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quick-start

Quick Start

This guide will walk you through creating your first schedule and running the reminder service.

What You'll Build​

Add Schedule

Adding tasks via CLI

View Schedule

Viewing your schedule

1. Initialize Configuration​

If you haven't already, create your configuration files from the provided templates.

# Create the config directory if it doesn't exist
mkdir -p ~/schedule_management/config

# Copy templates
cp config/settings_template.toml ~/schedule_management/config/settings.toml
cp config/week_schedule_template.toml ~/schedule_management/config/odd_weeks.toml
cp config/week_schedule_template.toml ~/schedule_management/config/even_weeks.toml

2. Define Your Building Blocks (settings.toml)​

Open ~/schedule_management/config/settings.toml. This file defines the vocabulary of your schedule—the reusable blocks and settings.

[settings]
sound_file = "/System/Library/Sounds/Ping.aiff"
alarm_interval = 5        # Repeat alert every 5 seconds
max_alarm_duration = 300  # Stop after 5 minutes

# Define reusable time blocks (duration in minutes)
[time_blocks]
pomodoro = 25
short_break = 5
long_break = 15
meeting = 60
lunch = 60

# Define reusable messages
[time_points]
bedtime = "Wind down and disconnect 😴"
standup = "Daily Standup Meeting 🗣️"

3. Build Your Schedule (odd_weeks.toml)​

Open ~/schedule_management/config/odd_weeks.toml. This is where you map time to action.

The file is organized by day of the week ([monday], [tuesday], etc.) and a [common] section for daily habits.

# Events that happen every day
[common]
"12:00" = "lunch"
"23:00" = "bedtime"

# Specific schedule for Monday
[monday]
"09:00" = "pomodoro"       # Starts at 09:00, ends at 09:25
"09:25" = "short_break"    # Starts at 09:25, ends at 09:30
"09:30" = "pomodoro"
"10:00" = { block = "meeting", title = "Weekly Planning" }

# ... add other days as needed

Tip: The system automatically switches between odd_weeks.toml and even_weeks.toml based on the ISO week number. For a simple weekly schedule, just make them identical or symlink them.

4. Verify and Launch​

Before letting it run in the background, verify your setup.

  1. Check for Syntax Errors:

    reminder status

    If your config is valid, this will show the next upcoming event.

  2. Visualize the Day:

    reminder view

    This prints a timeline of your schedule to the terminal.

  3. Start/Restart the Service: Apply your changes and restart the background daemon.

    reminder update

5. Managing Tasks (Optional)​

Schedule Everything also includes a lightweight CLI task manager.

# Add tasks with an importance score (1-10)
reminder add "Fix critical bug" 10
reminder add "Email the team" 5

# List tasks (sorted by importance)
reminder ls

# Remove a task
reminder rm "Email the team"

Next Steps​