Tasks

Task metadata

Deckard reads both formats of the Obsidian Tasks plugin. The emoji format looks like this; the Dataview format spells the same fields out in brackets:

- [ ] Send the proposal 📅 2026-09-20 ⏳ 2026-09-18 ⏫ 🔁 every week

• Markers and a trailing block id such as ^a1b2 are left out of titles and shown as details. A marker can be anywhere on the line.
• Without a 📅 date, Deckard reads 2026-09-12, Sep 12, or next Friday from the text, counting from the note’s date (a daily note’s name or top heading, else a date:, created:, or updated: front-matter date, else the last save). Sep 12 is in that date’s year, unless the same day in the year before or after is nearer and within two months: Jan 5 in the note for December 28 is the coming January.
• Completing a task adds ✅ with today’s date; reopening removes it.
• Completing a 🔁 task anywhere writes its next occurrence on the line above. The due date (else scheduled or start) moves by the rule and the other dates keep their distance; when done counts from today. The new task drops ✅, 🆔, and any block id, and its steps return unchecked. A bulk edit writes the next occurrence alone.
• Repeat rules:
  • Obsidian Tasks rules: every day, every 3 weeks, every month, every year, every weekday, every Monday, every week on Tuesday, Friday, every month on the 15th, every month on the last, every other week (or day, month, year), every other Tuesday, every 2 weeks on Monday, Thursday (weeks start on Monday), every month on the second Tuesday or on the last Friday.
  • Deckard’s own, which Tasks does not read: every quarter, every 2 quarters, every weekend.
  • on the fifth Friday skips months without one. Any rule can end in when done. Any other rule completes the task with no next occurrence, and Deckard tells you so.
• The character in a task’s box is its status: [ ] to do, [/] in progress, [x] done, [-] cancelled, and any other character a status of its own. See Task statuses.

Who a task is for

A 👤 field says who a task is for. Mentioning someone does not make the task theirs:

- [ ] Chase the contractor @ren-kade 👤 @dana     <!-- Dana's task; Ren is mentioned -->
- [ ] Send the proposal [assignee:: #person/ren-kade]  <!-- Ren's task -->
- [ ] Write up what @dana said                    <!-- about Dana, nobody's task -->
- [ ] Book the room                               <!-- nobody's yet -->

• 👤 and [assignee:: …] are the same field in the two task metadata formats. 🧑 is read too.
• @dana and #person/dana are the same person, as in the people views.
• Search with assignee = @dana, assignee = none, is:assigned, or is:unassigned. is:mine finds tasks for you (set deckard.me, such as @ren-kade) plus tasks for nobody.
• On the Task board, group by Person. Drop a card on a person to set the field, or on Nobody named to clear it. In any grouping, a card’s ⋯ menu has For someone… (key f), which lists the people you write about.
• Add Task reads for @dana at the end, or @dana to … at the start, as who the task is for.
• The first search in a window that uses is:mine or is:waiting while deckard.me is empty says so, with the setting a click away.
• A person’s page lists what you owe them and what they owe you, in its Between you card.

Dataview format

- [ ] Send the proposal [due:: 2026-09-20] [scheduled:: 2026-09-18] [priority:: high] [repeat:: every week]

The fields are due, scheduled, start, created, completion, cancelled, priority, repeat, id, dependsOn, and Deckard’s own assignee, in square or round brackets. Other fields, such as [owner:: Ren], stay part of the title. Deckard writes dates in the format the task already uses; for a task with no metadata yet, deckard.tasks.metadataFormat chooses.

Editing a whole task

Deckard: Edit Task (on a task line) or Deckard: Add Task (elsewhere), on the same shortcut, opens the line’s fields, headed by the line as it will be written. A non-task line’s text becomes the description. Edit Task is also Edit task… on the lightbulb, and Edit task when you hover a task line, in a note. Add Task works from anywhere, and writes a new task where its Note row says; see Adding a task.

• Dates take plain words. An empty answer clears the date; unreadable words are refused.
• Assignee offers people your notes name or takes a new one (dana or @dana). Nobody removes it.
• Nothing is written until you choose Write the task. Escape leaves the line as it was.
• The line keeps its format (or deckard.tasks.metadataFormat), in the order Tasks writes it. A ^block-id, 🏁, and ➕ are kept.

