Todo It

A modern, maintained alternative to Todo Tree for Visual Studio Code. Find TODO, FIXME, HACK, BUG, and NOTE comment tags across your workspace, highlight them in the editor, and manage your own checkable tasks — with priority, due dates, notes, subtasks, and multiple linked source files — all in one sidebar.

Yes, of course it has AI — it's 2026. It's opt-in, uses your installed Language Model provider (e.g. GitHub Copilot Chat), and we don't ship a model. The rest of the extension works perfectly fine without it. 🤖

Todo It is a fresh, MIT-licensed take on the much-loved (but unmaintained) Todo Tree — rebuilt from scratch on the current VS Code APIs, with fast ripgrep scanning and a built-in task list.

TODO IT
├─ 📌 My Tasks                       (click a task → Task Details panel)
│   ☐ Ship release                   high · due 2026-06-01 · 🔗 src/release.ts:12 +2 more
│   │  ☐ Cut RC tag
│   │  ☐ Run smoke tests
│   ☑ Set up CI
│   ☐ Review PR [#42](https://github.com/KiSchnelle/todo_it/issues/42)                  low
└─ 🔍 Found in Code
    ├─ TODO (12)
    │   ├─ refactor this loop        src/app.ts:42
    │   └─ handle the empty case     src/api.ts:8
    ├─ FIXME (3)
    │   └─ race condition here       src/db.ts:91
    └─ HACK (1)

Features

🔍 Found in Code — comment-tag scanner

• Scans your whole workspace for tags like TODO, FIXME, HACK, BUG, NOTE, XXX inside comments — fully configurable.
• Powered by ripgrep (bundled), so it stays fast even on large repos.
• Group by tag, by file, or as a flat list — switch any time from the view toolbar.
• Jump to code: click any result to open the file at the exact line and column.
• Respects .gitignore and your own include/exclude globs.

✅ Editor highlights

• Per-tag gutter icons, tag coloring, and overview-ruler marks so todos are visible while you code.
• Colors and icons are configurable per tag; toggle all highlighting with one command.

📌 My Tasks — built-in task list

• Quick-add at the top of My Tasks — single-prompt capture, plus a drag-and-drop to reorder.
• Add, check off (real tree checkboxes), and delete tasks without leaving the editor.
• Click a task to open the Task Details panel — a dedicated editor with title, priority, due date, and a large multi-line note field (save with ⌘/Ctrl+S).
• Flexible due dates: an exact date (2026-06-01) or a relative one (tomorrow, 3 days, 2 weeks, 1 month).
• Sort tasks by priority, due date, or manual order (completed tasks always sink to the bottom).
• Tasks are persisted with your project in .vscode/todos.json by default — commit them to share with your team, or switch to a private/local store.

🔗 Cross-link scanned ↔ task

• Right-click any scanned tag → Track as Task to create a manual task pre-populated with the tag text and a back-link to file:line.
• Linked tasks show a 🔗 indicator and an Open Linked Source action (inline icon, context menu, or Open button in the Task Details panel) to jump straight back to the code.
• Multiple links per task — Add Linked Source… on a task (right-click or the + Add link… button in Task Details) pins any file:line to the task. Useful for work that spans several files. The tree shows 🔗 path:42 +2 more; Open Linked Source prompts a QuickPick when more than one is attached. Remove Linked Source… drops any individual link.
• Renames follow — moving or renaming a linked file via the VS Code explorer / refactor automatically updates every affected link.

🪜 Subtasks

• Right-click any task → Add Subtask to nest tasks under a parent.
• Checking off a parent cascades to all descendants; deleting a parent cascades too (with a confirmation that names how many subtasks will go with it).
• Reorder siblings via drag-and-drop; Move Task Under… moves a task to a new parent (or back to the top level).

✋ Bulk operations

• Cmd/Ctrl-click or Shift-click to multi-select tasks in the tree.
• Right-click the selection to Delete, Mark Done, Set Priority…, or Snooze… all of them at once. Confirmations and prompts adapt to the count ("Delete 5 tasks (and 2 subtasks)?").

⏰ Snooze + due-soon notifications

• Snooze a task until tomorrow, next week, or any custom date — useful when a due date hasn't moved but you want to stop thinking about the task today. The 🔗 indicator persists; only the notification is silenced.
• Opt-in notifications (todoIt.notifications.dueSoon, off by default) — VS Code surfaces a notification when a task's due date arrives, with Open and Snooze 1 day actions. Each task notifies at most once per session.

📤 Export tasks to Markdown

• Todo It: Export Tasks to Markdown… writes a TODO.md with sections per priority, subtasks indented, and linked sources listed. Pick any save path — useful for sharing or end-of-week summaries.

