✏️ Girok - The most powerful CLI task manager

Who said you cannot have a beautiful UI on terminal?

(p.s. No one said it to me)

💥 Introduction

Girok, which means "to record" in Korean, is a powerful terminal-based task manager which provides a multitude of scheduling operations that can be done in less than 10 seconds. It also supports beautiful and responsive calendar GUI in which you can move around with VIM key bindings.

💫 Highlighted Features

• Infinite recursive sub-categories with automatic assigned colors
• A beautiful and responsive calendar TUI(Termina User Interface)
• Add/Query a task super fast with a variety of date options

💬 Remarks

Girok works fluently with MacOS and Linux users. It also works with Windows but some features and UIs might break.

If you find it useful, consider supporting to help the development process! As I'm running the server with my own expense now, your help will make the service much more stable and fast!

If you want to see the server source code, go to girokserver.

🤖 Version 0.2.5 is released now!

Upgrade with pip install girok --upgrade

📖 Table of Contents

• 🚀 Installation
• 🔥 Get Started !
  • 🪟 0. Fancier UI
    • Contribute your background image!
  • 🙏 1. help command
  • 🔒 2. Registration
  • 🔓 3. Login / Logout
  • 📚 4. Category commands
    • 4.1. colors
    • 4.2. showcat
    • 4.3. addcat
    • 4.4. mvcat
    • 4.5. rmcat
    • 4.6. rncat
  • 📕 5. Task Commands
    • 5.1. addtask
    • 5.2. showtask
    • 5.3. done
    • 5.4. uptask
  • 📅 6. Calendar Commands
    • 6.1 Calendar Key Bindings
    • 6.2 Calendar Demonstrations
• 🚒 Report Bugs
• 😭 Uninstall
• 💌 Contributions

🚀 Installation

Girok supports all operating systems including Linux, MacOS, Windows.

However, it works well on Unix-based shells such as bash, zsh, fish, wsl, etc.

Some shells like powershell might break some UIs.

Make sure you have Python >=3.9 version installed.

To install,

pip install girok

Now you have installed girok on your machine. To make sure that it works, enter the following.

girok --help

Now, let's dive into Girok!

🔥 Get Started

🪟 0. Fancier UI

If you're a mac user (or other device supporting terminal transparency), enhance your UI by setting up a (dark theme) background for your mac desktop and make it transparent!

My settings are

1. 54 % transparency
2. 20 % opacity

The photo used in the demo: dark-chinese-door

If you're an ITerm 2 user, for some weird reasons, the calendar doesn't apply the transparency. Please let me know if anyone figures this out to make it transparent for ITerm2! Please use the default mac terminal to see the change for the calendar.

If you have overflowing icons in the background, it looks bad. To hide the background icons(not deleting), enter the following command.

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool false

killall Finder

To get back the icons, enter

defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool true; killall Finder

As I just found out about this transparency (and I'm lazy), I'll leave the below demonstrations as before. I'll update later.. :)

Contribute your favorite background images!

If you think your background image is awesome, you can contribute by sharing it with other people! Please visit the detailed guide.

🙏 1. Help command

In order to see all the commands of Girok, enter girok --help in your terminal.

In order to see the details of each command, enter the following in your terminal.

girok <command> --help

For example, if you enter

girok addtask --help

then you'll see the following help message

🔒 2. Registration

To register a new account enter the following in your terminal.

girok register

1. Enter your email address to receive the verificaiton code
2. Check your email inbox and enter the verification code. If you can't find it, check junk email.
3. Finally enter your password to register. Note that password must be at least 7 characters long and contain at least one lowercase, one uppercase, and one special character (@, #, $, %, *, !)

[WARNING] Girok doesn't require you to enter your email service's password. You can type any password as input.

Congratulations! Now let's go ahead and login to our account.

🔓 3. Login and Logout

In order to login,

girok login

Now you're ready to use all the features!

📚 4. Category Commands

You can pre-define categories such as School, Life and Career with automatically assigned category color.

Girok supports infinite recursive subcategories. All the subcategories will be assigned with the color of its topmost parent category.

Later on, you can link tasks to these categories.

4.1 colors command

You can check out all the category colors with,

girok colors

You can manually assign or update category color with the pre-defined color names.

