Monday, August 11th, 2025
If you've ever tried to explain how a command-line tool works, you know the struggle. A static screenshot is worth a thousand words, but it often fails to capture the interactive, dynamic nature of the terminal. A full-blown video recording or a GIF can do the trick, but they come with their own set of problems: large file sizes, blurry text, and no way for the viewer to pause and inspect the content.
I recently found myself in this very predicament. I was putting the finishing touches on a personal project I've been using for years, a command-line task manager called Perennial Task. It's a simple, file-based tool I built to help me manage recurring responsibilities, those tasks that, like the name suggests, come back recurringly. I wanted to showcase its features in the README file on GitHub, but I felt that a simple block of text wouldn't do it justice. I needed something better.
That's when I had an idea: what if I could record my terminal session and play it back as a lightweight, crisp, and interactive animation? This led me down a rabbit hole, and after a lot of tinkering, I’m excited to introduce my solution: term-to-svg.
Wednesday, July 16th, 2025
At its heart, Perennial Task has always been about a simple philosophy: giving you total control over your tasks in a way that feels natural, powerful, and timeless. Each task is a file, you own your data, and you manage your responsibilities right from the command line where you work.
In my journey to make Perennial Task the best tool for cultivating recurring responsibilities, I’ve listened to feedback and looked for ways to make the system even more intuitive. Today, I'm thrilled to announce a major update that fundamentally refines how tasks are scheduled, making the application more flexible and powerful than ever before.
Saturday, July 12th, 2025
In the world of command-line productivity, one tool stands as a titan: Taskwarrior. It's a powerhouse of features, offering sophisticated filtering, tagging, project management, and a rich ecosystem of extensions. When I set out to build my own system, Perennial Task, I knew I wasn't creating a "Taskwarrior killer." I was building something to solve the specific workflow problems I had that Taskwarrior, for all its might, couldn't fix.
The single biggest point of friction, and the primary reason Perennial Task exists, is my philosophical disagreement with how Taskwarrior handles recurring tasks. It’s a subtle difference in logic that has a massive impact on how you manage the routine chores of life.
Friday, July 11th, 2025
I’ve tried them all. The slick, venture-backed to-do list apps with collaborative features I don’t need. The minimalist plain-text systems that are too simple. The web-based platforms that hold my data hostage in the cloud. None of them ever stuck. My needs are simple, but specific: I want a task management system that is text-based, version-controllable, and most importantly, pushes my agenda to me so I don't have to remember to check it.
Frustrated with off-the-shelf solutions, I decided to build my own. The result is Perennial Task, a simple yet powerful task manager written in PHP that runs on my personal server. It’s the backbone of my personal organization, and it ensures I never forget a bill payment, a renewal, or a simple chore.
Here’s how it works.
Thursday, July 10th, 2025
In the bustling marketplace of productivity apps, we're spoiled for choice. Sleek, cloud-based task managers with collaborative features and mobile clients are the norm. But what if the conventional approach to task management doesn't quite fit your workflow? What if you crave simplicity, control, and a system built for the long haul?
Enter Perennial Task, a command-line-based task manager that rethinks the very nature of a to-do list. By examining its inner workings, revealed through its application test suite, we can see it’s not just another app—it's a different philosophy.