Taskwarrior is a portable, MIT-licensed command line task list management utility written in C++ for people who track to-dos and projects from a terminal instead of a graphical app.

What it is

Taskwarrior is an open source task list manager that runs in a terminal. It is developed by the GothenburgBitFactory organisation as a portable project, meaning the same utility is built and distributed for GNU/Linux and Unix systems, macOS, and Windows. The project's home is taskwarrior.org, which carries the online documentation, downloads, and news, and the code lives in the GothenburgBitFactory/taskwarrior repository under the MIT licence. It has collected 6,071 stars and 422 forks, and it is written in C++.

The problem it solves is the one faced by anyone who works inside a shell and does not want to leave it to track work. Instead of a graphical task manager that needs a desktop session, a window, and a pointer, Taskwarrior gives a command line task list that is installed from the same package repositories a user already trusts. Its topics list places it in the get things done (GTD) tradition and in the plain to-do list category. Rather than a fixed set of features, it is described as having a multitude of features and a vast ecosystem of tools, hooks, and extensions, so the workflow can be reshaped by the user instead of only by the vendor.

Key capabilities

• Command line task list management, installed and invoked through the task package on Arch (extra/x86_64), Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, and Homebrew.
• Support for get things done (GTD) style workflows, reflected in the project's gtd topic.
• An ecosystem of tools, hooks, and extensions documented at taskwarrior.org/tools, so behaviour can be extended without patching the core.
• Portability across Linux/Unix, Mac OS, and Windows, with the current package versions tracked through Repology.
• A documented source build path for contributors at doc/devel/contrib, for platforms without a ready package.
• Online documentation at taskwarrior.org/docs and a download index at taskwarrior.org/download.
• Community channels including GitHub Discussions, a Discord server, and the r/taskwarrior subreddit, with support options listed at taskwarrior.org/support.

Who uses it and how

• Individual users on Linux/Unix, macOS, and Windows who keep personal to-do lists and projects in a terminal rather than a GUI app.
• Practitioners of GTD methods, who are addressed directly by the project's topic list and by hooks and extensions that reshape the workflow.
• Users of mainstream distributions who install the packaged task binary from Arch, Debian, Fedora, or Ubuntu repositories, or from Homebrew on macOS, rather than compiling it.
• Contributors and integrators: the repository publishes a "good first issue" label, a contributing guide, a current milestone (milestone/26), and CI and coverage badges on the develop branch.
• People seeking help through the discussions forum on GitHub, the Discord server, or the subreddit, which is the support route the README recommends before other options.

Getting started

Install the task package from the repository of the operating system in use — Arch, Debian, Fedora, or Ubuntu on Linux, or Homebrew on macOS — and consult taskwarrior.org/download for the full list of platforms. Where no package exists, Taskwarrior can be built from source following doc/devel/contrib.

How it compares

No list of paid products that Taskwarrior replaces is provided, and no comparable task managers are named in the facts. Within this registry it therefore stands alone, and any comparison must be drawn against tools the reader already knows rather than against anything listed here.

When to use it — and when not to

Taskwarrior has no database, mail service, or storage backend to operate, since it is a local command line utility rather than a server, so the cost of adopting it is a package install and a terminal habit. It is a poor fit for anyone who needs a graphical interface, a hosted web service, or a mobile-first experience, because none of those are offered here. Read the facts honestly: the README is mostly badges and pointers to taskwarrior.org, so real documentation sits off-repository, and 436 open issues indicate an active but busy tracker.