apple-reminders

Apple Reminders

Add items to any Apple Reminders list, view existing reminders, mark items complete, and create new lists. Pure AppleScript via osascript — no external deps.

Adapted from densign01/reminders-skill.

Determine the action

Parse the request:

1. Add items — "add X to my list", "remind me to X", "todo: X"
2. View items — "what's on my list", "show reminders", "what do I need to do"
3. Complete items — "mark X done", "complete X", "I did X"
4. List all lists — "what lists do I have", "show my reminder lists"

List all available lists

osascript -e 'tell application "Reminders"
    set listNames to {}
    repeat with l in lists
        set end of listNames to name of l
    end repeat
    return listNames
end tell'

View items on a list

osascript -e 'tell application "Reminders"
    set targetList to list "LIST_NAME"
    set reminderInfo to {}
    repeat with r in (reminders in targetList whose completed is false)
        set reminderName to name of r
        set dueDate to due date of r
        if dueDate is not missing value then
            set reminderName to reminderName & " (due: " & (dueDate as string) & ")"
        end if
        set end of reminderInfo to reminderName
    end repeat
    return reminderInfo
end tell'

Add items to a list

Step 1 — Pick the list. If unspecified, ask the user, showing available lists from the query above.

Step 2 — Check existing items to avoid duplicates (case-insensitive partial match):

osascript -e 'tell application "Reminders"
    set targetList to list "LIST_NAME"
    set reminderNames to {}
    repeat with r in (reminders in targetList whose completed is false)
        set end of reminderNames to name of r
    end repeat
    return reminderNames
end tell'

Step 3 — Parse items. Extract bullet/comma items, due dates ("tomorrow", "in 3 days", "Jan 15"), and notes (after a dash or in parens).

Step 4 — Present the plan and confirm:

## Adding to [List Name] (X new items)

**Will add:**
- Item 1
- Item 2 (due: tomorrow)

**Already on list (skipping):**
- ~~Item 3~~

Step 5 — Add via AppleScript. Without due date:

osascript -e 'tell application "Reminders"
    set targetList to list "LIST_NAME"
    make new reminder in targetList with properties {name:"ITEM_NAME"}
end tell'

With due date:

osascript <<'EOF'
tell application "Reminders"
    set targetList to list "LIST_NAME"
    set dueDate to (current date) + (1 * days)  -- tomorrow
    make new reminder in targetList with properties {name:"ITEM_NAME", due date:dueDate}
end tell
EOF

Batch insert (more efficient for multiple items):

osascript <<'EOF'
tell application "Reminders"
    set targetList to list "LIST_NAME"
    make new reminder in targetList with properties {name:"Item 1"}
    make new reminder in targetList with properties {name:"Item 2"}
    make new reminder in targetList with properties {name:"Item 3", due date:(current date) + (1 * days)}
end tell
EOF

Mark an item complete

osascript -e 'tell application "Reminders"
    set targetList to list "LIST_NAME"
    repeat with r in (reminders in targetList whose completed is false)
        if name of r contains "SEARCH_TERM" then
            set completed of r to true
            return "Completed: " & name of r
        end if
    end repeat
    return "Not found"
end tell'

Create a new list

osascript -e 'tell application "Reminders"
    make new list with properties {name:"LIST_NAME"}
end tell'

Date parsing

Input	AppleScript
today	(current date)
tomorrow	(current date) + (1 * days)
next week	(current date) + (7 * days)
in X days	(current date) + (X * days)
Monday, Tuesday, …	calculate days until that weekday
Jan 15, March 3, …	parse and construct date object

For specific times:

set dueDate to (current date) + (1 * days)
set hours of dueDate to 14  -- 2 PM
set minutes of dueDate to 0

Workflow rules

• Always confirm the plan before mutating (showing what will be added/skipped).
• Duplicate detection is case-insensitive, partial match.
• Due dates are optional.
• If the user references a list that doesn't exist, offer to create it rather than silently failing.

Requirements

• macOS, Apple Reminders app
• No external dependencies (osascript only)