4.2 showcat command

In order to see all the categories you have created, enter the following command.

girok showcat

4.3 addcat command

addtask command takes a single argument category full path.

In order to add a new category, enter the following command.

girok addcat <target path>

The <target path> is the full path including the new category name. For example, if you want to add a topmost category named Career, then enter

girok addcat Career

Then, you'll see the category tree with the newly created category being highlighted.

In order to nest a sub-category under a previously defined category, pass the FULL PATH starting from the topmost category delimited by /, ending with the new category name.

For example, if you want to create a new category named Resume under the previously created Career category, enter the following command.

girok addcat Career/Resume

Then, you'll see Resume is created under Career.

In this way, you can create as many categories and sub-categories as you want!

4.4 mvcat command

Now you might want to move a category under another category.

In order to move a category A (recursively all its sub-categories) under category B, enter the following command.

girok mvcat <full path of A> <full path of B>

For example, if you want to move the whole Career category under Dev/Network (for some weird reason), enter the following command.

girok mvcat Career Dev/Network

If you want to move a category to the root category, then pass / as the second argument. Let's move Dev/Network/Career back to the topmost category.

girok mvcat Dev/Network/Career /

4.5 rmcat command

Of course, you want to delete a category. In that case, enter the following command.

girok rmcat <full path of category>

Let's add a dummy category named Dummy under Dev then remove it.

As you already know, enter

girok addcat Career/Dummy

Now, let's delete it with the following command.

[WARNING] If you delete a category, all its sub-categories and tasks will be DELETED. I'll consider adding an option for users to preserve all the orphan tasks in the future. Please let me know in the issue if you need this feature!

girok rmcat Career/Dummy

Then, you'll be asked to confirm the deletion. Enter y.

4.6 upcat command

You can update category information by

girok upcat -c <color> -n <name>

Note that the color must be one of the pre-defined colors from girok colors command.

Great job! Now let's move on to the task commands.

📕 5. Task commands

Girok provides powerful task scheduling operations. You can perform different operations that would've taken a long time in other schedulers like Notion and Google Calendar in less than 10 seconds.

5.1 addtask command

girok addtask <task name> [One of deadline date options] [-c | --category <category path>] [-p | --priority <priority>] [-t | --time <deadline time>] [-T | --tag <tag name>]

girok addtask <task name> -d <start date option>

5.1.1 addtask rules

1. <task name> (Argument / Required)
   • If the task name has no space you can omit double quotes "". If it does, enclose it double quotes ""
2. -d | --date <date>@<time> (Option / Required)
   • Start date and time (or deadline if end date is not present)
   • ex) -d 5/18@17:50, -d 2025/8/15, -d tmr@17:30, ...
   • The datetime value consists of <date> and <time>, concatenated by @. The time portion can be ommitted.
   • Allowed <date> values
     1. Explicit date: -d 2024/5/19
        • Specify an exact date delimited by /. You can enter the full date in the form of yyyy/mm/dd. Or, you can omit the year like mm/dd then the deadline year will be set to the current year.
        • You don't have to enter the exact form filled with 0s. If the month is May, then just enter 5/23 or 05/23.
     2. This week: -d t1
        • Sometimes, you're not aware of the exact date. If the date is some weekday of this week, you can just pass t{1-7} referrting to this monday to this sunday (monday indexed as 1).
        • For example, if the deadline is this friday, enter girok addtask "dummy" -d t5
     3. Next week: -d n1
        • Similar to the above but referring to next week.
     4. After N days: -d a10
        • Sometimes, you process the deadline in your mind like "it's due 5 days later".
        • In this case, pass the number of days a task is due after.
        • For example, if the deadline is 5 days later, enter girok addtask "dummy" -d a5
     5. Today: -d tdy|today
     6. Tomorrow: -d tmr|tomorrow
   • Allowed <time> format
     • ex) 07:50, 23:59
     • You can also set the specific deadline time.
     • You must provide the full time format in 24 hour scale such as 07:23 or 21:59.
   • In summary, if you want to specify the full date as well as the time, you can do so by girok addtask "Submit assignment" -d tmr@23:59
3. -e | --end <date>@<time> (Option, Optional)
   • If your task is spanning on multiple days, you can also specify the end date
   • The format is the same as -d option.
4. -r | --repetition <daily | weekly | monthly | yearly> (Option / Optional)
   • You can also specify a recurring task using -r option.
   • The repetition type must be one of daily, weekly, monthly, yearly.
   • Only single-day task can be recurring. Recall that we have two datetime options: -d, -e and each consists of "date" and "time". Let's define them start date, start time, end date, end time. Then, only the following combinations(single-day task) are allowed for repetition.
     1. start date only
     2. start date, start time only
     3. start date, start time, end date, end time only, and start date == end date
   • The start day of the recurring event is automatically set to the start date you specified with -d option.
5. -c | --category <category full path> (Option / Optional)
   • Your tasks might belong to a specific category you have previously defined.
   • Provide the full category path.
   • For example, if your task belongs to Career/Resume, then enter girok addtask "dummy task 1" -d tmr -c Career/Resume.
   • If you specify a category, then the task color will be automatically linked to that category's color.
   • If no category is provided, the task will belong to No Category category.
6. -p | --priority <low | medium | high> (Option, Optional)
   • You can set the priority of a task so that you can filter out by priority when you query your tasks.
   • For example, to set the priority of a task as low, enter girok addtask "dummy task 1" -d tmr -p low.
7. -t | --tag <tag name> (Option, Optional)
   • You can set the tag of a task such as assignment and meeting. With tags, you can more efficiently query your tasks with different types.
   • Unlike category, tag doesn't allow nested tags and you don't have to pre-define them.
   • For example, if you want to set the tag of a task as assignment, enter girok addtask "assignment 4" -d 4/24 -t assignment
8. -m | --memo <memo>
   • You can also add a memo for your task with -m option
   • ex) girok addtask "Meeting with Jason" -d tmr -m "don't forget to prepare the documents"

