status of the task is toggled on in the user interface, the task is treated as if the computed urgency were equal to 1.0 without any actual computations.

All other tasks will be displayed and ordered by their computed urgency scores. Many of these computations involve datetimes and/or intervals and it is necessary to understand both are represented by integer numbers of seconds - datetimes by the integer number of seconds since the epoch (1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC) and intervals by the integer numbers of seconds it spans. E.g., for the datetime “2025-01-01 00:00 UTC” this would be 1735689600 and for the interval “1w” this would be the number of seconds in 1 week, 7*24*60*60 = 604800. This means that an interval can be subtracted from a datetime to obtain another datetime which is “interval” earlier or added to get a datetime “interval” later. One datetime can also be subtracted from another to get the “interval” between the two, with the sign indicating whether the first is later (positive) or earlier (negative). (Adding datetimes, on the other hand, is meaningless.)

Briefly, here is the essence of this method used to compute the urgency scores using “due” as an example. Here is the relevant section from config.toml with the default values:

[urgency.due]
# The "due" urgency increases from 0.0 to "max" as now passes from
# due - interval to due.
interval = "1w"
max = 8.0

The “due” urgency of a task with an @s entry is computed from now (the current datetime), due (the datetime specified by @s) and the interval and max settings from urgency.due. The computation returns:

• 0.0 if now < due - interval
• max * (1.0 - (now - due) / interval) if due - interval < now <= due
• max if now > due

For a task without an @s entry, the “due” urgency is 0.0.

Other contributions of the task to urgency are computed similarly. Depending on the configuration settings and the characteristics of the task, the value can be either positive or negative or 0.0 when missing the requisite characteristic(s).

Once all the contributions of a task have been computed, they are aggregated into a single urgency value in the following way. The process begins by setting the initial values of variables Wn = 1.0 and Wp = 1.0. Then for each of the urgency contributions, v, the value is added to Wp if v > 0 or abs(v) is added to Wn if v negative. Thus either Wp or Wn is increased by each addition unless v = 0. When each contribution has been added, the urgency value of the task is computed as follows:

urgency = (Wp - Wn) / (Wp + Wn)

Equivalently, urgency can be regarded as a weighted average of -1.0 and 1.0 with Wn/(Wn + Wp) and Wp/(Wn + Wp) as the weights:

urgency = -1.0 * Wn / (Wn + Wp) + 1.0 * Wp / (Wn + Wp) = (Wp - Wn) / (Wn + Wp)

Observations from the weighted average perspective and the fact that Wn >= 1 and Wp >= 1:

• -1.0 < urgency < 1
• urgency = 0.0 if and only if Wn = Wp
• urgency is always increasing in Wp and always decreasing in Wn
• urgency approaches 1.0 as Wn/Wp approaches 0.0 - as Wp increases relative to Wn
• urgency approaches -1.0 as Wp/Wn approaches 0.0 - as Wn increases relative to Wp

Thus positive contributions always increase urgency and negative contributions always decrease urgency. The fact that the urgency derived from contributions is always less than 1.0 means that pinned tasks with urgency = 1 will always be listed first.

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2.14. Priority

How is priority calculated for goals? Consider a goal a goal with the target @t n/t so that n is the number of completions intended for the period t. Suppose further that n' is the number of instances remaining to be completed this period and that t' is the time remaining in the period for their completion.

Now consider these possibilities:

• n'/t' > n/t: the needed completion rate has increased - completions are behind schedule
• n'/t' = n/t: the needed completion rate is unchanged - completions are on schedule
• n'/t' < n/t: the needed completion rate has decreased - completions are ahead of schedule

If priority is defined by ratio

  priority = 100 * (n' * t) / (n * t')

then it indicates the completion rate currently needed as a percentage of the original rate and the possibilities can be stated as:

• priority > 100: behind schedule.
• priority = 100: on schedule.
• priority < 100: ahead of schedule.

