Every TickTick surface — tasks, habits, focus, daily notes — with a corruption-proof daily-note contract and offline analytics no other TickTick tool has.
Covers both TickTick APIs: the official Open API and the richer internal V2 surface (habits, focus records, completed-task history, batch ops). The 'note edit' command encodes a field-whitelist write contract that cannot corrupt TEXT-kind daily notes, and the local SQLite mirror powers 'agenda', 'review', 'habits streaks', and 'focus stats' — ritual-shaped commands that replace multi-call fan-outs.
Authentication
Two tiers. The V2 internal API (habits, focus, daily notes, batch) authenticates with a session token: set TICKTICK_USERNAME and TICKTICK_PASSWORD and the CLI signs on automatically, or set TICKTICK_SESSION_TOKEN with the 't' cookie from a logged-in browser session (required for Google-SSO accounts without a password). The optional V1 Open API tier uses TICKTICK_API_TOKEN (OAuth bearer from developer.ticktick.com). Requests send a browser-like User-Agent because the API returns 503 to default clients.
Quick Start
# Health check — verifies config shape and which auth tiers are configured, no credentials needed
ticktick-pp-cli doctor --dry-run
# Hydrate the local SQLite mirror that powers agenda, review, and streaks
ticktick-pp-cli sync --resources tasks,habits,focus
# Today's tasks, habits with checkin state, and focus sessions in one bounded response
ticktick-pp-cli agenda --json
# Preview a safe daily-note append — the contract that can never flip the note's kind
ticktick-pp-cli note edit --date today --append "14:30 deep-work block done" --dry-run
# Week-in-review data pack, narrowed with --select to keep agent context small
ticktick-pp-cli review --since 7d --json --select completed.title,focus_totals
Unique Features
These capabilities aren't available in any other tool for this API.
Corruption-proof writes
-
note edit — Edit your daily note's content with a corruption-proof contract — the command can never flip the note's task kind or break its subtasks.
Use this instead of a raw task update whenever the target is a daily note; raw updates through generic tools have corrupted notes before.
ticktick-pp-cli note edit --date today --append "20:15 wrapped the printing-press build" --dry-run
Local state that compounds
-
agenda — One command returns today's tasks, habits with checkin state, and focus sessions together.
Reach for this at session start instead of fanning out list calls; one bounded response covers the whole briefing.
ticktick-pp-cli agenda --json --select tasks.title,habits.name
-
review — Gather a week of completed tasks, daily notes, focus totals, and habit checkins as one structured pack ready for synthesis.
Use for weekly-review synthesis instead of paging completed tasks and re-reading seven daily notes by hand.
ticktick-pp-cli review --since 7d --json
-
habits streaks — Current streak, longest streak, and at-risk-today flags for every habit.
Answers 'which habits are about to break' without hand-rolling date math over raw checkins.
ticktick-pp-cli habits streaks --json
-
focus stats — Focus/pomodoro time aggregated per day or per project over any window.
Use for weekly focus totals instead of scraping raw focus records.
ticktick-pp-cli focus stats --since 7d --json
Recipes
Morning briefing
ticktick-pp-cli agenda --json --agent
One bounded response with today's tasks, habit state, and focus sessions for a session-start briefing.
Log a focus block to the daily note
ticktick-pp-cli note edit --date today --append "15:00-15:45 client audit prep"
Timestamped append through the corruption-proof write path.
Friday review pack, narrowed for agents
ticktick-pp-cli review --since 7d --agent --select completed.title,notes.content,focus_totals.by_day
Deeply nested week pack narrowed with --select so synthesis doesn't drown in raw JSON.
Which habits are about to break
ticktick-pp-cli habits streaks --json --select name,current_streak,at_risk
Streak math over synced checkins with only the decision-relevant fields.
Weekly focus hours by project
ticktick-pp-cli focus stats --since 7d --by project --json
Aggregated pomodoro/focus durations from the local mirror.
Usage
Run ticktick-pp-cli --help for the full command reference and flag list.
Paths & environment variables
This CLI separates local files into four path kinds:
| Kind | Contents |
|---|
config | User-editable settings such as config.toml and saved profiles |
data | Durable local data: credentials.toml, data.db, cookies, browser-session proof files, and other auth sidecars |
state | Runtime state such as persisted queries, jobs, and teach.log |
cache | Regenerable HTTP/cache files |
Each kind resolves independently. The ladder is:
- Per-kind env var:
TICKTICK_CONFIG_DIR, TICKTICK_DATA_DIR, TICKTICK_STATE_DIR, or TICKTICK_CACHE_DIR
--home <dir> for this invocationTICKTICK_HOME for a flat relocated root- XDG env vars:
XDG_CONFIG_HOME, XDG_DATA_HOME, XDG_STATE_HOME, XDG_CACHE_HOME
- Platform defaults matching existing installs
For containers and agent sandboxes, prefer a single relocated root:
export TICKTICK_HOME=/srv/ticktick
ticktick-pp-cli doctor
Under TICKTICK_HOME=/srv/ticktick, the four dirs resolve to /srv/ticktick/config, /srv/ticktick/data, /srv/ticktick/state, and /srv/ticktick/cache.
