Things 3 Manager (CLI)

Quick start

• Ensure Things 3 is installed and opened at least once.
• In Things → Settings → General: enable “Enable Things URLs”.
• Run the CLI (auto-bootstraps .skills-data/things3-manager/venv and installs deps on first run):
  • bash .codex/skills/things3-manager/scripts/things --help
  • bash .codex/skills/things3-manager/scripts/things inbox
  • bash .codex/skills/things3-manager/scripts/things search "weekly review"
  • bash .codex/skills/things3-manager/scripts/things add-todo --title "Book flights" --when today --tag travel --checklist "passport" --checklist "charger"

Operating rules (for Codex)

• Prefer read-only commands first (inbox, today, search, projects, areas, tags) to discover UUIDs and current state.
• Before any write command (add-todo, add-project, update-todo, update-project), summarize the exact changes and confirm with the user.
• If the user provides a project/area/heading by name, resolve it by listing (projects/areas/headings) before writing.

Local data and env

• Store all mutable state under <project_root>/.skills-data/<skill-name>/.
• Keep config and registries in .skills-data/<skill-name>/ (for example: config.json, <feature>.json).
• Use .skills-data/<skill-name>/.env for SKILL_ROOT, SKILL_DATA_DIR, and any per-skill env keys.
• Install local tools into .skills-data/<skill-name>/bin and prepend it to PATH when needed.
• Install dependencies under .skills-data/<skill-name>/venv:
  • Python: .skills-data/<skill-name>/venv/python
  • Node: .skills-data/<skill-name>/venv/node_modules
  • Go: .skills-data/<skill-name>/venv/go (modcache, gocache)
  • PHP: .skills-data/<skill-name>/venv/php (cache, vendor)
• Write logs/cache/tmp under .skills-data/<skill-name>/logs, .skills-data/<skill-name>/cache, .skills-data/<skill-name>/tmp.
• Keep automation in <skill-root>/scripts and read SKILL_DATA_DIR (default to <project_root>/.skills-data/<skill-name>/).
• Do not write outside <skill-root> and <project_root>/.skills-data/<skill-name>/ unless the user requests it.

Commands (CLI)

• Lists:
  • inbox, today, upcoming, anytime, someday, logbook, trash, recent
• Browsing:
  • projects, areas, tags, headings, todos, tagged-items
• Search:
  • search, search-advanced
• Writes (via Things URL scheme):
  • add-todo, add-project, update-todo, update-project
• Open in Things:
  • show, search-items

Attribution

• CLI implementation is based on things_server.py, url_scheme.py, and formatters.py from https://github.com/hald/things-mcp.