Chirp

Minimalist task manager for the terminal. Vim keys, natural language input, persistent ping reminders that won't let you forget.

Built with Rust, ratatui, and SQLite.

Preview

 chirp   today  Inbox  Work                              2 due  ⚡  NORMAL

 ▸ p1 ○ deploy to prod                     Today 3:00 PM  ~30m 12m~
   p2 ○ buy groceries                      Tomorrow 5:00 PM
      ○ review PR                           Friday 9:00 AM
   p3 ○ exercise                            daily  ~1h 45m~
      ○ call dentist                        next week

   -- completed (2) --
      ✓ send weekly report
      ✓ fix login bug

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 ▸ 5 pending
 i add  e edit  ␣ done  d del  u undo  s snooze  / search  t today  ? help  q quit

Install

cargo install chirp-tui

Or build from source:

cargo install --path .

The daemon auto-installs on first run. It sends desktop notifications (with sound) even when the TUI is closed. For urgent overdue p1 tasks, it opens a terminal window in your face.

Requires Rust 1.70+. Works on macOS, Linux, and Windows.

Features

• Vim navigation (j/k, h/l), mouse support
• Natural language: buy milk tomorrow 5pm p1 ping 30m daily
• Priority levels (p1/p2/p3) -- auto-sorted, color-coded
• Recurring tasks (daily/weekly/monthly)
• Ping reminders with persistent desktop notifications
• Background daemon -- runs 24/7, auto-starts on login
• Undo support (u) for deletes and toggles
• Fuzzy search, multiple lists, task notes
• CLI subcommands for scripting (add, list, done, export)
• Cross-platform: macOS, Linux, Windows

CLI

# Launch the TUI
chirp
chirp --list Work          # open directly into a list

# Manage tasks without the TUI
chirp add "buy milk tomorrow 5pm p2"
chirp add "standup daily" --list Work
chirp list                 # show all lists with task counts
chirp list --json          # JSON output for scripting
chirp done                 # today's completed tasks
chirp done --json

# Backup and migration
chirp export               # dump all tasks as JSON
chirp --import tasks.json  # import from JSON or CSV

# Daemon management
chirp daemon status
chirp daemon stop
chirp daemon restart
chirp daemon install       # manual install (auto-starts on login)
chirp daemon uninstall

Keybindings

Key	Action
i	Add task
e	Edit task
space	Toggle done
d	Delete
u	Undo last action
s	Snooze ping
j/k	Navigate
J/K	Reorder
h/l	Switch lists
t	Today view
/	Search
c	Show/hide completed
enter	Detail pane
?	Help
q	Quit

Mouse: click to select, click checkbox to toggle, scroll wheel to navigate.

Input syntax

buy groceries tomorrow 5pm p2
review PR in 2h p1 ping 30m
exercise daily ping 1h p3
standup monday 10am weekly

Modifiers: p1/p2/p3, daily/weekly/monthly, ping 30m, tomorrow/monday/in 2h/5pm.

Attach notes: type note <text> with a task selected.

Data

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Chirp/chirp.db
• Linux: ~/.local/share/Chirp/chirp.db
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Chirp\chirp.db

License

MIT