PlainTasks

PlainTasks for Zed

A Zed extension for managing todo lists with syntax highlighting and interactive task management. Inspired by Todo+ for VSCode and PlainTasks for Sublime Text.

Features

• ✅ Syntax highlighting for .todo, .tasks, and .taskpaper files
• ✅ Interactive task management via Language Server Protocol
• ✅ Code actions to toggle task states (Done/Cancelled/Pending)
• ✅ Automatic timestamps when marking tasks complete
• ✅ Tag completion - type @ to see suggestions
• ✅ Project outline - navigate between projects via symbol picker
• ✅ Priority tags with special colors (@critical, @high, @today, @low)

Quick Start

1. Install the Extension

Search for "PlainTasks" in the Zed extensions panel (Cmd+Shift+X).

2. Set Up Keybindings (Required!)

Zed extensions cannot automatically add keybindings - you need to configure them manually.

Open your keymap (Cmd+K, Cmd+S or Zed → Settings → Open Keymap) and add:

Standard Keybindings

[
  {
    "context": "Editor && language == Todo",
    "bindings": {
      "alt-d": "editor::ToggleCodeActions",
      "alt-c": "editor::ToggleCodeActions"
    }
  }
]

• Alt+D: Toggle task (Done/Pending)
• Alt+C: Toggle task or Mark as Cancelled

Vim Mode Keybindings

[
  {
    "context": "Editor && language == Todo && VimControl && !VimWaiting && !menu",
    "bindings": {
      "+": ["workspace::SendKeystrokes", "o ☐ escape"],
      "=": "editor::ToggleCodeActions",
      "ctrl-m": "editor::ToggleCodeActions"
    }
  }
]

• + (normal mode): Create new task
• = (normal mode): Toggle Done/Pending
• Ctrl+M (normal mode): Mark as Cancelled

💡 Tip: The LSP automatically applies the most relevant action based on context, so pressing = directly toggles tasks without showing a menu!

For more keybinding options, see KEYBINDINGS.md.

Usage

Task Management

Put your cursor on a task and use code actions (or your configured keybindings):

Tag Completion

Type @ and you'll see suggestions for:

• Common tags: @today, @high, @medium, @low, @critical
• Time tags: @done, @cancelled, @started, @est, @lasted
• Any tags you've already used in the document

File Format

Project Name:
  ☐ Pending task @today
  ✔ Completed task @done(25-01-18 14:30)
  ✘ Cancelled task @cancelled(25-01-18 15:00)
  
  Notes and comments without a symbol
  
  Sub Project:
    ☐ Nested task @high @est(2h)

Archive:
  ✔ Old completed task @done(25-01-17 09:00)

Screenshot

Supported File Extensions

• .todo, .todos
• .task, .tasks
• .taskpaper

How It Works

PlainTasks uses two components:

1. Tree-sitter Grammar: Provides syntax highlighting and project outline
2. Language Server (LSP): Provides interactive features like code actions and tag completion

The LSP server (plaintasks-lsp) runs automatically when you open a .todo file.

Development

Prerequisites

• Rust installed via rustup (required by Zed for extension development)
• The wasm32-wasip1 target for building the extension

Quick Start

# 1. Setup (one-time)
make setup

# 2. Build and install LSP server
make install-lsp

# 3. Build extension for development
make dev-extension

# 4. Install in Zed
# Open Zed → Extensions (Cmd+Shift+X) → Install Dev Extension → Select this directory

Build Commands

make help              # Show all available commands
make setup             # Install Rust targets and check dependencies
make build             # Build extension (debug) + LSP server
make build-release     # Build extension (release) + LSP server
make install-lsp       # Build and install LSP to ~/.cargo/bin/
make dev-extension     # Build everything for dev extension use
make clean             # Remove all build artifacts

Manual Building

If you prefer not to use the Makefile:

# Install the wasm32-wasip1 target
rustup target add wasm32-wasip1

# Build the extension
cargo build --release --target wasm32-wasip1
ln -sf target/wasm32-wasip1/release/plaintasks.wasm extension.wasm

# Build and install the LSP server
cd lsp
cargo build --release
cp target/release/plaintasks-lsp ~/.cargo/bin/

Project Structure

• src/extension.rs - Zed extension (WASM component)
• lsp/ - Language Server Protocol implementation (native binary)
• grammars/todo/ - Tree-sitter grammar (separate repo: tree-sitter-todo)
• languages/todo/ - Language configuration

Troubleshooting

Code actions not working?

• Make sure you've added keybindings to your keymap.json
• Check that the file has a .todo extension
• Try restarting Zed (Cmd+Q and reopen)

Tag completion not showing?

• Type @ and wait a moment
• Check if Copilot or other completion providers are overriding it
• Try pressing Ctrl+Space to manually trigger completion

LSP not starting?

• Check Zed's logs: tail -f ~/Library/Logs/Zed/Zed.log | grep plaintasks
• Reinstall the extension

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit issues or pull requests.

Roadmap

• Tree-sitter grammar with syntax highlighting
• Language Server Protocol implementation
• Code actions for task state management
• Tag completion
• Project outline support
• Archive functionality (move completed tasks)
• Create new task command
• Statistics view (task counts, time tracking)

License

MIT

Acknowledgments

• Inspired by PlainTasks for Sublime Text
• Based on Todo+ for VSCode