MCP servers do not receive CLI flags from the host. Put relocation in the host env block:
{
"mcpServers": {
"ticktick": {
"command": "ticktick-pp-mcp",
"env": {
"TICKTICK_HOME": "/srv/ticktick"
}
}
}
}
Precedence matters in fleets: an ambient per-kind variable such as TICKTICK_DATA_DIR overrides an explicit --home for that kind. Use TICKTICK_HOME or the per-kind variables for durable fleet relocation; treat --home as the weaker per-invocation lever.
Relocation is one-way. Unsetting TICKTICK_HOME does not move files back to platform defaults, and doctor cannot find credentials left under a former root. Move the files manually before unsetting relocation variables.
Existing installs keep working because the platform-default rung matches the legacy layout. On the first auth write, stored secrets leave config.toml and are consolidated into credentials.toml under the data directory. Run ticktick-pp-cli doctor --fail-on warn to check path and credential-location warnings in automation.
Commands
completed
Completed task history
ticktick-pp-cli completed - Completed tasks in a date window
focus
Focus / pomodoro records
ticktick-pp-cli focus - Focus and pomodoro records, most recent first
habits
Habits and habit checkins
ticktick-pp-cli habits checkin - Upsert habit checkins (batch add/update)ticktick-pp-cli habits checkins - Query habit checkins after a date stampticktick-pp-cli habits list - List all habits
projects
Projects (lists)
ticktick-pp-cli projects - List all projects
tags
Tags
ticktick-pp-cli tags - List all tags
tasks
Tasks — all uncompleted tasks via the V2 sync surface, single-task get, and batch mutations
ticktick-pp-cli tasks batch - Batch create/update/delete tasks (arrays of task objects; updates must carry id, projectId, etag and must NOT include kind)ticktick-pp-cli tasks get - Get a single task by id (full JSON incl. kind, etag, childIds)ticktick-pp-cli tasks list - List all uncompleted tasks (from the V2 sync check)
user
Account profile
ticktick-pp-cli user - Authenticated user profile
Output Formats
# Human-readable table (default in terminal, JSON when piped)
ticktick-pp-cli completed
# JSON for scripting and agents
ticktick-pp-cli completed --json
# Filter to specific fields
ticktick-pp-cli completed --json --select id,name,status
# Dry run — show the request without sending
ticktick-pp-cli completed --dry-run
# Agent mode — JSON + compact + no prompts in one flag
ticktick-pp-cli completed --agent
Agent Usage
This CLI is designed for AI agent consumption:
- Non-interactive - never prompts, every input is a flag
- Pipeable -
--json output to stdout, errors to stderr
- Filterable -
--select id,name returns only fields you need
- Previewable -
--dry-run shows the request without sending
- Explicit retries - add
--idempotent to create retries when a no-op success is acceptable
- Confirmable -
--yes for explicit confirmation of destructive actions
- Piped input - write commands can accept structured input when their help lists
--stdin
- Offline-friendly - sync/search commands can use the local SQLite store when available
- Agent-safe by default - no colors or formatting unless
--human-friendly is set
Exit codes: 0 success, 2 usage error, 3 not found, 4 auth error, 5 API error, 7 rate limited, 10 config error.
Health Check
ticktick-pp-cli doctor
Verifies configuration, credentials, and connectivity to the API.
Configuration
Run ticktick-pp-cli doctor to see the resolved config, data, state, and cache directories. The platform-default config path is ~/.config/ticktick-pp-cli/config.toml; --home, TICKTICK_HOME, and per-kind env vars can relocate it.
Static request headers can be configured under headers; per-command header overrides take precedence.
Environment variables:
| Name | Kind | Required | Description |
|---|
TICKTICK_SESSION_TOKEN | per_call | Yes | Set to your API credential. |
agentcookie (optional)
If you use agentcookie to sync secrets across machines, this CLI auto-adopts agentcookie-managed credentials with no extra setup. When the daemon writes to this CLI's config, ticktick-pp-cli doctor reports agentcookie: detected and auth-status labels the source as agentcookie. Skip this section if you don't use agentcookie - the CLI works the same as any other.
Troubleshooting
Authentication errors (exit code 4)
- Run
ticktick-pp-cli doctor to check credentials
- Verify the environment variable is set:
echo $TICKTICK_SESSION_TOKEN
Not found errors (exit code 3)
- Check the resource ID is correct
- Run the
list command to see available items
API-specific
- HTTP 503 on every request — The API rejects default HTTP clients; the CLI sends a browser-like User-Agent automatically — if you overrode it in config, remove the override.
- V2 signon fails but the password is correct (Google-SSO account) — Google-SSO accounts may have no password. Set one at ticktick.com account settings, or copy the 't' cookie from DevTools into TICKTICK_SESSION_TOKEN.
- note edit reports an etag conflict — The note changed since the last read; re-run the command — it re-fetches the task and retries once automatically.
- agenda or review returns empty — Run 'ticktick-pp-cli sync --resources tasks,habits,focus' first; these commands read the local mirror.
Sources & Inspiration
This CLI was built by studying these projects and resources:
Generated by CLI Printing Press