Command Line Task Tracker

A lightweight, file-based task management system that runs directly from your command line. This simple yet powerful tool helps you organize your tasks without any external dependencies or complicated setup.

Features

• ✅ Add, update, and delete tasks
• ⏳ Mark tasks as "in progress" or "done"
• 📋 List all tasks or filter by status
• 💾 Persistent storage using JSON
• 🛠️ No external dependencies
• 🔒 Error handling and validation built-in

Installation

No installation required beyond Python! Simply download the script and you're ready to go.

# Clone this repository
git clone https://github.com/username/task-tracker.git

# Navigate to the repository directory
cd task-tracker

# Run the script (examples below)
python task_tracker.py add "My first task"

Requirements

• Python 3.6+
• No external libraries required

Usage Examples

Adding a task

python task_tracker.py add "Complete project proposal"
# Output: Task 'Complete project proposal' added with ID 1.

Updating a task

python task_tracker.py update 1 "Revised project proposal"
# Output: Task 1 updated.

Marking a task as in progress

python task_tracker.py progress 1
# Output: Task 1 marked as in_progress.

Marking a task as done

python task_tracker.py done 1
# Output: Task 1 marked as done.

Deleting a task

python task_tracker.py delete 1
# Output: Task 1 deleted.

Listing tasks

List all tasks:

python task_tracker.py list

List only completed tasks:

python task_tracker.py list --done

List only todo tasks:

python task_tracker.py list --todo

List only in-progress tasks:

python task_tracker.py list --progress

Command Reference

Command	Description	Format
add	Create a new task	add "Task title"
update	Update an existing task	update <id> "New title"
delete	Remove a task	delete <id>
progress	Mark task as in progress	progress <id>
done	Mark task as completed	done <id>
list	Show all tasks	list [--all/--done/--todo/--progress]

Sample Output

When listing tasks, you'll see output similar to:

ID | Status | Title
--------------------------------------------------
1 | todo | Write documentation
2 | in progress | Implement error handling
3 | done | Create basic structure

Data Storage

All tasks are stored in a tasks.json file in the same directory as the script. Each task contains:

• Unique ID
• Title
• Status (todo, in_progress, done)
• Creation timestamp
• Last update timestamp

Example structure:

[
  {
    "id": 1,
    "title": "Complete project proposal",
    "status": "done",
    "created_at": "2025-02-25T15:30:45.123456",
    "updated_at": "2025-02-25T16:45:12.654321"
  }
]

Error Handling

The application includes robust error handling for:

• File I/O operations
• Invalid task IDs
• Empty task titles
• Corrupted JSON data
• Excessive title length

Extending the Application

This task tracker is designed to be simple but extensible. Some ideas for expansion:

• Add due dates
• Task priorities
• Task categories/tags
• Data export functionality
• Interactive mode

License

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2025 Eric Peltzman