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2.15. Open with default

An @g attribute can be used to enter a URL, file or whatever which can the be “opened” using your system default application by selecting the item and using the menu command “Open with default”. Example entries:

• URL: @g https://dagraham.github.io/tklr-dgraham/ Open the URL in the default browser.
• Mail: @g mailto:dnlgrhm@gmail.com Open a new email to the provided address using the default email agent.
• File: @g ~/Projects/tklr-uv/README.md Open the markdown file using the system default agent for markdown files. (Marked 2?)
• File: @g ~/Projects/tklr-uv/make_items.py Open the python file using the system default agent for .py files. (Neovide?)
• File: @g ~/Projects/tklr-uv/items/tklr.db Open the SQLite3 file using the system default agent for .db files. (SQLPro Studio?)
• File: @g ~/Projects/tklr-uv/mouse_with_watch.png Open the image file using the system default agent for .png files. (Preview?)

Maybe an event involves a zoom meeting? Add an @g attribute with the URL for the meeting.

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2.16. Away from your computer? Use the cloud

There are two ways in which tklr supports remote usage through the the cloud. The examples here involve the use of iCloud, an iPhone and an iPhone app called Textastic, but these are just examples and a similar setup could be made using, e.g., Google Drive. All that’s needed is a link to the tklr home directory in your cloud and a plain text / code editor on your mobile device which can access the linked directory.

2.16.1. To access to your schedule

With this entry in config.toml in your home directory:

current_command = "!tklr agenda --width 46"

tklr will automatically output the result of the agenda command to the file current.txt in your home directory, creating the file if necessary and otherwise overwriting it whenever it needs to be updated. With a link to your home directory in iCloud, your agenda, trimmed to 46 characters to fit comfortably on your iPhone screen in portrait mode, will always be available to you. The same approach could be used with weeks, days or any other tklr command. The application Textastic is ideal for displaying the monospaced output and works well with iCloud files.

2.16.2. To record reminders

The key here is parallel file, inbox.txt in your home directory. Normally this file has zero length, but if you edit it using, say, Textastic and record one or more reminders using exacly the same format that you would use with tklr and being careful to leave a blank line between reminders, then the next time tklr checks the length of this file and notices that it is greater than zero, it will import each of the reminders, prefixing each with a ? character so that it will be treated as a draft reminder until you remove the ? prefix. When this process finishes, the reminders are automatically removed from inbox.txt so that its length is restored to zero - ready for subsequent additions. When you next open tklr, all the drafts will be listed together on the current day of the events listing in Agenda View ready for you to make any edits you like to the “drafts” and remove the ? prefixes.

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3. Getting Started

3.1. Installing tklr

As usual with python applications, tklr can be installed in the usual way from PyPI using either pip or pipx. This pip command can be used either to install for the first time or to upgrade an existing installation:

pip install -U tklr-dgraham

With pipx, two different commands are needed. For the initial installation:

pipx install tklr-dgraham

To upgrade an existing installation:

pipx upgrade tklr-dgraham

3.2 Starting tklr for the first time

Tklr needs a home directory to store its files - most importantly these two:

• config.toml: An editable file that holds user configuration settings
• tkrl.db: An SQLite3 database file that holds all the records for events, tasks and other reminders created when using tklr

Any directory can be used for home. These are the options:

1. If started using the command tklr --home <path_to_home> and the directory <path_to_home> exists then tklr will use this directory and, if necessary, create the files config.toml and tklr.db in this directory.

2. If the --home <path_to_home> is not passed to tklr then the home will be selected in this order:

   • If the current working directory contains files named config.toml and tklr.db then it will be used as home
   • Else if the environmental variable TKLR_HOME is set and specifies a path to an existing directory then it will be used as home
   • Else if the environmental variable XDG_CONFIG_HOME is set, and specifies a path to an existing directory which contains a directory named tklr, then that directory will be used.
   • Else the directory ~/.config/tklr will be used.

3.3. Configuration

The default settings are in config.toml in your tklr home directory together with detailed explanations for each setting.

↩︎

4. Using the Command Line Interface

% tklr --help
Usage: tklr [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

  Tklr CLI – manage your reminders from the command
  line.

Options:
  --version      Show the version and exit.
  --home TEXT    Override the Tklr workspace directory
                 (equivalent to setting $TKLR_HOME).
  -v, --verbose  Enable verbose output
  --help         Show this message and exit.

Commands:
  add
  agenda   Display the current agenda: events for...
  alerts   List alerts scheduled for the rest of...
  check    Check whether an entry is valid...
  days     days(start: date = today(), end:...
  details  Display the details for a reminder...
  find     Search reminders whose subject or @d...
  finish   Mark a reminder finished, providing...
  migrate  Convert ETM reminders into a Tklr...
  query    Run an advanced query and list...
  ui       Launch the Tklr Textual interface.
  weeks    weeks(start: date = today(), end:...

