Obsidian Task Center

Obsidian Task Center — CLI skill

This skill is the AI interface to the obsidian-task-center plugin. The plugin registers its verbs to Obsidian's native CLI (1.12.2+), so calls go obsidian task-center:<verb> key=value ….

For a full command index, run:

obsidian task-center

Data stays inline markdown. Syntax:

- [ ] Title #2象限 📅 2026-05-15 ⏳ 2026-04-24 ➕ 2026-04-23 [estimate:: 90m] [actual:: 75m]

When to use this skill

• "list today's tasks" / "what do I have scheduled" → task-center:list
• "show task details" / "pull the raw line" → task-center:show
• "schedule X" / "move X to tomorrow" → task-center:schedule
• "mark X done" / "I finished X" → task-center:done
• "drop X" / "abandon X" / "remove X" → task-center:abandon
• "nest X under Y" / "make X a subtask of Y" → task-center:nest
• "log time on X" / "I spent 45m on X" → task-center:actual
• "add a task" / "remind me to …" → task-center:add
• "how accurate were my estimates" / "weekly review" → task-center:stats
• "what should I do next" / "brief me on today" → task-center:brief
• "end-of-day review" / "what happened this week" → task-center:review
• "list/manage/edit query tabs" / "show saved query DSL" / "run a preset view" → task-center:query-list / task-center:query-show / task-center:query-run
• "create/update/rename/copy/hide/delete/default a query tab" → task-center:query-create / task-center:query-update / task-center:query-rename / task-center:query-copy / task-center:query-hide / task-center:query-delete / task-center:query-set-default

Do not use Read/Write directly on task files to mutate tasks — use the CLI so vault.process locking + parser conventions are respected. Reading files is fine when you want broader context (the task body, surrounding notes).

Before calling any verb

Verify the plugin is loaded:

obsidian plugins:enabled | grep task-center

If missing, ask the user to enable it. If Obsidian isn't running, the CLI will auto-launch (first call incurs latency).

If obsidian task-center works but a specific verb is missing, the vault is running an older plugin build. Ask the user to update/reload Task Center before using that verb.

Verbs

task-center:list [filters]

Read-only. Returns tasks matching all filters. Every row starts with <path>:L<line> as the id — safe to pipe.

obsidian task-center:list scheduled=today
obsidian task-center:list scheduled=unscheduled tag='#2象限'
obsidian task-center:list done=2026-04-01..2026-04-30
obsidian task-center:list overdue
obsidian task-center:list status=todo search=示例

scheduled= / done= vocabulary:

• today / tomorrow / yesterday
• week (this week) / next-week
• month / next-month
• unscheduled (only meaningful with scheduled=)
• ISO YYYY-MM-DD
• range YYYY-MM-DD..YYYY-MM-DD

Other flags: overdue, has-deadline, status=todo|done|dropped, tag=<comma-sep> (supports #*象限), parent=<id>, search=<text>, limit=N, format=text|json (JSON gives a structured array with every field — prefer it when you plan to parse).

task-center:show ref=<id>

Full single-task detail — scheduled/deadline/estimate/actual/created/completed/cancelled/parent/children/raw.

task-center:stats [days=N] [group=<prefix>]

Rolling-window estimate accuracy + tag minutes breakdown. Default days=7. group=象限 aggregates matching tags into a section (useful for Covey quadrants). Output includes:

• sum actual / sum estimate ratio (calibration signal)
• per-task mean / σ for ratio variance
• within band 11/18 (61%) share inside [0.8, 1.25]
• per-tag minutes with ASCII bar chart

Use this to correct planning-fallacy when suggesting estimates. If the 7-day ratio is 1.3, new estimates should be scaled up by that factor vs. the user's gut feel.

task-center:brief [today=YYYY-MM-DD] [limit=N] [format=text|json]

Agent brief for near-term planning. Shows overdue / today / unscheduled candidate counts, sample tasks, and executable next-action commands such as done, abandon, schedule_today, schedule_tomorrow, and actual +15m.

Use this when the user asks what to do next or wants a compact status overview before planning.

task-center:review [today=YYYY-MM-DD] [days=N] [limit=N] [format=text|json]

End-of-day / weekly retrospective summary. Reports today and rolling-week windows: done, abandoned, delayed-open tasks, estimate-vs-actual totals, grouping summaries, and sample task ids.

Use this for shutdown reviews, weekly reviews, and "what actually happened?" questions. Prefer text output for user-facing summaries; use format=json only when you need to parse it.

Query Tab / preset views

A Query Tab is a saved QueryPreset — a view.layout tree (same storage/schema/validation as the GUI Query editor). Target tabs by stable id, never display name.

Read / run (common, read-only):

obsidian task-center:query-list [hidden=true] [format=json]
obsidian task-center:query-show id=preset-week
obsidian task-center:query-run  id=preset-today [view=list|week|month] [anchor=YYYY-MM-DD] [format=json]

• query-run renders the preset's saved view; view= is a temporary override (not saved back); anchor= is the week/month cursor (defaults to today).
• Rows keep stable ids (Tasks/Inbox.md:L42) — pipe into show / schedule / done / abandon.

Create / edit a view (the DSL is a layout tree; filtering lives only in each area's when):

obsidian task-center:query-create dsl='…'      # new tab, always a fresh id (query-save is an alias)
obsidian task-center:query-update id=… dsl='…' # edit existing; keeps id/builtin; invalid DSL leaves it untouched
obsidian task-center:query-rename id=… name="…"
obsidian task-center:query-copy   id=… [name="…"]
obsidian task-center:query-hide   id=… hidden=true|false
obsidian task-center:query-delete id=…
obsidian task-center:query-set-default id=…|null

⚠️ Before writing DSL: filtering belongs only to each area's when. A top-level filters is silently ignored; the old flat shape (top-level search/tag/time/status) is rejected with invalid_query; tags is a string[]/comma string (AND) or {values, mode:"and"|"or"} (OR = any of the tags).