In summary, keep the following rules in mind.

1. Always provide task name and -d option.
2. Although not required, it's better to provide category to manage your tasks more effectively.
3. Other options are up to you.

For example, the following command is a typical command that I use on everyday basis.

girok addtask "Implement tag filtering feature" -c Dev/Girok -d n3 -p high

It looks quite complicated, but you'll get used to it quickly after playing out a little bit.

5.1.2 addtask demonstration

Now let's play around with addtask command.

Suppose our category list is

In the demonstration, I will add several tasks and show how it works.

Let's add a task named go over resume again whose category is Career/Resume and I will do it by next thursday. This is a quite important task, so I will assign the priority high.

girok addtask "go over resume again" -c Career/Resume -d n4 -p high

Now I'll add another task named Midterm exam with the category HKU/COMP3234 and it's a 3-day exam from 4/18 09:30 AM to 4/20 10:00. Let's also add exam tag and memo.

girok addtask "Midterm exam" -c HKU/COMP3234 -d 4/18@09:30 -e 4/20@10:00 -t exam -m "Do not forget to bring cheatsheet"

Lastly, I'll add a task named Gym day and I will go every day at 7 AM in the morning.

girok addtask "Gym day" -d tmr@07:00 -r daily

5.2 showtask command.

girok showtask [--tree] Deadline date options] [-c | --category <category path>] [-p | --priority <priority>] [-T | --tag <tag name>]

Girok provides powerful commands to effectively query your schedule with many different options. You can filter tasks by category, priority, deadline, and tag.

5.2.1 Table view vs Tree view

You can type girok showtask command with no parameter. The default view of the command is table view.

Note that I've added some more tasks to make the visualization rich.

girok showtask

By default, all tasks will be shown in a nice table format.

If you want to view your tasks in a tree view, then provide --tree flag.

girok showtask --tree

5.2.2 Filter by date options

You can query your tasks filtering by many different date options. Notice that all the options for showtask command are optional.

