Master Task Management with the Things-Mac Skill: Control Things 3 from Your AI Agent

If you've ever wished you could add tasks to Things 3 with a quick voice command, automate your task management workflow, or let your AI assistant help organize your to-do list, the things-mac skill is exactly what you need.

Things 3 is one of the most beloved task managers on macOS and iOS, known for its elegant design and powerful organizational features. With the things-mac skill, your Clawdbot agent gains full read and write access to your Things database—letting you query tasks, add new to-dos, and even update existing items without ever touching the Things app.

Why Use the Things-Mac Skill?

Traditional task management means context-switching: opening Things, navigating to the right project, typing out details. With this skill, you can:

Voice-to-task: Say "Add buy groceries to my inbox" and watch it appear in Things
Automated workflows: Create tasks from emails, calendar events, or other triggers
Bulk operations: Add multiple related tasks at once via scripting
Smart queries: Ask your agent "What's on my plate today?" and get an instant summary

Installation

Installing the skill is straightforward with ClawdHub:

clawdhub install things-mac

The skill uses a Go-based CLI called things3-cli. If it's not already installed, Clawdbot will prompt you to install it:

GOBIN=/opt/homebrew/bin go install github.com/ossianhempel/things3-cli/cmd/things@latest

Important: For database reads to work, you'll need to grant Full Disk Access to your terminal app (Terminal.app or iTerm) in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access. If running through Clawdbot's gateway, grant access to Clawdbot.app instead.

Basic Usage

Reading Your Tasks

Query what's on your plate without opening Things:

# See your inbox
things inbox --limit 20

# What needs doing today?
things today

# What's coming up?
things upcoming

# Search for specific tasks
things search "meeting prep"

# List all projects, areas, or tags
things projects
things areas
things tags

Adding New Tasks

The things add command opens Things via URL scheme to create tasks:

# Quick task
things add "Call the dentist"

# With notes
things add "Quarterly review" --notes "Prepare slides and metrics"

# Due today
things add "Submit expense report" --when today

# With a deadline
things add "Finish proposal" --deadline 2026-03-01

# Into a specific project
things add "Book flights" --list "Paris Trip"

# Under a project heading
things add "Pack chargers" --list "Paris Trip" --heading "Before Departure"

# With tags
things add "Team standup" --tags "work,recurring"

# With a checklist
things add "Launch prep" \
  --checklist-item "Update changelog" \
  --checklist-item "Tag release" \
  --checklist-item "Deploy to prod"

Pro Tip: Dry Run Mode

Before any write operation, preview what will happen:

things --dry-run add "Test task" --list "Work"

This prints the Things URL scheme without actually executing it—perfect for debugging automations.

Updating Existing Tasks

To modify a task, you'll need its UUID and an authentication token:

Find the task UUID:
```
things search "expense report" --limit 5
```
Look for the UUID column in the output.
Get your auth token: Open Things → Settings → General → Enable Things URLs → Copy Auth Token

Set the token:

export THINGS_AUTH_TOKEN="your-token-here"

Update the task:

# Change the title
things update --id <UUID> "Expense report - Q4"

# Move to a different project
things update --id <UUID> --list "Finance"

# Add tags
things update --id <UUID> --add-tags "urgent,money"

# Mark complete
things update --id <UUID> --completed

Real-World Examples

Morning Briefing

Ask your agent: "What do I have on today?" It can run things today and give you a natural summary.

Email-to-Task

When processing emails, your agent can create tasks automatically: "Add a task to follow up with Sarah about the contract, due Friday."

Project Planning

Rapidly scaffold a project from a conversation:

things add "Website Redesign" --list "Projects"
things add "Gather requirements" --list "Website Redesign" --heading "Phase 1"
things add "Create wireframes" --list "Website Redesign" --heading "Phase 1"
things add "Design mockups" --list "Website Redesign" --heading "Phase 2"

Tips & Gotchas

Things must be installed on your Mac for the CLI to work
Full Disk Access is required for read operations (accessing the SQLite database)
Auth token is only needed for update operations, not adds
Use --foreground if you want Things to come to the front when adding tasks
The skill is macOS-only—it won't work on Linux or Windows

Wrapping Up

The things-mac skill bridges the gap between your AI assistant and one of the best task managers available. Whether you're capturing quick thoughts, building out project plans, or querying your workload, having command-line access to Things 3 is a game-changer for productivity workflows.

Install it today and start managing your tasks the AI-native way.

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