Breaking a task into steps

A checkbox indented under a task is one of its steps:

- [ ] Plan the offsite 📅 2026-10-09
  - [x] Book the venue
  - [ ] Draft the email
  - [ ] Send the invite

Run Deckard: Break into Steps… from the lightbulb, the palette, or the editor’s Deckard submenu on a task line; a task’s right-click menu in the Tasks view; or a board card’s ⋯ menu (or s). Type a step and press Enter for each. Write adds them as - [ ] lines under the task, after any it already has, in one change, undone by the message’s Undo or Deckard: Undo Last Change. Escape writes nothing. With a VS Code language model, Suggest steps drafts a list; see Suggest steps.

• A heading, code block, or unindented paragraph ends the steps; a blank line does not. A checkbox under a plain bullet is its own task.
• is:step finds steps; has:steps finds tasks with them; -is:step leaves steps out of search pages.
• A task with steps shows Steps 2/5 done (40%) · next: Draft the email. In the editor, a lens above it draws the same with a bar, ███░░░░░░░ Steps 1/3 done (33%) · next: Draft the email; select it to go to the next open step. deckard.editor.stepProgress turns it off. On the Task board and in the Tasks view, steps ride on their task unless they have their own date, priority, person, or tag, or the task is done or not listed. In the Tasks view, a task with steps opens to them.
• Checking a task’s last open step offers Complete Task. Completing a task with open steps offers Complete Steps, with its own Undo. Toggle Task Done, bulk edits, and the assistant complete only what they are given.

Typing metadata

Type / after a space in a task to pick metadata:

• due today, due tomorrow, due in a week, and due on a date, with the same choices for scheduled and start dates;
• the five priorities, from highest priority to lowest priority;
• common repeat rules, or repeats on a rule to write your own;
• for @dana for each person your notes name often, and for a person to write one;
• task id, and depends on each open task’s id.

Keep typing to narrow the list, as in /prio or /every.

Dates in plain words

Every date box, including [[ day links and the last words of a new task, reads these words and shows the day it read, such as Monday 2026-09-28 · in 3 days. On Friday 2026-09-25:

• A numeric date such as 10/3 follows VS Code’s display language (month first in English, day first in German or French), unless only the other order is a real day, as 25/9. Numeric dates work only in a box, not in a search.
• In a search, a week or month is the whole span: due = next-week is every day of next week.

Task statuses

The character between a task’s brackets is its status, as in Obsidian Tasks:

- [ ] Draft the brief
- [/] Write the proposal
- [w] Hear back from legal
- [=] Sign the lease
- [x] Book the venue ✅ 2026-10-02
- [-] Print the flyers ❌ 2026-10-03

deckard.tasks.statuses lists them. Each status has a character, a name, a type, and, if you like, an icon. The list starts as:

• [ ] and [x] are always Todo and Done.
• [?] is a question unless your list gives ? to a status of its own. Then your status wins, and questions are off; Deckard’s log says so once.
• Any other character in a box is a task, as in Obsidian Tasks. One that no status names is a task to do called Unknown. The first scan that finds one says how many, once, with the setting a click away, and Stats keeps saying it. Add characters found in notes, on the page Edit Task Statuses… opens, names them.
• A status of the Not a task type leaves its lines as text, for a box that marks something other than a task, such as a pro or a con.
• [>] still marks a task moved elsewhere, and is not a task.
• A status is its character, and nothing else, as in Obsidian Tasks. A #status/doing tag is a tag like any other: it sets no status, is searched as a tag, and shows as one, so - [ ] Draft #status/doing is to do. A status with no character in the list is left out. Notes written with status tags move over with Move Status Tags into Checkboxes….
• Minimal and some other Obsidian themes draw [w] as something else, such as a win; a vault that uses it so imports its own list.