Here is the main tklr help message. All the Commands other than ui belong to the CLI.

% tklr agenda --help
Usage: tklr agenda [OPTIONS]

  Display the current agenda: events for the next 3
  days with drafts and notices along with tasks
  ordered by urgency.

  Examples:   tklr agenda   tklr agenda --width 60
  tklr agenda --rich

Options:
  --width INTEGER RANGE  Maximum line width (good
                         for small screens).
  --rich                 Use Rich colors/styling
                         (default output is plain).
  --ids                  Append record ids in
                         parentheses for each
                         reminder row.
  --help                 Show this message and exit.

For the help information on a particular command, enter the name of the command and then append --help. E.g., here is the help for the agenda command.

The --rich option is probably the least apparent. Using it adds rich colors to the format of the display. Here are examples of agenda with and without this argument.

5. Coming from etm

The basic entry format is essentially the same in tklr as it was in etm. There are a few changes to reminder types, attributes (specified with @-keys) and their modifiers (specified with &-keys) - these are documented below.

5.1 Datetime entry and @z

The attribute @z to specify the timezone for datetime entries in a reminder is no longer supported. The same purpose is now achieved by appending z TIMEZONE to the scheduled datetime attribute. E.g.,

@s 9a fri z US/Pacific

would indicate that “9a fri” is to be interpreted as an aware datetime in the “US/Pacific” timezone. Similarly z none would indicate that the preceeding datetime is to be interpreted as a naive datetime.

5.2. Type Changes

etm	tklr
* event	unchanged
- task	~ task
~ goal	! goal
! inbox	? draft
- project	^ project
% journal	% note

5.3. Attribute Changes

etm	tklr
@b beginby	@n notify
@c calendar
@i index	@b bin
@j job	@~ task (project)
@k connect
	@k completions (goal)
@l location	@c context
@n attendee
@t tag	#hashtag
	@t target (goal)

5.4. @r modifier changes

etm	tklr
&h hours	&H hours
&n minutes	&M minutes
&M months	&m months
&m monthdays	&d monthdays

The tklr settings mirror standard usage in strftime.

5.5. @~ project task/job modifier changes

The modifers used in @~ project task entries are significantly changed from the etm @j job entries. In tklr, the optional &r requires modifier replaces both the &i id and the &p prerequisite modifiers. See doghouse project for an example of the new usage.

6. Developer Guide

This guide walks you through setting up a development environment for tklr using uv and a local virtual environment.

✅ Step 1: Clone/Update the repository

This step will create a directory named tklr-dgraham in your current working directory that contains a clone of the github repository for tklr.

git clone https://github.com/dagraham/tklr-dgraham.git
cd tklr-dgraham

Later, to update your local copy of Tklr to the latest version:

# Navigate to your project directory
cd ~/Projects/tklr-dgraham  # adjust this path as needed

# Pull the latest changes from GitHub
git pull origin master

# Reinstall in editable mode (picks up new code and dependencies)
uv pip install -e .

✅ Step 2: Install uv (if needed)

which uv || curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

✅ Step 3: Create a virtual environment with uv

This will create a .venv/ directory inside your project to hold all the relevant imports.

uv venv

✅ Step 4: Install the project in editable mode

uv pip install -e .

✅ Step 5: Use the CLI

You have two options for activating the virtual environment for the CLI:

☑️ Option 1: Manual activation (every session)

source .venv/bin/activate

Then you can run:

tklr --version
tklr add "- test task @s 2025-08-01"
tklr ui

To deactivate:

deactivate

☑️ Option 2: Automatic activation with direnv (recommended)

Install direnv

brew install direnv        # macOS
sudo apt install direnv    # Ubuntu/Debian

Add the shell hook to your ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc

eval "$(direnv hook zsh)"   # or bash

Restart your shell or run source ~/.zshrc.

In the project directory, create a .envrc file

echo 'export PATH="$PWD/.venv/bin:$PATH"' > .envrc

Allow it

direnv allow

Now every time you cd into the project, your environment is activated automatically and, as with the manual option, test your setup with

tklr --version
tklr add "- test task @s 2025-08-01"
tklr ui

You’re now ready to develop, test, and run tklr locally with full CLI and UI support.