The DSL's SSOT is docs/dsl/zh.md (English docs/dsl/en.md) in the obsidian-task-center repo. Before building/editing a view:

• Full grammar (node types, Filters/when, onDrop, orderBy, real factory DSL) → read docs/dsl/zh.md or en.md; a condensed skill-local mirror is reference/queries.md.
• Ready-made layouts: four quadrants → examples/four-quadrant.md; week + unscheduled tray + drop zone → examples/week-with-tray.md; simple / multi-segment list → examples/simple-list.md.
• Unsure of the current shape? query-show id=preset-today (col of 3 lists) or id=preset-week (week + tray + drop), and mirror what it returns instead of guessing.

Rules: builtin tabs can be hidden/copied/renamed/updated/set-default but never permanently deleted; deleting a custom tab removes only that view, never tasks; a hidden tab cannot be default; invalid DSL → invalid_query (settings unchanged); unknown id → query_not_found.

Write verbs (idempotent, safe to retry)

All write verbs return ok <id> with a before / after diff, or unchanged if already in the target state.

obsidian task-center:schedule ref=Tasks/Inbox.md:L42 date=2026-04-25
obsidian task-center:schedule ref=Tasks/Inbox.md:L42 date=null       # clear ⏳

obsidian task-center:deadline ref=… date=2026-05-15
obsidian task-center:deadline ref=… date=null

obsidian task-center:estimate ref=… minutes=90m         # set [estimate::]
obsidian task-center:estimate ref=… minutes=null        # clear
obsidian task-center:actual   ref=… minutes=45m         # set [actual::]
obsidian task-center:actual   ref=… minutes=+15m        # additive

obsidian task-center:done   ref=… [at=YYYY-MM-DD]       # [x] + ✅
obsidian task-center:undone ref=…                        # reverse a done
obsidian task-center:abandon ref=…                       # [-] + ❌, cascades to todo children
obsidian task-center:drop   ref=…                        # deprecated alias for abandon

obsidian task-center:tag    ref=… tag='#基建'            # add
obsidian task-center:tag    ref=… tag='#基建' remove     # remove

obsidian task-center:nest   ref=… under=…                # make ref a subtask of under

obsidian task-center:add text="处理示例任务" tag='#3象限' scheduled=2026-04-26 [to=<path>] [deadline=…] [estimate=30m] [parent=<id>]

task-center:add target priority: explicit to= → parent's file (if parent= given) → today's Daily Note. There is no inbox fallback: when neither to= nor parent= is supplied, the Daily Notes core plugin must be enabled and configured or the command fails with daily_notes_unavailable. Default stamps ➕ today unless stamp-created=false.

abandon / drop cascades to todo descendants only. Already completed / abandoned / cancelled descendants keep their historical stamps. To abandon just one line, pass a leaf task.

Error shape

Errors go to stderr as:

error  <code>
    <human message>

Common codes: task_not_found, ambiguous_slug, invalid_date, daily_notes_unavailable, invalid_nest, nest_partial, invalid_query, query_not_found.

Recover by:

• task_not_found → re-run task-center:list to get fresh ids
• ambiguous_slug → the error message lists candidate ids; pick one
• invalid_date → convert to YYYY-MM-DD
• daily_notes_unavailable → enable/configure Daily Notes, or pass to=<path>
• invalid_nest / nest_partial → inspect the named source/target tasks before retrying
• invalid_query → the message echoes the validation failure; fix the DSL per docs/dsl/ (filtering must be per-area when)
• query_not_found → re-run task-center:query-list for fresh tab ids

Recommended workflows

End-of-day wrap-up

1. obsidian task-center:list done=today → collect what got done.
2. toggl entry list --since today → cross-reference actual time per task.
3. For each completed task: obsidian task-center:actual ref=… minutes=Nm to record real time.
4. obsidian task-center:review days=7 → read today's / week's completion, abandonment, delay, and estimate summary.
5. obsidian task-center:stats days=7 group=象限 → read calibration.
6. obsidian task-center:brief or obsidian task-center:list scheduled=unscheduled + obsidian task-center:list scheduled=tomorrow → candidate pool.
7. Pick tomorrow's set (≤1 big, ≤2 small based on user's self-declared capacity), deadline-first, quadrant-2-first.
8. obsidian task-center:schedule ref=… date=<tomorrow> per chosen task; use add for anything new.

Quick capture

User says "don't forget to X". Default to today's daily note:

obsidian task-center:add text="X"

Only set scheduled= / deadline= / tag= if the user specified them.

Backfill completions

User says "I finished Y yesterday": obsidian task-center:done ref=<id> at=<yesterday>.

Output contract

• Every list row starts with <path>:L<line> — pipe-friendly.
• Monetary / time values: minutes, no conversion. Format with formatMinutes convention (90m, 1h30m).
• Writes print before / after — use this to confirm the mutation was what you intended.
• Stats output is ASCII-bar-charted; do not JSON-ify it before showing the user.
• brief and review default to greppable text; use format=json only for downstream parsing.

Do not

• Do not edit task files directly with Read + Write; use the CLI so parser + locking invariants hold.
• Do not try to install a wrapper shell script called obsidian-task-center; the plugin uses Obsidian's native CLI.
• Do not call obsidian task / obsidian tasks (those are built-in, read-only) when you mean task-center:….
• Do not stamp ✅ / ❌ / ➕ manually with Edit — let the plugin do it via done / abandon / add.