A fast, keyboard-driven terminal UI for todo.txt. Vim-style bindings, atomic writes, instant external-edit detection, and four hand-tuned themes — all in a single static binary.
Highlights
- Pure todo.txt. Reads and writes the standard format — every line is plain text you can edit with anything else.
- Vim keys, no surprises.
j/kto move,ddto delete,gg/Gto jump,uto undo (50 levels), chord prompts (gg,dd,fp,fc) with a 600 ms window. - Atomic, sync-friendly writes. Every change goes through write-temp-then-rename. If another process — Dropbox, an editor, a script — modifies the file, tuxedo reloads on the next keypress (or within ~250 ms while idle) and flashes a notice.
- Built-in agenda.
topens a focused view that groups overdue, due-today, and upcoming tasks. - Sibling-file archive.
Amoves completed tasks todone.txtnext to your file, atomically. - Filter, sort, multi-select. Cycle by
+projector@context, sort by priority / due / file order, and bulk-complete or bulk-delete in visual mode. - Four themes, three densities. Cycle with
TandD. Choices persist across runs. - No daemon, no database, no cloud. One file in, one file out.
Screens
| Empty state • cell-bowtie mark and quick-start when the file has no tasks |  |
| Today / agenda • overdue, due-today, and upcoming groups |  |
| Archive • completed tasks grouped by completion date |  |
Filter sidebar active • fp cycles projects with j/k, fc cycles contexts |
 |
Help • ? opens the full keybindings overlay |
 |
How to generate screenshots
The screenshots above are checked-in SVGs. Regenerate them with:
cargo run --example screenshots
Themes
T cycles through four built-in themes.
| Muted Slate (default) | Dawn |
|---|---|
 |
 |
| Nord | Matrix |
 |
 |
Install
Homebrew (macOS, Linux)
brew install webstonehq/tap/tuxedo
Prebuilt binaries
Download the archive for your platform from the latest release and put tuxedo on your PATH.
Targets: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu, x86_64-apple-darwin, aarch64-apple-darwin, x86_64-pc-windows-msvc. Each archive ships with a .sha256 checksum.
From source
cargo install --git https://github.com/webstonehq/tuxedo
Or clone and build:
git clone https://github.com/webstonehq/tuxedo
cd tuxedo
cargo build --release
./target/release/tuxedo [FILE]Requires the Rust 2024 edition (recent stable toolchain).
Usage
tuxedo [FILE] # open FILE (created if missing) tuxedo # open ./todo.txt, or a sample file if none tuxedo --sample # open the bundled sample file in the temp dir tuxedo --help tuxedo --version
If FILE is omitted, tuxedo opens ./todo.txt from the current working
directory if it exists. Otherwise it falls back to a sample todo.txt in the
system temp directory so you can poke around without committing to a path.
Edits are persisted on every change via atomic write (write .tmp, rename).
If the file changes on disk (another editor, a sync client, a script), tuxedo notices on the next keypress, or within ~250 ms while idle, and reloads. The keystroke that triggered the reload is consumed — press it again to act on the fresh state — and the status bar flashes a notice.
Pressing A appends every completed task to a sibling done.txt and
removes them from the working file (atomically: done.txt is written
before the originals are dropped).
Keybindings
Navigation
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
j / ↓ |
next task |
k / ↑ |
previous task |
gg |
first task |
G |
last task |
Ctrl-d / Ctrl-u |
half-page down / up |
Editing
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
a |
add task |
e / i |
edit current task |
x |
toggle complete |
dd |
delete task |
p |
cycle priority A → B → C → · |
c |
add or remove a context |
+ |
add a project |
u |
undo (50 levels) |
Filtering, sort, view
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
/ |
search |
fp |
filter by project (j / k cycles, Esc clears) |
fc |
filter by context (j / k cycles, Esc clears) |
s |
cycle sort: priority → due → file order |
v |
enter visual / multi-select; space toggles a row |
x / dd (in visual) |
bulk-complete / bulk-delete the selection |
t |
today / agenda view |
A |
archive completed tasks → done.txt |
H |
toggle showing done tasks in the main list |
Layout & theme
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
[ |
toggle filter sidebar |
] |
toggle detail sidebar |
T |
cycle theme |
D |
cycle density: compact → comfortable → cozy |
L |
toggle line numbers |
System
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
? |
help overlay |
, |
settings overlay |
q |
quit |
Two-key chord prompts (gg, dd, fp, fc) show a g… / d… / f…
indicator in the status-bar mode chip while the leader is armed; the
window is 600 ms.
todo.txt format
Standard todo.txt lines:
(A) 2026-04-28 Call dentist @phone +health due:2026-05-08
(A)— priority, A through Z (omit for none)2026-04-28— creation date in ISO 8601+project— project tag@context— context tagkey:value— extension;due:YYYY-MM-DDis recognized for sort and agenda grouping
Completed tasks are prefixed with x and a completion date:
x 2026-05-05 2026-05-01 Submit expense report +work
Configuration
Persisted to ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/tuxedo/config.toml. Cycling
theme, density, or sort, and toggling sidebars / line-numbers / done-visibility
all update the file. Unknown keys are ignored, so older binaries don't break
on newer files.
Development
mise run fmt # cargo fmt --all mise run clippy # cargo clippy --all-targets --locked -- -D warnings mise run test # cargo test --locked
CI runs all three on every push and pull request. Tasks are also runnable as
plain cargo commands if you don't use mise.
Acknowledgments
- todo.txt by Gina Trapani — the format that makes a tool like this possible.
- ratatui and crossterm — the rendering and terminal-input crates tuxedo is built on.
Contributing
Issues and pull requests are welcome. For larger changes, please open an
issue first to discuss the approach. Run mise run fmt clippy test (or the
plain cargo equivalents) before submitting.
License
Released under the MIT License.