Obsidian Tasks to OmniFocus

Send uncompleted tasks from the active Obsidian note to your OmniFocus inbox, then mark them complete in Obsidian.

Each task forwarded to OmniFocus includes a link back to its source note in Obsidian, so you can jump from OmniFocus straight to the relevant context.

View the project on Github

Features

Four commands for different inbox-zero workflows:

• Send uncompleted tasks to OmniFocus — scans the active note and forwards every - [ ] to OmniFocus.
• Send task at cursor to OmniFocus — sends just the task containing the cursor.
• Send selected tasks to OmniFocus — sends only the tasks within the editor selection.
• Mark all tasks complete (without sending) — checks off every - [ ] in the note without forwarding to OmniFocus.

Nested checkboxes are folded into the parent task’s note body, preserving the structure you wrote in Obsidian. Optional Preserve task hierarchy setting recreates the nesting as real OmniFocus subtasks (requires OmniAutomation or Plug-in send mode on macOS).

Inline Dataview-style fields on the task line are mapped to OmniFocus fields:

• [due:: 2026-05-10] → due date (also accepts natural language like today 1pm, tomorrow 9am, fri 3pm, next monday, in 3 days)
• [defer:: 2026-05-05] (or start:: / scheduled::) → defer date (same natural-language phrases supported)
• [flag:: true] (or a 🚩 on the line) → flag
• [estimate:: 30m] (or 1h, 1h30m, 90) → time estimate in minutes

Tag configuration:

• Set a default list of OmniFocus tags in settings.
• Override per-note with a YAML frontmatter key (default: omnifocus_tags).
• Optionally forward inline #tags written on the task line.

Destination:

• Sends to OmniFocus inbox by default.
• Optional default project in settings; per-note override via frontmatter (default key: omnifocus_project).

After successful send, the original task line is changed from - [ ] to - [x].

Requirements

• OmniFocus 3 or later, installed on the device running Obsidian (uses the omnifocus:// URL scheme).
• Works on macOS and iOS/iPadOS where OmniFocus is available.

Usage

1. Open a note that contains some - [ ] checkboxes.
2. Run Send uncompleted tasks to OmniFocus from the command palette (or bind a hotkey to it).
3. OmniFocus opens and creates one task per top-level uncompleted checkbox; the boxes are marked complete in Obsidian.

Frontmatter overrides

---
omnifocus_tags: [@work, @errand]
omnifocus_project: Apartment Hunt
---

Example task line

- [ ] Email landlord about lease renewal [due:: 2026-05-15] [flag:: true] #apartment

When sent, this becomes an OmniFocus task with title “Email landlord about lease renewal”, a due date of 2026-05-15, the flag set, and (if “Forward inline #tags” is enabled) the tag apartment — plus whatever default/frontmatter tags you’ve configured.

Nested tasks

- [ ] Plan trip
  - [ ] Book flight
  - [ ] Reserve hotel
  Notes: looking at June 12–18

By default, this sends a single OmniFocus task Plan trip with the nested lines as the OmniFocus note body. All four checkboxes in this block are marked complete in Obsidian after the send.

With Preserve task hierarchy enabled and a hierarchy-capable send mode (OmniAutomation or Plug-in on macOS), the same markdown produces three OmniFocus tasks: Plan trip as the parent with Book flight and Reserve hotel as real subtasks underneath. The free-text Notes: line stays attached to the parent’s note. In URL scheme mode, hierarchy preservation is not possible, so the plugin falls back to the body-folding behavior and shows a Notice explaining why.

Settings

Send modes

Three modes are available in settings. The default (URL scheme) works everywhere with no security prompts but cannot set plannedDate or repeating rules. Tasks that need those fields are routed through OmniAutomation per-task; plain tasks always use the URL scheme.

OmniFocus plug-in mode

The plug-in mode ships a small companion plug-in that lives inside OmniFocus. Approval is keyed to a fixed bootstrap script, so you approve it once and subsequent sends run silently.

One-time setup:

1. Enable external scripts. In OmniFocus, choose Automation → Configure… from the menu bar and turn on Accept scripts from external applications.
2. Install the plug-in. Open the plug-ins folder via Automation → Plug-Ins… → Reveal Plug-Ins Folder, then drop omnifocus-plugin/tasks-to-omnifocus.omnifocusjs from this repo into it. (If you use the iCloud-synced folder, the plug-in syncs to other Macs — though the plug-in send mode itself is macOS-only.)
3. Switch send mode. In the Obsidian plugin’s settings, set Send mode to OmniFocus plug-in.
4. Approve once. Send a task with a planned:: or repeat:: field. OmniFocus shows its security prompt for the bootstrap script — scroll to the bottom and click Approve. Future sends with planned/repeat run silently.

If a future plugin update changes the bootstrap script, OmniFocus will prompt for re-approval the next time it runs.

Bad input

If a Dataview field on a task can’t be parsed (for example, [due:: sometime soon]), the field is dropped and the task is sent without it. A Notice lists what was skipped so you can fix it.

Installation

This plugin is not (yet) in the Obsidian Community Plugins directory, so install it manually using one of the methods below.

Sideload from source (recommended for now)

This builds the plugin from the latest commit on main and symlinks it into your vault, so a git pull + npm run build is all it takes to update.

# 1. Clone the repo wherever you keep code
git clone https://github.com/jimmitchell/tasks-to-omnifocus.git
cd tasks-to-omnifocus

# 2. Install deps and build
npm install
npm run build

# 3. Symlink into your vault's plugins folder
#    Replace the path with your actual vault path.
ln -s "$(pwd)" "/path/to/YourVault/.obsidian/plugins/tasks-to-omnifocus"

Then in Obsidian:

1. Settings → Community plugins — if it says “Community plugins are currently off”, click Turn on community plugins.
2. Scroll down to Installed plugins (below the “Browse” button); the refresh icon there forces a rescan if needed.
3. Toggle Tasks to OmniFocus on.

To update later: git pull && npm run build, then in Obsidian disable and re-enable the plugin (or run “Reload app without saving” from the command palette).

Manual install from a release

Once tagged releases are available on the Releases page:

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and versions.json from the release.
2. Create the folder <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/tasks-to-omnifocus/ and drop the three files inside.
3. Enable the plugin in Settings → Community plugins → Installed plugins.

Troubleshooting

• Plugin doesn’t appear in Installed plugins — confirm <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/tasks-to-omnifocus/manifest.json exists (follow the symlink with ls -la), then quit and relaunch Obsidian (⌘Q on macOS — closing the window isn’t enough).
• Toggle is on but the command does nothing — open View → Toggle Developer Tools → Console and look for a load error.
• Tasks arrive in OmniFocus with + instead of spaces — make sure you’re on a build from commit cbcaea4 or later (npm run build after pulling).

Development

npm install
npm run dev    # esbuild watch mode — rebuilds on save
npm run build  # type-check + production build

If you sideloaded via the symlink above, npm run dev will keep main.js fresh; just disable + re-enable the plugin in Obsidian to load the new build.