What a status means

• To do, in progress, and on hold are open. They count as open tasks, can be overdue or due today, and are listed in the Tasks view. A task on hold (Waiting, Someday, Blocked) is left out of is:available and the board’s Can start now.
• Done is completed, with its ✅ date.
• Cancelled is closed but not done. A cancelled task is left out of open counts, overdue, due today, the Tasks view, the calendar’s due and scheduled days, and rolling tasks forward. It counts on neither side of progress: a task’s steps, a tag’s progress, and a hierarchy’s bars. Stats shows a Cancelled tasks total when there are any, and Export Tasks as Calendar… marks a cancelled task’s event as cancelled.
• Search by status with is:in-progress, is:cancelled, is:closed, or status: and a name or character; see Query language.

Setting a status

• Checking a box marks the task done from any status, with its ✅ date and next occurrence. Unchecking a done or cancelled task reopens it as [ ]. With deckard.tasks.checkboxClick set to workflow, a click moves a task to its status’s next status instead, as Obsidian Tasks does.
• Deckard: Toggle Task Done always goes to done and back: an in-progress or cancelled task is completed too. It completes the tasks under every cursor, or reopens them when all are done, in one edit that one Undo takes back.
• Deckard: Set Task Status…, in the palette, the editor’s right-click menu, and a task’s right-click menu in the Tasks view, picks any status. The task editor’s Status row lists every status, and a bulk edit’s Set a status sets one on many tasks. The assistant’s tool for changing a task takes a status by name, or as its character, such as [/].
• Typing - [ in a note offers every status’s character.
• Every status is written as its character. Done and cancelled add ✅ or ❌ with the date.
• Done is a completion, however it is set: a 🔁 task writes its next occurrence. Cancelling a 🔁 task writes none, and its message offers Keep It Repeating, which writes it.

How statuses look

• On pages, an in-progress box is half filled, and a screen reader hears it as mixed. A cancelled box is checked and quiet, with its words struck through. An unknown character’s box is outlined, and Blocked shows ⊘ beside its box. Each box’s label names its status.
• Query blocks in the Markdown preview draw ◐ for in progress and ☒ for cancelled.
• In the editor, an in-progress box has its own color, the deckard.inProgressForeground theme color, and a cancelled task’s words are struck through. An unknown character’s box is underlined, and its hover says to name it in the Tasks: Statuses setting. The Markdown grammar marks a status character, so a color theme can color it.

Moving status tags into checkboxes

Deckard used to read a #status/… tag on an empty box as a status. It no longer does. Deckard: Move Status Tags into Checkboxes… writes each such tag as the character of the status it meant: - [ ] Draft #status/doing becomes - [/] Draft, and #status/waiting becomes [w].

• What each tag meant comes from your old settings, then Deckard’s own: todo is [ ], doing [/], waiting [w], someday [s], blocked [=].
• A tag the box already says, such as - [x] Ship #status/doing, is removed.
• Open tasks tagged #status/done are checked off only if you say so when it asks.
• A tag no status has a character for, such as #status/review, stays. Give It a Character, after the move, opens Edit Task Statuses on a new status of its name.
• Query blocks that name a status tag search by the status instead, status:in-progress for #status/doing, in the same preview. Saved searches and Home’s widgets follow when you say so.
• Every change shows in groups in the refactor preview, and is one change Undo takes back.

While task lines still carry such tags, the Task board and the Tasks view say how many, and a scan says so once in each workspace, with Preview the Move and Later. The old board settings move once: deckard.board.statuses’ order becomes the board’s column order, deckard.board.showCancelled shows Cancelled, and deckard.board.limits keys such as doing become in-progress.

Import from Obsidian Tasks, on the page Edit Task Statuses… opens, reads .obsidian/plugins/obsidian-tasks-plugin/data.json and writes the vault’s statuses to the workspace’s deckard.tasks.statuses, with Waiting [w] and Someday [s] added when the vault has no status of either name or character. In an Obsidian vault with statuses of its own, when the workspace names none, the first scan offers it, once.

Editing the statuses

Deckard: Edit Task Statuses… opens a page to edit the list.

