pp-ticktick

TickTick — Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

This skill drives the ticktick-pp-cli binary. You must verify the CLI is installed before invoking any command from this skill. If it is missing, install it first:

1. Install via the Printing Press installer. It defaults binaries to $HOME/.local/bin on macOS/Linux and %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\PrintingPress\bin on Windows:

   npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install ticktick --cli-only
   

2. Verify: ticktick-pp-cli --version
3. Ensure the reported install directory is on $PATH for the agent/runtime that will invoke this skill.

If the npx install fails (no Node, offline, etc.), fall back to a direct Go install (requires Go 1.26.5 or newer). This installs into $GOPATH/bin (default $HOME/go/bin), so add that directory to $PATH instead:

go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/productivity/ticktick/cmd/ticktick-pp-cli@latest

If --version reports "command not found" after install, the runtime cannot see the binary directory on $PATH. Do not proceed with skill commands until verification succeeds.

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.

When to Use This CLI

Reach for this CLI whenever an agent task touches TickTick daily notes, habits, focus sessions, or weekly reviews — the surfaces the official API does not expose. It is the safe write path for daily notes and the bounded read path for briefings and reviews.

Anti-triggers

Do not use this CLI for:

• Do not use this CLI to edit TickTick calendar events synced from external calendars — that data is read-only in the V2 API
• Do not use raw 'tasks update' on a daily note; use 'note edit'
• Do not use this CLI for Dida365 (China) accounts without changing the base URL — endpoints differ

Unique Capabilities

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
  

Command Reference

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 stamp
• ticktick-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
• 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

Finding the right command

When you know what you want to do but not which command does it, ask the CLI directly:

ticktick-pp-cli which "<capability in your own words>"

which resolves a natural-language capability query to the best matching command from this CLI's curated feature index. Exit code 0 means at least one match; exit code 2 means no confident match — fall back to --help or use a narrower query.

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.

Auth Setup

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.

Run ticktick-pp-cli doctor to verify setup.

Agent Mode

Add --agent to any command. Expands to: --json --compact --no-input --no-color --yes.

• Pipeable — JSON on stdout, errors on stderr

• Filterable — --select keeps a subset of fields. Dotted paths descend into nested structures; arrays traverse element-wise. Critical for keeping context small on verbose APIs:

  ticktick-pp-cli completed --agent --select id,name,status
  

• Previewable — --dry-run shows the request without sending

• Offline-friendly — sync/search commands can use the local SQLite store when available

• Non-interactive — never prompts, every input is a flag

• Explicit retries — use --idempotent only when an already-existing create should count as success

Response envelope

Commands that read from the local store or the API wrap output in a provenance envelope:

{
  "meta": {"source": "live" | "local", "synced_at": "...", "reason": "..."},
  "results": <data>
}

Parse .results for data and .meta.source to know whether it's live or local. A human-readable N results (live) summary is printed to stderr only when stdout is a terminal AND no machine-format flag (--json, --csv, --compact, --quiet, --plain, --select) is set — piped/agent consumers and explicit-format runs get pure JSON on stdout.

Paths and state

Agents should treat the CLI's path resolver as part of the runtime contract:

• Use --home <dir> for one invocation, or set TICKTICK_HOME=<dir> to relocate all four path kinds under one root.

• Use per-kind env vars only when a specific kind must diverge: TICKTICK_CONFIG_DIR, TICKTICK_DATA_DIR, TICKTICK_STATE_DIR, TICKTICK_CACHE_DIR.

• Resolution order is per-kind env var, --home, TICKTICK_HOME, XDG (XDG_CONFIG_HOME, XDG_DATA_HOME, XDG_STATE_HOME, XDG_CACHE_HOME), then platform defaults.

• config contains settings like config.toml and profiles. data contains credentials.toml, data.db, cookies, and auth sidecars. state contains persisted queries, jobs, and teach.log. cache contains regenerable HTTP/cache files.

• Stored secrets live in credentials.toml under the data dir. Existing legacy config.toml secrets are read for compatibility and leave config.toml on the first auth write.

• Run ticktick-pp-cli doctor --fail-on warn to surface path and credential-location warnings. agent-context exposes a schema v4 paths block for agents that need the resolved dirs.

• For MCP, pass relocation through the MCP host config. The MCP binary does not inherit CLI flags:

  {
    "mcpServers": {
      "ticktick": {
        "command": "ticktick-pp-mcp",
        "env": {
          "TICKTICK_HOME": "/srv/ticktick"
        }
      }
    }
  }
  

Fleet precedence: an inherited per-kind env var overrides an explicit --home for that kind. Use TICKTICK_HOME or per-kind vars as durable fleet levers, and use --home only for a single invocation. Relocation is not reversible by unsetting env vars; move files manually before clearing TICKTICK_HOME, or doctor will not find credentials left under the former root.

Agent Feedback

When you (or the agent) notice something off about this CLI, record it:

ticktick-pp-cli feedback "the --since flag is inclusive but docs say exclusive"
ticktick-pp-cli feedback --stdin < notes.txt
ticktick-pp-cli feedback list --json --limit 10

Entries are stored locally as feedback.jsonl under the resolved data dir. They are never POSTed unless TICKTICK_FEEDBACK_ENDPOINT is set AND either --send is passed or TICKTICK_FEEDBACK_AUTO_SEND=true. Default behavior is local-only.

Write what surprised you, not a bug report. Short, specific, one line: that is the part that compounds.

Output Delivery

Every command accepts --deliver <sink>. The output goes to the named sink in addition to (or instead of) stdout, so agents can route command results without hand-piping. Three sinks are supported:

Unknown schemes are refused with a structured error naming the supported set. Webhook failures return non-zero and log the URL + HTTP status on stderr.

Named Profiles

A profile is a saved set of flag values, reused across invocations. Use it when a scheduled agent calls the same command every run with the same configuration - HeyGen's "Beacon" pattern.

ticktick-pp-cli profile save briefing --json
ticktick-pp-cli --profile briefing completed
ticktick-pp-cli profile list --json
ticktick-pp-cli profile show briefing
ticktick-pp-cli profile delete briefing --yes

Explicit flags always win over profile values; profile values win over defaults. agent-context lists all available profiles under available_profiles so introspecting agents discover them at runtime.

Exit Codes

Argument Parsing

Parse $ARGUMENTS:

1. Empty, help, or --help → show ticktick-pp-cli --help output
2. Starts with install → ends with mcp → MCP installation; otherwise → see Prerequisites above
3. Anything else → Direct Use (execute as CLI command with --agent)

MCP Server Installation

1. Install the MCP server:

   go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/productivity/ticktick/cmd/ticktick-pp-mcp@latest
   

2. Register with Claude Code:

   claude mcp add ticktick-pp-mcp -- ticktick-pp-mcp
   

3. Verify: claude mcp list

Direct Use

1. Check if installed: which ticktick-pp-cli If not found, offer to install (see Prerequisites at the top of this skill).
2. Match the user query to the best command from the Unique Capabilities and Command Reference above.
3. Execute with the --agent flag:

   ticktick-pp-cli <command> [subcommand] [args] --agent
   

4. If ambiguous, drill into subcommand help: ticktick-pp-cli <command> --help.