Santofer/Remindian: Sync Obsidian Tasks or TaskNotes with Apple Reminders or Things 3 — two-way sync, surgical edits, tag mapping, menu-bar app for macOS

A native macOS menu-bar app that syncs your Obsidian tasks
to Apple Reminders, Things 3, Todoist, or TickTick.

Free and open source. If it saves you time, consider buying me a coffee!

What it does

Your vault is the source of truth. Remindian syncs tasks from Obsidian into your chosen destination. Completions, due dates, start dates, priority, and tags sync back with surgical, metadata-preserving edits.

Three task sources — Obsidian Tasks plugin format, TaskNotes plugin, and a configurable Generic Markdown dialect for NotePlan & other plain-markdown task tools

> Four destinations — Apple Reminders · Things 3 · Todoist · TickTick

Install

Homebrew (recommended)

brew install --cask santofer/tap/remindian

To upgrade:

brew update && brew upgrade --cask santofer/tap/remindian

Which tap? santofer/tap is the canonical one — use it. An older

santofer/remindian tap also exists and is kept in sync, but having both

tapped makes Homebrew ask for a fully-qualified name (Cask remindian exists

in multiple taps). If you hit that, untap the legacy one:

brew untap santofer/remindian.

Direct download

Download the latest release — Universal Binary (Apple Silicon + Intel), macOS 13.0+ (Ventura).

Since the app is not notarized yet, right-click the app and select Open on first launch to bypass Gatekeeper. Remindian includes a built-in auto-updater that checks for new versions on launch and every 24 hours, so you only do this once.

Features

🔄 Sync

Two-way sync — Completions, dates, priority, tags sync back
Surgical file edits — Never reconstructs task lines
Recurrence support — Creates next occurrence automatically
Real-time sync — File watcher triggers on vault changes
Safety abort — Protects against vault unmount/scan failures
Dry run mode — Preview changes without modifying anything

🗂️ Organization

Tag-based list mapping — #work → "Work" list
Heading-based list mapping — tasks under ## Work → "Work" list
File-to-list mapping — Map entire files to lists
Project/context routing — TaskNotes field-based routing
Folder filtering — Whitelist or exclude vault folders
Cross-file deduplication — Syncs only one copy
Configurable field mapping — Remap YAML field names

📥 Sources

Obsidian Tasks — - [ ] task 📅 2024-01-20 #tag
TaskNotes — One YAML file per task (CLI/Files/HTTP)
Generic Markdown — NotePlan & friends: - [ ] task >2024-01-20 !!! #tag
Custom status mapping — done, shipped, archived

📤 Destinations

Apple Reminders — via EventKit
Things 3 — via AppleScript + URL scheme
Todoist — via REST API + token auth
TickTick — via Open API + OAuth 2.0

Also includes: Pinned Tasks window — a floating, always-on-top mini task manager that shows your open tasks grouped by date / priority / tag / recurrence, with live search and inline complete · Natural-language quick-add — type Pay rent friday every month !! #home and it parses the date, recurrence (English & French), priority and tags · Due times + alarms for Apple Reminders · Today list in the menu bar (due-today/overdue glance + inline complete) · Shortcuts/Spotlight actions (Sync Now · Add Task) · Preview changes before applying (dry-run diff) · Undo last sync (restore vault files) · Multiple sync profiles (run several source→destination pipelines at once) · Auto-updater · Onboarding wizard · Global hotkey · GoodTask tag writeback · New task writeback to Obsidian inbox · Automatic file backups · Launch at login · macOS native (SwiftUI, no dependencies)

Quick Start

Download the DMG from the latest release
Drag Remindian to your Applications folder
Right-click → Open on first launch (required for unsigned apps)
Follow the onboarding wizard to select your vault, grant access, and configure mappings
Tasks start syncing automatically

Configuration

Open Settings from the menu bar icon:

| Tab | What it configures | |-----|-------------------| | General | Source & destination, vault path, sync interval, writeback toggles, notifications, default list, hotkey | | List Mappings | Tag → list mappings, heading → list mappings, file → list mappings | | TaskNotes | Integration mode, status mapping, field mapping, list/folder source | | Advanced | Folder filtering, Reminders list filtering, dry run, sync state reset, global filter |

How It Works

Obsidian Tasks (default)

- [ ] My task ⏫ 🛫 2024-01-15 📅 2024-01-20 #work
[x] Completed task 📅 2024-01-10 ✅ 2024-01-09
[ ] Recurring task 🔁 every week 📅 2024-03-01

TaskNotes

---
title: My task
status: open
priority: high
due: 2024-01-20
tags: [work]
project: "[[My Project]]"
---

Each task syncs with its due date, priority, and tags. Completions are written back as surgical edits — only the checkbox and completion date are modified.

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/Santofer/Remindian.git
cd Remindian
open ObsidianRemindersSync.xcodeproj

Requirements: macOS 13.0+, Xcode 15.0+. Builds a Universal Binary by default.

Transparency

AI (Claude) was used as a development tool. All code is reviewed, tested on real data, and the full source is open for audit. The app is sandboxed, creates automatic backups, and includes dry run mode.

License

MIT License — Made by Santofer

CHANGELOG · CONTRIBUTING