taskpad

README

taskpad

Why? I need my own solution for customized note taking, tracking, etc. I want it to be self-hostable. I want it to be secure and and private. I don't trust third-party sources.

Wishlist

1. add a note from cmdline
2. add a todo from cmdline
3. android app extension for mobile support
4. single source of truth (the webserver)
5. allow for easy backups of notes
6. streamlined parsing of web sources

Install

go install github.com/ryanvillarreal/taskpad@latest

How it works

Notes are plain markdown files on disk — one per day, named MM.DD.YYYY.md. Each file carries YAML frontmatter (id, timestamps, tags) so it stays compatible with Obsidian and other markdown tools.

The binary is both client and server. Run taskpad serve in one terminal; use taskpad note, taskpad ls, taskpad rm, and taskpad config from another. If the server isn't running, client commands fall back to direct filesystem access automatically.

Commands

Global flags: -v / --verbose to enable debug logging.

Serve

./taskpad serve

Starts the HTTP API. Port, host, TLS cert paths, and notes directory are all read from the config file.

Notes

./taskpad note                  # edit today's note in $EDITOR
./taskpad note 4.16.2026        # edit a specific note (errors if missing)
./taskpad note 4.16.26          # short-year form works too
./taskpad note 01.01.2030 --new # create/edit a note at that date
./taskpad ls                    # list all notes, newest first
./taskpad rm 4.16.2026          # delete a note

Editor resolution: $VISUAL → $EDITOR → vi.

Config

./taskpad config                # open the config file in $EDITOR

Config lives at $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/taskpad/config.json (typically ~/.config/taskpad/config.json). Notes default to $XDG_DATA_HOME/taskpad/notes/ (typically ~/.local/share/taskpad/notes/).

API

GET    /health
GET    /notes                  # { "count": N }
GET    /notes/{id}             # raw markdown (full file, frontmatter included)
POST   /notes/{id}             # body is raw markdown; creates or merges
DELETE /notes/{id}             # 204 on success, 404 if missing

Example:

curl http://localhost:8080/notes/04.16.2026
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/notes/04.16.2026 \
    --data-binary @today.md
curl -X DELETE http://localhost:8080/notes/04.16.2026

Planned

./taskpad auth login
./taskpad auth api {key}
./taskpad todo add -c 'quick todo'
./taskpad todo today
./taskpad todo list
./taskpad note search -c "grep-ish"