Apple Reminders CLI (remindctl)

What This Skill Does

The apple-reminders skill allows you to manage your Apple Reminders directly from your terminal using the remindctl command-line interface. This powerful tool enables you to create, view, edit, complete, and delete reminders, and it seamlessly syncs with your Apple Reminders app across all your devices. You can interact with specific reminder lists, filter reminders by date (today, tomorrow, overdue, or specific dates), and even choose your output format, including JSON for scripting and plain text (TSV) for easy parsing.

This skill is ideal for users who want to integrate their personal to-do list management with their Apple ecosystem, ensuring that tasks created via the CLI are accessible and manageable on their iPhones, iPads, and Macs.

Installation

To install remindctl, you'll need Homebrew. If you don't have it, install it from brew.sh.

Open your terminal and run:

brew install steipete/tap/remindctl

This skill is macOS-only. After installation, the first time you use remindctl, macOS will prompt you to grant it permission to access your Reminders. Ensure you grant this permission.

You can check the status of remindctl and its authorization by running:

remindctl status

If you encounter any issues with authorization, you can request it again with:

remindctl authorize

Use Cases

This skill is perfect for:

• Personal Task Management: Quickly add to-dos, shopping items, or personal errands that need to sync with your iPhone.
• Date-Specific Reminders: Set reminders for specific dates and times, such as "Pay bills" by the 15th or "Prepare presentation" by next Friday.
• List Organization: Manage different reminder lists like 'Work', 'Personal', 'Groceries', or 'Projects' directly from the command line.
• Batch Operations: Complete or delete multiple reminders at once using their IDs.
• Scripting and Automation: Use the --json output to programmatically integrate reminders into other workflows.

When NOT to use this skill:

• For scheduling system alerts or bot-specific tasks (use cron and systemEvent).
• For calendar events or appointments (use a calendar application).
• For complex project management (consider tools like Notion or GitHub Issues).
• For one-off notifications that don't need to be tracked in a reminder list (use cron for timed alerts).

Example Prompts

1. "Add 'Buy groceries' to my shopping list, due tomorrow evening."
2. "What are my overdue reminders?"
3. "Create a new reminder list called 'Vacation Planning'."

Tips & Limitations

• macOS Only: This skill requires macOS due to its reliance on the native Apple Reminders application.
• Permissions: Ensure remindctl has permission to access your Reminders. Use remindctl authorize if needed.
• Date Formats: remindctl accepts various date formats for the --due option and date filters, including today, tomorrow, YYYY-MM-DD, YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm, and ISO 8601 formats.
• Output Control: Use --json for machine-readable output, --plain for TSV, and --quiet to get only counts.
• Clarify Intent: If a user says "remind me to do X", clarify if they mean an Apple Reminder (syncs to devices) or a Clawdbot alert (a message here). If they mean the latter, use the cron tool with systemEvent.