🔎 Filter and visibility

• Filter by substring (matches task titles, notes, scanned tag text, line, and path) — click the funnel icon in the view title.
• Go to Todo… (todoIt.goToTodo) — a Command Palette quick-pick of every scanned todo with fuzzy search across tag, text, and path.
• Status bar badge shows open tasks · todos in code and focuses the view on click.
• Hover preview: hovering a scanned result shows ±2 lines of source context with the matched line highlighted.
• CodeLens (todoIt.codeLens.enabled, off by default) renders three clickable actions above each scanned tag in the editor: Track as Task · AI Track · Explain.

☑️ Markdown checklists

• Unchecked - [ ] lines in .md / .markdown / .mdx files appear under Found in Code under the Markdown checklist group.
• Tick the checkbox right in the tree to flip [ ] → [x] in the source file (the now-checked line drops off the tree on the next scan).
• Toggle the feature with todoIt.markdownTasks.enabled.

🪄 AI assist

AI features run through VS Code's standard Language Model API — no API key required, and we don't ship one. You need an LM provider installed (e.g. GitHub Copilot Chat); without one, AI commands show a one-shot install hint and the rest of the extension keeps working unchanged.

• AI: Summarize Found in Code — themed Markdown summary of every scanned todo, plus an Urgent section.
• AI: Suggest Priority — for any task; uses title + note + linked code context, then offers a one-click Apply.
• AI: Track as Task (Expanded) — turns a cryptic // TODO: fix it into a real task with title, description, and a suggested priority.
• AI: Explain Todo — explains what a cryptic TODO is asking for, using surrounding code.
• Chat participant — type @todo-it in the Copilot Chat panel to ask free-form questions ("which TODOs touch authentication?"), or use the slash commands @todo-it /summarize and @todo-it /overdue. The /overdue command is pure JS (no model call) so it's instant.

⚡ Live, multi-root, and on the web

• Live updates: files are re-scanned automatically as you edit and save (debounced); deletions disappear on their own.
• Monorepo-ready: results and tasks are scoped per workspace folder.
• Works in the browser (github.dev / vscode.dev / Codespaces / Gitpod): a JavaScript fallback scanner kicks in when ripgrep isn't available.

Getting started

1. Install Todo It from the VS Code Marketplace or Open VSX (works in VSCodium, Gitpod, code-server, Cursor…). Or run Extensions: Install from VSIX….
2. Open the Todo It view from the Activity Bar (the checklist icon).
3. The Found in Code section fills in automatically from your workspace; click any item to jump to it.
4. Add your own tasks with the + button (or Todo It: Add Task from the Command Palette).

Commands

All commands are available from the Command Palette under the Todo It category.

Settings

Configure everything under the Todo It section of Settings (todoIt.*).

Example: custom tags

"todoIt.tags": [
  { "tag": "TODO",   "color": "#ffbd2e" },
  { "tag": "FIXME",  "color": "#ff5f56" },
  { "tag": "REVIEW", "color": "#a6e22e", "backgroundColor": "#2c3327" }
]

Where are my tasks stored?

todoIt.tasks.storage controls it:

No migration on upgrade. v0.1.0 adds two optional fields to each task: parentId (for subtasks) and links: TaskLink[] (replacing the singular link). Old .vscode/todos.json files are read transparently — the legacy link is folded into links[0] on first load, and tasks without a parentId are top-level as before. Downgrading is safe too: v0.0.3 just ignores the unknown parentId and links fields — subtask nesting and the cross-link UI vanish from those tasks, but no data is removed.

Requirements

• VS Code 1.120.0 or newer.
• On desktop, scanning uses the bundled ripgrep binary (very fast). In browser-based VS Code (github.dev / vscode.dev / Codespaces / Gitpod), a JavaScript fallback takes over — slower, and it doesn't honor .gitignore (use todoIt.exclude).

Trust & privacy

Todo It is read-only against code by default — scanning never modifies source files. The two exceptions are explicitly user-initiated:

• Ticking a markdown checklist in the tree edits the source line from [ ] to [x] (and saves the file if it had no other unsaved changes).
• Storing manual tasks writes to .vscode/todos.json (or your chosen storage backend) — see the table above.

The extension itself makes no network calls and ships no telemetry. AI features call into VS Code's standard Language Model API, which routes through whichever LM provider you have installed and signed in to; the first call shows a consent dialog. With no provider installed, AI commands gracefully no-op and nothing leaves your machine.

It supports Workspace Trust: in an untrusted workspace, custom tag styling from the folder's settings is ignored as a safety measure, while scanning and tasks keep working.

Known limitations

• Scanning requires a real filesystem, so it is limited in virtual/remote-virtual workspaces.
• Tags are matched as whole words on a line; multi-line block-comment context is not parsed.

Development

npm install        # install dependencies
npm run watch      # esbuild in watch mode — then press F5 to launch the Extension Host
npm run check-types
npm run lint
npm test           # unit + integration tests (VS Code test host)
npm run vsix       # build a .vsix package

Contributions and issues are welcome. The codebase is small and typed: scanning lives in src/scanner/, the tree in src/tree/, tasks in src/tasks/, and editor highlights in src/decorations/.

License

MIT © Kilian Schnelle