• Each row has a character, a name, a type, and an icon. Todo and Done are locked.
• Checking a box chooses what a click does. With a click moving a task to its next status, each row has a Next too, and Where a click leads shows each step.
• Add a status adds a row, and Add characters found in notes adds one for each unknown character, with how many tasks use it. Deckard’s own and Obsidian’s core start from those lists, and Import from Obsidian Tasks from the vault’s. Revert goes back to what is saved.
• The page checks as you type: a character given twice, a missing name or character, a status named Open or Any, and, with a click moving to the next status, a next character no status has, or Done not followed by to do or in progress.
• Save writes to the workspace’s settings when they set the list, and to your user settings otherwise.
• Renaming a status offers to rename it in saved searches, Home widgets, and query blocks that search by it.

Questions

A line written - [?] is a question. It is not a task: it is never on the Task Board, in a task count, is:open, the Tasks view, or the status bar.

- [?] Who approves access to the bond UAT? #team/rates
    - Answer: Priya Natarajan, via the RATES-UAT group [[2026-10-14#Access]] (2026-10-14)

• A question carries its own tags and people, and those of the heading or front matter it is under, as a task does.
• It is answered when an indented line under it starts with Answer:, in any case. Its box stays [?].
• Search with is:question, is:unanswered, and is:answered, in Find, search pages, query blocks, saved searches, and review sections; see Query language.

An answer offered

When a later line may answer an open question, Deckard offers it. A line is offered when it was written on or after the day the question was asked, shares at least three of the question’s uncommon words, and, when the question carries a tag or names a person, shares one of those too. Words every note uses, such as today and meeting, count for little. A question that names a typed row and one of its fields, such as - [?] Who leads #team/fx?, is offered the field’s value, from the note that holds it.

• Use as answer writes the offered line’s words under the question, with a link to it and today’s date.
• Not it sets that line aside for that question, for good.
• Only the best offer for each question is shown.

Questions view

The Questions view in the Deckard sidebar, under Tasks, lists each open question, oldest first, with how long it has been open and its first tag. Its badge counts them. Selecting a question opens its line. A question a line may answer has that line under it, May answer: Wed, Oct 14 · Access, with Use as answer and Not it beside it.

• Answer Question…, on a question’s row, asks for the answer: type it, or pick the line offered, which writes its words and a link to it.
• Drop Question, on a question’s right-click menu, writes its box as [-], which makes it a cancelled task.
• The title bar’s Include Answered Questions lists the answered ones after them, and Open as Search opens the search page for is:unanswered, as Open questions in Go to… does.

In Find

When Find finds nothing that has every word, it offers Ask it in today’s note, which writes your words as a question in today’s note: first when nothing has any of them, else after the line that says the results have only some. Open questions that match what you type are listed among the results with a ?.

On a tag’s page

A tag’s or a person’s search page has a Questions tab beside Notes and Tasks when questions carry the tag or name the person, each with Answer… while it is open. A person’s Between you card lists the open questions that name them under To ask Sam, and a tag’s Since you last looked band counts the questions answered since your last visit. Its Story marks each question ?, with its answer under it.

On Home

Home’s Open questions widget, which Customize Home adds, lists the same questions with the same buttons; its title opens the Questions view. Under Zen, its buttons stay quiet until you point at a question.

In the editor

Above an open question, a lens says Question · open 12 days, then, when a line may answer it, 1 line may answer it: Wed, Oct 14 · Access, which opens that line, then Answer… and Drop. Above an answered one it says Question · answered Fri, Oct 9. Under Zen the lens keeps the age and the line that may answer, and leaves out Answer… and Drop. deckard.editor.questions turns the lens off.

Tasks view

Open Tasks from the Deckard Activity Bar to see open tasks grouped by when they are wanted. Parked tasks are left out unless deckard.tasks.viewQuery says is:parked.

• Overdue: past due, most recently slipped first, five at a time with Show 12 more for the rest.
• Today: due today, or scheduled for today or earlier and started, most important first.
• Upcoming: due, scheduled, or starting in the next seven days, one group per day. Drop a task on a day to make it due then.
• Later (dated tasks past that) and No date start folded.
• Done today: finished today, by ✅ date. Uncheck to reopen; drop a task here to complete it.
• Needs a new date: more than 30 days past due, left out of Overdue, the badge, and the status bar. Date them with the calendar button or Reschedule All…. deckard.tasks.needsNewDateAfterDays sets the days; 0 turns this off. is:overdue still finds them.

