For the last couple of years, I have used Apple’s Reminders app, but over the last few months, it has become clear I needed something with planned dates to better map out future work. Last fall, OmniFocus 4.7 shipped with just that feature, so after years away, I have returned to the venerable application.

When using Reminders, I was also using InstaRemind to add tasks quickly using natural language processing. OmniFocus’ Quick Entry tool is pretty great, but I have found it to be error-prone as you have to tab between multiple fields to enter a task with metadata such as a project, due date, etc:

I took the chance to complete my first project with Claude. Over a few days, I went back and forth with it to create a webpage that would accept input as I described and pass it to OmniFocus. I can trigger this webpage with Keyboard Maestro:

You can see two text fields. The top section is for my task and its data, with the bottom text field reserved for any notes to be saved with the task. Tokens get broken out under the text, with reminders across the bottom of the window.

You may wonder why I chose these symbols. Turns out, I still had the Remember the Milk Smart Add shortcuts in my brain, and they came to the surface when working on this. (I used RTM heavily 10-15 years ago!)

I can even click on any metadata to edit it:

Once I’m ready, I can type Command+Return, and the task is sent to OmniFocus:

Like many people, I have very complex feelings about AI. It brings both good and bad into the world, and even this little tool makes me feel a little strange, but I am glad I got to explore what Claude can do. At times, it seemed real dumb; I had to tell it several times that I was using Planned dates and not Defer dates. Other times, it felt like I was working with a knowledgeable web developer. That is… weird.

If you want to play with this, I have the HTML file and Keyboard Maestro macro for calling it zipped up here. Since it’s just a local webpage, there are many ways you could use it.

Note that you will need to hard-code your OmniFocus projects at line 260 in the HTML file. I left an example project in the code for you to see.

I am not offering any support for this, nor am I making any promises about whether it’s a good idea to use it. All it’s doing is passing data to the OmniFocus Mac app via a custom URL. It doesn’t make any web calls or rely on external APIs, but if it suddenly springs to life, please tell someone.