taskstaka

A "what needs action next" task server, backed by markdown

Work is a tree: a story spawns subtasks, the subtasks block the story. taskstaka keeps the tree and tells you the one thing that is yours to do right now — and brings the story back the moment its last piece is done.

$brew install a6wright/taskstaka/taskstaka

then taskstaka init. macOS and Linux. Other ways to install.

The Next view: the task in hand on top with its notes, then each story as a stack of what you can do now

A tree, not a list

Nesting means first this. A task with open subtasks is blocked and stays out of your way; the deepest open leaves are what you see.

The plate

The task in hand sits on top with its notes. Finish it and the next one in the same story takes its place. Put it back and a different one comes up.

Waiting on people

A wait always has a follow-up date. Chase, record what they said, and the task that depends on them is the one that waits — not the story.

How a stack works

A story as a stack: ticking the plate in hand slides the next prerequisite into your hand, until the story itself is ready. Renew the cert ▶ in hand Ask Priya for the DNS record ▶ in hand Restart nginx ▶ in hand so that Ship the new site ↑ ready
Next shows the story as a stack. Tick the plate in hand and the next prerequisite moves into it.

A story is the base. Each subtask under it is a prerequisite, knocked out from the bottom. When you tick the plate in hand, the next prerequisite moves into your hand; when the last one closes, the story itself comes back to the top of Next, flagged resurfaced. That moment is the whole product. More in Help.

Everywhere you work

taskstaka next in a terminal, taskstaka tui as an always-on panel, the web outliner at http://127.0.0.1:7407/, the macOS menu bar item with ⌥Space quick add, and an MCP server so Claude can keep your list honest. One daemon, one folder of markdown files in ~/todo, every surface showing the same thing. Your notes stay yours: open the folder in Obsidian, sync it with git.