apple-reminders

What This Skill Does

The apple-reminders skill acts as a direct interface for the remindctl CLI, enabling OpenClaw to interact natively with your macOS Reminders database. It allows for the full lifecycle management of tasks, including creation, editing, status updates, and deletions. By bridging the gap between natural language processing and the local Reminders daemon, this skill provides a powerful way to organize your life, track professional projects, and manage personal to-do lists without ever leaving your terminal or leaving the context of an AI chat session. It supports advanced filtering by date, list categorization, and structured output for programmatic workflows.

Installation

To use this skill, ensure you are running on a macOS environment. The skill relies on the remindctl binary. You can install it via Homebrew by running: brew install steipete/tap/remindctl. Once installed, you may need to grant your terminal or OpenClaw execution environment permission to access the Reminders app in System Settings under Privacy & Security. If you are building from source, ensure the binary is accessible in your path. To register the skill within OpenClaw, run the installation command: clawhub install openclaw/skills/skills/steipete/apple-reminders.

Use Cases

• Project Management: Quickly generate lists for specific client work and add sub-tasks with strict deadlines.
• Daily Planning: Use the 'today' and 'upcoming' views to generate morning briefings about your schedule.
• Automated Workflows: Pipe JSON output into other scripts or tools to synchronize your reminders with third-party software.
• Rapid Capture: Use natural language inputs to dump thoughts into specific lists while working in the CLI.
• Household Management: Shared lists can be modified, allowing the AI to help manage groceries or family chores.

Example Prompts

1. "Check my reminders for today and tell me what is still pending for the 'Work' list."
2. "Add a new reminder to buy milk in the 'Groceries' list, and make sure it is due tomorrow at 9 AM."
3. "List all my overdue items and then mark the ones related to 'Cleaning' as completed."

Tips & Limitations

• macOS Dependency: This tool is strictly limited to macOS environments because it relies on the native EventKit framework. It will not work on Linux or Windows.
• Permissions: If you receive 'Permission Denied' errors, ensure you have explicitly granted your terminal emulator access to Reminders. If you are using an IDE terminal, grant that application access instead.
• Data Integrity: While the tool is stable, always verify important deletions. Using the --force flag on deletions will not prompt for confirmation.
• Date Flexibility: The --due parameter is highly flexible; using strings like 'tomorrow' or specific ISO 8601 timestamps ensures the system correctly maps your deadline to the native calendar data.