I just changed all my tasks over to the TaskNotes Plugin for Obsidian. It seems very built out - it uses bases for views and there’s even a local API and an MCP.
I was an OmniFocus user from the beginning (actually from when it was Kinkless) but ended up migrating as I got further into Obsidian.
I was using the Tasks Plugin but those tasks were just lines in different daily notes and I could create queries where they’d be displayed. The problem was they weren’t visible to the AI because they weren’t actually text in the document.
I was reluctant to migrate as I was setting up this new system, but – with the help of the robot – it was very straightforward.
TaskNotes uses an individual file for each task, it can handle things like contexts, dependencies, and of course tags. The API makes it easier for the robot to talk to and the MCP technically isn’t necessary unless you’re connecting remotely – or so my robot tells me.
Thank you for this post! So you have given up OmniFocus altogether? I’d be very interested in hearing more about the process and how it feels for you after many years and also how you deal with it on your mobile devices?
I’ve been using TaskNotes for a while so was pleased when I saw David’s system was using file-per-task and with TaskNotes you already have recurring so don’t need his workaround
I’ve been getting my robot to write tasks without knowing there was an MCP - as you say, probably not needed but where did you find it? I don’t see it mentioned at the docs you linked.
Interesting. Part of what I like about tasks in obsidian is how quick it is to jot things down. Some are full fledged tasks but a lot of them tend to be closer to checklist type items. Have you found that single task per note gets too heavy?
This is such a find for me. I’ve been trying to play with using TaskNotes for a subset of my tasks but almost gave up because its so hard to manage tasks on mobile.
I try not to look in the TaskNotes/Tasks folder and the more I get Claude to handle things like archiving the done tasks the easier that is. It’s easier to access individual tasks (eg to add notes in the file) via the various ‘base’ views.
Another handy thing is that you write something out as a Markdown task ‘- ’ TaskNotes adds a small icon at the end of the text so you can convert it to a TaskNote any time you want to.
Great find! I have installed both the TaskNotes plug-in and the TaskForge app and am looking forward to testing it out and seeing whether I decide to convert from Todoist to Obsidian.
It is mentioned in the release notes for Tasknotes 4.3.3:
(#1597) Added MCP server for AI agent integration
Exposes TaskNotes tools at /mcp endpoint, gated behind enableMCP setting
Supports tasks (CRUD, query, toggle status/archive, parse from text), time tracking, pomodoro, calendar events, and task statistics
Thanks to @dstotijn for the contribution
In the PR on github is a note stating " For locally running AI agents, the mdbase-skill is likely a better fit."
I couldn’t find anything in the Tasknotes documentation.
You have to enable HTTP API first, then the MCP option is available. I don’t use it. I’m not sure what the advantages would be. I tend to create new tasks myself but I had Claude make a recurring task for the Robot course webinars and it managed that fine. I thought I’d have to make a template and skill but haven’t needed either.
