Install

April 23, 2026 · View on GitHub

rusk

A minimal cross-platform terminal task manager

Install
Usage
Configuration

Install

Linux/MacOS/Windows

cargo install --git https://github.com/tagirov/rusk

The binary will be installed to:

Linux/MacOS: $HOME/.cargo/bin/rusk
Windows: %USERPROFILE%\.cargo\bin\rusk.exe

Make sure that these paths are added to your $PATH environment variable to use rusk command globally.

Arch Linux (AUR)

yay -S rusk

Manually

git clone https://github.com/tagirov/rusk && cd rusk

cargo build --release

Linux/MacOS

sudo install -m 755 ./target/release/rusk /usr/local/bin

Windows

copy .\target\release\rusk.exe "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\"

Usage

# Add a new task
rusk add Buy groceries

# Add a task with a deadline
rusk add Finish project report --date 31-12-2025

# Or with short year; slash, hyphen, or dot between parts:
rusk add Finish project report --date 31/12/25
rusk add Finish project report --date 31.12.25

# Leading zero for day and month is optional:
rusk add Finish project report --date 1-3-25

# Relative deadline from today (local date): chain number + suffix with no spaces.
# d=days, w=weeks, m=months, q=quarters (3 months), y=years
rusk add Follow up --date 2w
rusk add Review --date 10d5w

# View all tasks
rusk list

# or simply
rusk

# Compact view: one line per task (no wraps, trailing punctuation trimmed)
rusk list --compact

# Mark a task as done
rusk mark 1

# Mark a task as undone (toggle)
rusk mark 1

# Mark a task as priority. Toggle again to remove.
rusk mark 1 --priority

# Edit task text in one shot
rusk edit 1 Complete the project documentation

# Optional flag for date without opening the TUI
rusk edit 1 --date 1-1-25
rusk edit 1 --date 2w

# Relative with leading +: add that offset to the task's current due date (today if it had none)
rusk edit 1 --date +2w

# Delete a task
rusk del 1

# Delete all completed tasks
rusk del --done

# Get help
rusk --help

# Help for a specific command
rusk add --help

# Or flag 
rusk add --date --help

Working with Multiple Tasks

Multiple task IDs must be comma-separated (no spaces allowed between IDs)

# Mark multiple tasks as done
rusk mark 1,2,3

# Edit multiple tasks with the same text
rusk edit 1,2,3 Update status to completed

# Delete multiple tasks
rusk del 1,2,3

The interactive multi-line editor supports selection, system clipboard, undo/redo, word navigation, mouse, crash-safe autosave, and a colored date header on the first line. Its full reference lives in EDITOR.md.

# Create a task using the TUI
rusk add

# Optional -d / --date pre-fills the first line
rusk add -d 2w

# Edit task text and optional due date on the first line.
rusk edit 1

# Edit several tasks in one session.
rusk edit 1,2,3

Data Safety & Backup

Automatic Backups

Every save operation creates a .json.backup file
Backups are stored in the same directory as your database
Atomic writes prevent data corruption during saves

Manual Restore

# Restore from the automatic backup
rusk restore

# This will:
# 1. Validate the backup file
# 2. Create a safety backup of current database (if valid)
# 3. Restore tasks from backup

Aliases

# Subcommand aliases
rusk a (add)
rusk l (list)
rusk m (mark)
rusk e (edit)
rusk d (del)
rusk r (restore)
rusk c (completions)

# Global flags
-h (--help)
-V (--version)

# Command flags
-d (--date)
-c (--compact)
-p (--priority)

Configuration

Shell Completion

For installation instructions, see completions/README.md.

It provides autocomplete for commands and task text during editing by pressing <tab> button.

Features

Command completion: add, edit, mark, del, completions, etc. and their aliases
Task text completion: rusk edit <id><tab> appends the task text for that ID. If the text contains shell-special characters (| ; & > < ( ) [ ] { } $ " ' \` * ? ~ # @ ! % ^ = + - / : ,), it is automatically wrapped in single quotes (double quotes if the text has ')
Flag completion: Autocomplete --date (add), --done, etc.; edit offers help flags only

Windows Support

Git Bash: Works with bash completions (uses Unix-style paths)
WSL: Works with bash, zsh, fish, and nu completions
Nu Shell: Works natively on Windows (uses %APPDATA%\nushell\completions\)
PowerShell: Works natively on Windows (uses Documents\PowerShell\rusk-completions.ps1)
CMD: Basic commands work (add, list, mark, del, edit with text). Due dates: interactive editor (rusk edit without argv text) on the first line, or rusk edit <id> -d <date>. Interactive editing requires Windows 10+ and may have limited functionality. Tab completion is not supported. Colors work on Windows 10+ (build 1511 and later)

Database Location

By default, Rusk stores tasks to: ./.rusk/tasks.json

# Use different task lists for different projects
cd ~/projects/website
rusk add Fix responsive layout

cd ~/projects/api
rusk add Add authentication endpoint

# Each project has its own task list because Rusk uses a relative default database path

You can customize the database location using the RUSK_DB environment variable:

# Use a custom database file
export RUSK_DB="/path/to/your/db.json"

# Use a custom directory (tasks.json will be created inside)
export RUSK_DB="/path/to/your/project/"

Debug Mode

When running in debug mode (cargo run or debug builds), Rusk uses a temporary database location to avoid affecting your production data:

Linux/MacOS: $TMPDIR/rusk_debug/tasks.json (usually /tmp/rusk_debug/tasks.json)
Windows: %TEMP%\rusk_debug\tasks.json (usually C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Temp\rusk_debug\tasks.json)

In debug mode, the RUSK_DB environment variable is ignored, and the database path is printed to the console when the program starts.

Disabling Colors

Set RUSK_NO_COLOR to any non-empty value to disable ANSI colors in all output (dialogs, task list, errors):

export RUSK_NO_COLOR=1

The standard NO_COLOR environment variable (see no-color.org) is also respected.