OmniFocus Automation

Manage OmniFocus tasks, projects, and folders via Omni Automation. Use for task management, to-do lists, project tracking, GTD workflows, adding/completing/editing tasks, setting due dates, managing tags, and recurring tasks. Requires OmniFocus installed on macOS.

OmniFocus

Control OmniFocus via JXA (JavaScript for Automation).

Requirements

• macOS with OmniFocus 3 or 4 installed
• OmniFocus must be running (or will auto-launch)

Quick Reference

bash

# Run via the wrapper script
./scripts/of <command> [args...]

# Or directly
osascript -l JavaScript ./scripts/omnifocus.js <command> [args...]

Commands

List/Query

Command	Description
inbox	List inbox tasks
folders	List all folders
projects [folder]	List projects, optionally filtered by folder
tasks <project>	List tasks in a project
tags	List all tags
today	Tasks due today or overdue
flagged	Flagged incomplete tasks
search <query>	Search tasks by name
info <taskId>	Full task details

Create

Command	Description
add <name> [project]	Add task to inbox or project
newproject <name> [folder]	Create project
newfolder <name>	Create top-level folder
newtag <name>	Create or get tag

Modify

Command	Description
complete <taskId>	Mark complete
uncomplete <taskId>	Mark incomplete
delete <taskId>	Permanently delete
rename <taskId> <name>	Rename task
note <taskId> <text>	Append to note
setnote <taskId> <text>	Replace note
defer <taskId> <date>	Set defer date (YYYY-MM-DD)
due <taskId> <date>	Set due date
flag <taskId> [true|false]	Set flagged
tag <taskId> <tag>	Add tag (creates if needed)
untag <taskId> <tag>	Remove tag
move <taskId> <project>	Move to project

Repeat

bash

# repeat <taskId> <method> <interval> <unit>
of repeat abc123 fixed 1 weeks
of repeat abc123 due-after-completion 2 days
of repeat abc123 defer-after-completion 1 months
of unrepeat abc123

Methods: fixed, due-after-completion, defer-after-completion
Units: days, weeks, months, years

Output Format

All commands return JSON. Success responses include "success": true. Errors include "error": "message".

json

{
  "success": true,
  "task": {
    "id": "abc123",
    "name": "Task name",
    "note": "Notes here",
    "flagged": false,
    "completed": false,
    "deferDate": "2026-01-30",
    "dueDate": "2026-02-01",
    "project": "Project Name",
    "tags": ["tag1", "tag2"],
    "repeat": {"method": "fixed", "rule": "RRULE:FREQ=WEEKLY;INTERVAL=1"}
  }
}

Examples

bash

# Add task to inbox
of add "Buy groceries"

# Add task to specific project
of add "Review docs" "Work Projects"

# Set due date and flag
of due abc123 2026-02-01
of flag abc123 true

# Add tags
of tag abc123 "urgent"
of tag abc123 "home"

# Create recurring task
of add "Weekly review" "Habits"
of repeat xyz789 fixed 1 weeks

# Search and complete
of search "groceries"
of complete abc123

# Get today's tasks
of today

Notes

• Task IDs are OmniFocus internal IDs (returned in all task responses)
• Dates use ISO format: YYYY-MM-DD
• Project and folder names are case-sensitive
• Tags are created automatically if they don't exist when using tag command
• All output is JSON for easy parsing

Technical Details

This skill uses JavaScript for Automation (JXA) for most operations, with AppleScript fallbacks for tag and repeat operations (due to known JXA type conversion bugs with these specific OmniFocus APIs).

The hybrid approach provides:

• JSON output for easy parsing
• Robust escaping for special characters in tag names
• Error handling with clear messages

First run: OmniFocus may prompt to allow automation access. Enable this in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Automation.