1. -e | --exact <date format from addtask -d option>
   • To view tasks due to a specific day, provide the exact date after the flag
2. -d | --day <# days>
   • To view tasks due within n days, provide the number of days n after the flag
3. -w | --week <# days>
   • To view tasks due within n weeks, provide the number of weeks n after the flag
4. -m | --month <# days>
   • To view tasks due within n months, provide the number of months n after the flag
5. --tdy
   • To view tasks due today.
6. --tmr
   • To view tasks due within tomorrow (today && tomorrow)
7. --tw, --nw
   • To view tasks due within this week and next week, respectively
8. --tm, --nm
   • To view tasks due within this month and next month, respectively
9. -u | --urgent
   • To view urgent tasks that are within 3 days by default

5.2.3 Filter by category

To query tasks under a specific category, use the following command,

girok showtask [-c | --category] <category path>

For example, to query tasks only for the HKU category. Enter the following command.

girok showtask -c HKU

or

girok showtask -c HKU --tree # tree view

5.2.4 Filter by priority

girok showtask [-p | --priority] <low | medium | high>

To view tasks with a specific priority, provide -p option followed by the priority number between 1 and 5.

For example, to view tasks with priority 5, enter the following command

girok showtask -p 5

5.2.5 Filter by tag

girok showtask [-t | --tag] <tag name>

5.3 done command

To complete(delete) a task, provide the done command followed by the task ID.

Optionally, you can pass -y or --yes flag if you don't want to see the confirmation message.

girok done <task ID> [-y | --yes]

[IMPORTANT] The TASK ID is the IDs you can see when you perform showtask operations. Note that the ONLY the Task IDs of the LATEST showtask operation are valid. In other words, if you consecutively type girok showtask and girok showtask -p 5 but try to delete a task with the task IDs shown in the table of the first girok showtask command, you might delete an unexpected task!!

For example, suppose you enter girok showtask command.

If you completed the task Hangout with Jason, provide the task ID at the leftmost column.

girok done 3

5.4 uptask command

You can update task information with giork uptask command.

girok chdate <taskID> -n <name> -d <start datetime> -e <end datetime> -r <repetition type> -c <category> -t <tag> -p <priority> -m <memo>

Note that the start and end datetime format are the same as the one from -d option of addtask command.

📅 6. Calendar Commands

The beauty of Girok is the beautiful and responsive full calendar GUI.

To fire up the calendar, enter the following command

girok cal

Then you'll be prompted to the calendar GUI.

girokcal offers a beautiful but minimalistic GUI in which you can move around with (not exactly same but similar) VIM key bindings.

Notice that all the categories and tags we have created so far are linked to the sidebar.

6.1 Calendar Key Bindings

Upon girok cal command, the starting "focus" is the category tree.

• Select a category/tag
  • o - select the current category/tag
• Move inside category tree or tag tree
  • j - down
  • k - up
• Move from category tree to tag tree
  • ctrl + j
• Move from tag tree to *_category tree
  • ctrl + k
• Moving from category tree or tag tree to calendar
  • e
• Moving from calendar to back sidebar (to category tree by default)
  • w
• Move inside the calendar
  • h - left
  • j - down
  • k - up
  • l - right
• Select a calendar cell (day) to view details
  • o - select the currently focused calendar cell
• Next month
  • i
• Previous month
  • u
• Direct to the current month
  • y
• Toggle side bar
  • f
• Close calendar
  • q

6.2 Calendar Demonstrations

When you click on a category, then the category title will change accordingly at the left-bottom corner of the calendar. All the tasks belonging to the selected category will be shown.

Let's select HKU category by pressing alphabet o key.

Notice that only the tasks with the yellow dots (HKU category color) are shown.

Now let's select All Categories and change our focus from the category tree to the tag tree by pressing ctrl+j key. Then, select exam tag.

Yay! I don't have any exams this month.

But.. do I have exams next month? To check it out, let's press i to move to the next month.

Lastly, let's press f to close the sidebar to have make the calendar bigger.

Great job! Now, it's time to explore all the features of Girok on your own!!

🚒 Report Bugs

The first version of Girok was released just a couple days ago so you might encounter some bugs and errors.

If so, I'd greatly appreciate if you report them as raising issues then I will respond and update as soon as possible!!

😭 Uninstall

I'm sorry that there's no way to uninstall this package.

Just kidding. Enter pip uninstall girok in your terminal. Bye..😢

💌 Contribute to the project

• If you have any new features that would make your life easier, please don't hesitate to raise issues.

• If you wish to contribute to the project as a programmer, please first open an issue with the feature tag (title prefixed with [Feat] description) describing your suggested features. After getting approval from the maintainer, you can drop pull requests and I will review each of them carefully.