name: things3-manager
description: Manage tasks, projects, areas, headings, and tags in the Things 3 macOS app via a local CLI (list Inbox/Today/Upcoming/Anytime/Someday/Logbook, search, create/update/complete/cancel items, open items in Things). Use when Codex needs to manage Things 3 on macOS.

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