scitex-todo 0.5.6

Canonical YAML task store with pluggable adapters (mermaid dependency graphs)

scitex-todo (scitex-todo)

A canonical YAML task store with pluggable adapters — render your dependency graph as a diagram, not a wall of prose.

Full Documentation · uv pip install scitex-todo[all]

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Problem and Solution

#	Problem	Solution
1	Prose to-do lists hide the dependency structure — what blocks what is buried in text.	A YAML store with explicit depends_on / blocks, rendered as a dependency graph.
2	Task tooling locks your data into one app's format.	A plain-YAML single source of truth; adapters render or import it, the store stays portable.
3	Switching views means re-entering the same tasks.	One store, multiple adapters — mermaid PNG today, a web board, org-mode on the roadmap.

Quick Start

import scitex_todo as todo

tasks = todo.load_tasks("tasks.yaml")    # validates: id/title/status
mermaid_src = todo.build_mermaid(tasks)  # YAML -> flowchart TB
engine = todo.render(mermaid_src, "tasks.png")
print(f"rendered via {engine}")

From the shell:

# default store: project -> user -> bundled example (or $SCITEX_TODO_TASKS)
scitex-todo render-graph -o tasks.png

# inspect the generated mermaid without rendering
scitex-todo render-graph --print-mermaid

# list the resolved tasks (add --json for machine-readable output)
scitex-todo list-tasks

Installation

Recommended: uv pip install scitex-todo[all] — uv's Rust resolver handles the SciTeX dep set quickly. Plain pip install still works.

# Recommended — uv resolver
uv pip install scitex-todo[all]

# Plain pip also works
pip install scitex-todo

Rendering to PNG additionally needs either mmdc (mermaid-cli, with a puppeteer/playwright chromium) on PATH, or outbound access to kroki.io (the automatic fallback).

Configuration

Copy .env.example to .env (gitignored) at your project root, then edit. CLI flags always override env vars; the full list of variables (with inline comments) lives in .env.example.

Local state directories

scitex-todo resolves your task store from the canonical SciTeX local-state locations (project-local wins; both optional):

Path	Scope	Purpose
~/.scitex/todo/tasks.yaml	user-global	your personal task store (the shared-fleet default)
<proj-root>/.scitex/todo/tasks.yaml	project-local	overrides for the current repo

Shared-fleet TODO across agents

The user-global store (~/.scitex/todo/tasks.yaml) is the centralized list shared between you and every agent that runs on this host. Each task carries an optional scope: label so an agent (or you, via the board) can filter to only the slice that's relevant.

Convention (not enforced — scope is a free-form string):

• agent:<name> — "for this agent's eyes" (e.g. agent:proj-scitex-todo).
• project:<name> — "tied to this project" (e.g. project:scitex-clew).
• private — operator-only.

Each agent in the SciTeX agent container picks up its slice by setting:

export SCITEX_TODO_SCOPE='agent:<name>'   # default filter for `list`/`summary`
export SCITEX_TODO_AGENT='agent:<name>'   # stamps `completed_by` on `done`

The list-side filter ALSO has a per-call --scope LABEL flag. Pass --scope '' (empty string) to opt out of the env default and see the full store.

See GITIGNORED/ARCHITECTURE.md (in the repo working tree) for the 9-requirement → mechanism map and the deferred-but-designed seams (cross-host sync, operator↔agent chat).

Architecture

The YAML store is the canonical backend; everything else is an adapter that reads (or, for the board, writes) it. No adapter owns the data.

flowchart TB
    store["tasks.yaml<br/>(single source of truth)"]
    load["load_tasks()<br/>validate id/title/status"]
    build["build_mermaid()<br/>YAML -> flowchart TB"]
    render["render()<br/>mmdc | kroki.io"]
    png["tasks.png"]
    board["Web board<br/>(React Flow, read-only)"]

    store --> load
    load --> build
    build --> render
    render --> png
    load --> board
    board -. "drag-reorder writes priority" .-> store

_{Figure 1. scitex-todo data flow: one YAML store feeds the mermaid PNG adapter and the read-only web board.}

3 Interfaces

Python API

import scitex_todo as todo

tasks = todo.load_tasks("tasks.yaml")
src = todo.build_mermaid(tasks)
todo.render(src, "tasks.png")

load_tasks, save_tasks, build_mermaid, render, resolve_tasks_path, bundled_example, and the STATUS_STYLE / VALID_STATUSES tables are the public surface (scitex-todo list-python-apis).

CLI

scitex-todo render-graph -o tasks.png      # YAML -> dependency PNG
scitex-todo list-tasks --json              # resolved tasks, machine-readable
scitex-todo board --port 8051              # read-only web board (needs [web])
scitex-todo list-python-apis -v            # introspect the Python surface
scitex-todo install-shell-completion       # bash/zsh/fish tab-completion

Web board

A browser view of the dependency graph, rendered with React Flow (nodes colored by status, depends_on arrows, blocks ⊣ inhibition edges). Install the web extra and launch the standalone server:

pip install scitex-todo[web]
scitex-todo board                          # opens http://127.0.0.1:8051/

Task store schema

A YAML document with a top-level tasks: list. Each task:

Field	Required	Meaning
id	yes	unique id, referenced by depends_on / blocks
title	yes	short label
status	yes	goal | pending | in_progress | blocked | done | deferred | failed
repo	no	owning repo / area
depends_on	no	ids this task depends on -> arrow dep --> task
blocks	no	ids this task inhibits -> blocker -- blocks --x target
note	no	free-text annotation, shown under the title
priority	no	integer rank (lower = higher); document order if absent
parent	no	id of the task this nests under (drill-down view)
kind	no	task (default) | compute — closed enum; compute marks a row whose status is updated by an external writer (Spartan/CI watcher)
job_id	no	opaque compute-job id (slurm id, GH Actions run, …); only with kind: compute
host	no	where the compute job runs (spartan, mba, github, …); only with kind: compute
command	no	shell invocation / pipeline for the compute job; only with kind: compute
started_at	no	ISO-8601 timestamp the writer observed start; only with kind: compute
finished_at	no	ISO-8601 timestamp the writer observed completion; only with kind: compute

status -> color

status	fill	edge style
goal	gold #ffe082	solid
done	green #c8e6c9	solid
in_progress	yellow #fff9c4	solid
blocked	bright-orange #ff8a65	solid
pending	grey #eceff1	solid
deferred	amber #ffca28	dashed border
failed	red #ffcdd2	solid

Roadmap

The YAML store is the canonical backend; adapters layer on top.

• mermaid adapter — YAML -> dependency PNG. (done)
• Web UI (read-only board) — browser view via React Flow. (done)
• Web UI (drag-to-reprioritize) — drag a task to change its priority and write back to the YAML store. (in progress)
• org adapter — read/write org-mode TODO trees (:BLOCKER: / ORDERED / org-edna) so deps are derivable from Emacs. (future)
• MCP / HTTP / RTD / full skills — agentic + service surfaces, intended to make the store a shared task backend across SciTeX (e.g. orochi). (future)

Part of SciTeX

scitex-todo is part of SciTeX.

Four Freedoms for Research

0. The freedom to run your research anywhere — your machine, your terms.
1. The freedom to study how every step works — from raw data to final manuscript.
2. The freedom to redistribute your workflows, not just your papers.
3. The freedom to modify any module and share improvements with the community.

AGPL-3.0 — because we believe research infrastructure deserves the same freedoms as the software it runs on.

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