zed-taskpaper

TaskPaper language support for Zed: syntax highlighting, @done/@cancelled fading, and outline navigation via a tree-sitter grammar, plus a lightweight language server (taskpaper-ls) for due-date awareness, live task counts, and one-keystroke task workflows.

Format

• Task — a line starting with - .
• Project — a non-task line ending with : (trailing tags allowed).
• Note — any other non-blank line.
• Tags — a trailing, whitespace-preceded run of @name / @name(value) at the end of a line. Mid-line @words (emails, handles) are plain text.
• Nesting — tab indentation nests an item under the item above.

Features

Shortcuts below are written for macOS; on Linux and Windows use ctrl wherever they say cmd.

• Highlighting — projects as titles, notes dimmed, tags and values distinctly colored.
• @done / @cancelled fading — tagged items and their entire subtree (any depth) fade into the theme's ghost style, distinct from note dimming. The state tag stays legible: @done muted blue, @cancelled muted amber. Task bullets act as pseudo-checkboxes: accent colored while open, faded when closed.
• Outline — projects (only) appear in the outline panel and cmd-shift-o, nested as in the document, shown by bare name.
• Folding — indentation-based folding works out of the box (a @done subtree folds like any other indented block).

From the language server (all passive once installed):

• Due-date diagnostics — open items with @due/@start dates in the past get a warning ("due (3 days overdue)"); items due today, or tagged @today, get an info. The project diagnostics panel (cmd-shift-m) thereby doubles as a "what needs attention" view across all files.
• Inlay hints — live task counts after every project heading (Home: 3 open) and countdowns after future @due tags (in 3 days). Enable inlay hints in settings: "inlay_hints": {"enabled": true}.
• Hover — hover a project for its count breakdown, or a @due/@done/@cancelled tag for relative dates.
• Code actions (cmd-. on any line):
  • Mark/Remove @done (stamps today's date) and @cancelled — the toggle, operating on the buffer, unsaved changes and all.
  • Archive finished items — moves every finished subtree to a top-level Archive: project (created on demand, newest at top), stamping each with a @project(Parent / Child) breadcrumb so the parent chain is preserved — the same convention as the TaskPaper 3 app.
  • Sort children by @due and task ↔ note conversion.
• Tag completion — type @ for tag names ranked by workspace usage; inside @due( get date suggestions (today / tomorrow / next week).
• Tag rename — rename a @tag across the whole workspace.
• Project search — projects across all .taskpaper files in the open-symbols picker.
• Formatting — editor: format (or format-on-save) strips trailing whitespace, converts leading spaces to tabs, and normalizes tag spacing.

Install

In Zed: zed: extensions, search for TaskPaper, install. Open any .taskpaper file.

The first time a .taskpaper file is opened, the extension resolves the taskpaper-ls binary in this order:

1. lsp.taskpaper-ls.binary.path from your Zed settings, if set;
2. a taskpaper-ls on the worktree's PATH;
3. otherwise it downloads the binary for your platform from this repo's GitHub releases and caches it. Prebuilt binaries cover macOS, Linux, and Windows on both x86-64 and arm64.

Everything except the language server features works without that download.

To run from a checkout instead — zed: extensions → Install Dev Extension → select the clone. Build the server with pixi run build-lsp and put taskpaper-ls on your PATH (or point lsp.taskpaper-ls.binary.path at it).

Marking items @done with alt-d

The Mark @done code action is one keystroke away via cmd-.. For a dedicated key, bind the code-action menu (zed: open keymap):

[
  {
    "context": "Editor && extension == taskpaper",
    "bindings": {
      "alt-d": "editor::ToggleCodeActions"
    }
  }
]

Filtering

Overdue and due-today items surface automatically in the diagnostics panel (cmd-shift-m), across every file in the project. For ad-hoc tag filtering use buffer search (cmd-f) or project search (cmd-shift-f) for @due, @due(2026-07, etc.

Limitations

• Faded, not struck through: Zed theme syntax styles have no strikethrough.
• Tag values cannot contain ) or newlines; nested parentheses make the run plain text.
• Tags are recognized only at the end of a line (stricter than TaskPaper 3, by design).

Development

See MAINTAINER.md. MIT licensed.