What it lists. Set deckard.tasks.viewQuery to any query, such as is:mine, #project/atlas, or has:due OR has:scheduled OR has:start. Home’s agenda widget and the status bar count the same list. Edit What the Tasks View Lists…, in the title’s ⋯ menu, opens the search on the Task board: change it there, then select Save to Tasks view, which keeps what the box shows. List in Tasks view, in the board’s gear, makes the view list any board’s search. Show every open task or Clear the Tasks View’s Search (in the same ⋯ menu and the palette) clears it.

Group by, in the title beside Open Task Board, chooses Due status (the groups above), Priority, Status, Person, or Tag namespace…; the view keeps your choice. Sort Tasks By…, in the title’s ⋯ menu, orders each group: Rank (the default), Most urgent, Newest created, Oldest created, Recently updated, Least recently updated, A-Z, or Z-A; the view keeps that too. A tie keeps the group’s own order, by date or priority.

• Tag namespace groups by tags in one namespace, such as #project/…, busiest first, No project last. Inherited tags count. The namespace is kept with the workspace.
• Priority runs highest to lowest, No priority last.
• Status groups by status, in the order of the Task board’s status columns, hidden ones too, and a group per character no status names, such as Unknown [!], after them. Dropping a task on a group writes its status the way the board does.
• Person groups by who each task is for, Nobody named last.

Working with tasks:

• Select a task to open its line. blocked by … shows while a ⛔ task is open.
• Drag a task onto another to rank it, as on the Task board. Ranked tasks lead their group. This writes nothing to your notes, and works while the view is sorted by Rank; under another sort, Deckard offers to switch.
• Drag a task onto a group to write that priority, status, due date (Today), tag, or person into it. Overdue, Later, and Needs a new date take no drops.
• Check a task’s box to complete it, with its ✅ date and next occurrence.
• Right-click to make it due today, tomorrow, next Monday, or a date in plain words; to edit it (also the pencil); to break it into steps; or for Move to…, which moves it with its steps under another heading, into today’s note, or into a new note, leaving a link; see Moving lines and tasks. Select several to act on them together, as one write, previewed and undone.
• Snooze Until… puts a task off; see Snoozing a task.
• Reschedule All… on a group, the calendar button beside Overdue, or Deckard: Reschedule Overdue Tasks… dates many tasks at once. Each day shows how full it is, such as Fri 2026-09-25 · 3 due · 1 scheduled. For several tasks it also offers:
  • Spread over the next 5 days: the next five weekdays, oldest due first (17 tasks become 4, 4, 3, 3, 3).
  • 3 for today, the rest next week, for four or more: the three most important stay today; the rest move to next Monday.
• The badge counts tasks overdue or due today.

Most urgent

Most urgent, a sort in the Tasks view, on the Task board, on Home’s task widgets, and as sort=urgency in a query block, puts first what most needs doing now. Loosely after Taskwarrior’s urgency, each open task gets a score:

A tie goes to the sooner due date, then the higher priority. Done and cancelled tasks come after every open one. A saved search keeps its search, not a sort: it opens under the sort its page has.

Snoozing a task

A task you cannot do yet can wait for a day without a due date it does not have. Snooze Until… writes the day as its start date, 🛫, or [start:: …] on a Dataview-format line:

• Tomorrow.
• Next week: next week’s Monday, as next week reads in a date box, with weeks as deckard.calendar.weekStart draws them.
• Pick a date…: a day in plain words.

Each row shows its day. A message says when the task starts, “Call Ren” starts Mon 2026-11-02., with Undo; when it is due before then, it adds that it is still due, since a snooze moves no due date. Snoozing it again moves the start date.

• Where: Deckard: Snooze Task Until… on the task at the cursor, from the palette or the editor’s right-click menu; Snooze Until… on a task’s right-click menu in the Tasks view, for the tasks selected too, as one write; and Snooze until… in a Task board card’s or table row’s ⋯ menu, or z on a focused card.
• Until it starts: the Tasks view keeps a task that has not started out of Today, and lists it under Upcoming or Later by its start date, starts Mon 2026-11-02. Turn on deckard.tasks.hideNotStarted to leave it out of the Tasks view, Home’s agenda, the status bar’s count, and the Task Board until that day. A search that names start dates, such as has:start or start > today, still finds it.

Status bar and reminders

The status bar shows 3 due today, or 1 overdue, 3 due today in the warning color, counting the Tasks view’s Overdue and Today groups. It is hidden while nothing is due. Select it to open the view; hover for the first few overdue tasks, how many need a new date, and how many were done today. Tasks more than deckard.tasks.needsNewDateAfterDays (30) days overdue are not counted. Right-click the status bar to hide it, as any status bar item.

• Reminder. Set deckard.taskReminderTime to a time such as 09:00 to see what is due once a day, or when VS Code next opens that day. It offers Open Tasks View, Reschedule Overdue…, and Turn Off Reminders. Empty by default.
• Word count. While a note is open: 412 words · 2 min, or 38 of 412 words with a selection. Front matter, code, comments, link addresses, and task metadata are not counted; minutes are at 238 words a minute. Right-click the status bar to hide it.

Adding a task

Run Deckard: Add Task from anywhere: Cmd+Shift+Alt+N on macOS, Ctrl+Shift+Alt+N elsewhere. It opens the task editor on a new task, titled with where the task will go, such as Add a task to 2026-10-06.md. Nothing is written until you choose Write the task. Then a message says where it went, such as Added it to notes/2026-10-06.md in deckard-work, with Open; in the note you are in, the status bar says it.

• Note, the first row, is where the task goes. In a Markdown note, it is that note, at the cursor: a blank line becomes the task, a line of plain words becomes the task with those words, and on a task the new one goes on the line below. With no note open, or another kind of file, it is today’s daily note, created from your template if needed, with the task after its last list item or text. Choose the row for This note, Today’s note, the hub the words name, Another note… (the notes changed last first), or Under a heading…, which picks a heading in any note, starting with the five used last, and writes the task under the heading’s own lines, above any nested heading.
• Into a hub. A tag in the Description that a hub note describes sends the task to the hub: Call Ren #project/atlas fri goes into Atlas.md without opening it. It goes under the hub’s first heading named Tasks, else after its last list item or text, and the tag is left off the line where the hub carries it, as it does through describes:. A short tag names the one hub whose tag ends with it, #atlas for #project/atlas, when no tag #atlas is written. The title and Note row name the hub, Atlas.md · hub of #project/atlas, the line under the box says Goes to Atlas.md, and the Note row offers the hub beside the other places. Once you choose a place on the Note row, it stays chosen, and a short tag is written in full there. In the hub itself, or at a cursor under a heading with the tag, the task stays at the cursor. Add a tag lists the tags with a hub note first, as Hub: Atlas.md.
• Quick add. Words at the end of the Description fill the task’s fields, in any order: a day (today, friday, next monday, in 3 days, oct 3; or after on, by, or due, a short day such as fri, +2w, a date, or 10/3), a priority (p1 to p4, or !!!, !!, !), a repeat rule (every week, daily), and who it is for (for @dana). @dana to … at the start hands the task to Dana too; a person mentioned anywhere else stays a mention. Call Ren friday p2 becomes - [ ] Call Ren ⏫ 📅 2026-10-02, and the box says what it read as you type. Keep the words as written, the button in the box’s title, reads nothing.
• From a selection. Select up to 120 characters on one line and Add Task starts from them. Written into another note, the task links back to the heading they were under: - [ ] Call Ren [[2026-09-22#Weekly review]] 📅 2026-10-02. In the note they were selected in, it goes on the line below them.
• On the Task board, Add task in the search bar runs Add Task, and a column’s + starts it with that column’s status, priority, date, person, or tag.
• Find offers Add to today’s note for words that match nothing, read as Quick add reads it.
• Unsaved changes in an open note are kept. A task written into another note saves it; one written into the note you are in waits for you to save it, as your own typing does.

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