{"slug": "show-hn-taskpocket-a-to-do-app-with-an-mcp-server-instead-of-built-in-ai", "title": "Show HN: TaskPocket, a to-do app with an MCP server instead of built-in AI", "summary": "A developer released TaskPocket, a to-do app that ships an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server instead of built-in AI, letting users connect their own assistant to their task list. TaskPocket organizes work around two nouns — areas and projects — plus three task locations (inbox, project, Someday) and two dates (start and due), with natural-language date and repeat parsing, #tags, and Premium smart projects that act as saved filters. The app sells no data, offers full JSON export, and keeps tags free on every plan.", "body_md": "### Task\n\nThe atom. Title, notes, a checklist, dates, a repeat rule, and the files that go with it.\n\nMost task apps quietly become a project of their own — tags to maintain, filters to tune, a system to keep tidy. This one has seven words in it and no method to learn.\n\nType a date or a repeat — it gets lifted out of the sentence.\n\nDue today or earlier. Loose tasks first, then grouped by project.\n\nStay on top of work\n\nTrack projects, deadlines and meeting prep without getting overwhelmed.\n\nYour tasks are yours.\n\nTaskPocket makes money one way: people paying for it. Nothing is sold, nothing is scanned to sell you something. Export the lot as JSON whenever you like — and if you want an assistant reading your list, you connect your own.\n\nStay organised and focused.\n\nEverything sorts itself into Today, Upcoming, Deadlines and Someday, so you see only what you need, when you need it. The rest waits where you left it.\n\nThere's no method to learn here. Seven nouns, and that's the system.\n\nThe two nouns everything is made of\n\nSomething without an ending. Work. Home. Projects live inside areas so the sidebar stays short.\n\nEvery task lives in exactly one of three places\n\nWhere things land when you haven't decided yet. Empty it when you feel like it.\n\nSomething with an ending. “Launch v2”, “Move flat”. It has a progress ring, and you can finish it — archived with its history rather than deleted.\n\nThings you might do, with no plan to do them now. It's a place, not a label: moving a task to Someday takes it out of its project, and moving it back is one drag.\n\nAnd two dates, which decide where it shows up\n\nThe day you plan to pick it up. This is what Today shows you.\n\nThe day it's actually due. Different question, different field.\n\nMost apps let you build any system you like, which is how building the system becomes the work. This one already made those choices.\n\nNotes with the formatting you'd expect — bold, italic, and links that stay clickable. Paste a URL and it becomes a link; paste from a doc and the markup survives.\n\nThen a checklist underneath, for the steps that don't deserve tasks of their own. Enter splits an item in two, Backspace merges it back, and you can drag any of them into a different order.\n\nPrep the Q3 review\n\nBoard wants the **headline numbers** plus one slide on what changed. Last quarter's deck is in [the shared drive](#basics) — reuse the layout, *don't* rebuild it.\n\nEvery third Thursday. The last business day of the month. The 15th.\n\nFour weeks after you actually finish it — not four weeks after it was due. That's the difference between “water the plants every 2 weeks” and “water the plants 2 weeks after I last watered them”, and almost nothing gets it right.\n\nStop after twelve times, or on a date you pick. Skip a week without breaking anything. And unchecking it genuinely undoes it: the dates roll back, the count goes back up, the checklist comes back.\n\nRepeat\n\nRepeat every\n\nOn\n\nRepeats\n\nEnds\n\nThis is the real editor. Change anything — the line at the bottom is the app's own summary of the rule you just built.\n\nType #call into a title and the task carries the tag. A name can have spaces in it, so #waiting for works, and #Call is the same tag as #call. Tags are free on every plan.\n\nA smart project is a saved filter that sits in the sidebar with your projects. “Calls” is every task tagged #call or #meeting. “This week at work” is everything starting in the next seven days in your Work area. It keeps itself up to date as tasks change, so you never file anything into it.\n\nSmart projects are Premium. Tags go on tasks only, not on projects or areas, and there's no page that lists one tag on its own. Search for #call, or make a smart project for it.\n\nRing Anna about the lease #call #waiting for\n\nA new task tagged #call shows up in Calls by itself. Nothing is moved or copied.\n\nThe ryokan confirmation, a photo of the form you have to bring, the itinerary someone sent you. Drop them on the task they belong to, in the web app, or from the camera, your photo library or Files on your iPhone.\n\nPictures open in a viewer. Text and Markdown files open in the app, and a PDF opens in the browser. Office files, Pages documents and anything else download, or on the iPhone, open in the share sheet.\n\nFree gives you 10 MB a file and 100 MB in total. Premium raises that to 100 MB a file and 5 GB. A task holds up to 20 files. No video or audio, and files need a connection: they don't open offline.\n\nWrite a task the way you normally would. If it contains a date or a repeat, TaskPocket sets it for you and lifts the phrase out of the title. You can always change it afterwards.\n\nNo model, no round trip. It works with the wifi off.\n\nSubmit the report tomorrow\n\nDue tomorrow\n\nCall the dentist next monday\n\nDue next Monday\n\nTeam standup every weekday at 9am\n\nRepeats every weekday\n\nPay rent every month on the 1st\n\nRepeats monthly on the 1st\n\nWater the plants every 2 weeks\n\nRepeats every 2 weeks\n\nRenew the passport Jun 30\n\nDue 30 June\n\nAI, on your terms\n\nTaskPocket doesn't ship an assistant. It ships a socket. Paste one URL into Claude or ChatGPT, approve what it can touch, and the assistant you already use can plan your day, clear your inbox, and turn meeting notes into tasks.\n\nClaude this month, ChatGPT the next, or whatever ships next year. Anything that speaks MCP connects to the same URL, so you're never stuck with the one a to-do app picked for you.\n\nA built-in assistant is a model bill, and every subscriber carries it. There's no bill to pass on here: the MCP server and the API are on the free plan. Whatever your assistant costs stays between you and its maker.\n\nNothing leaves TaskPocket until you connect something. After that, tasks go to that one assistant, only when it calls a tool, and it stops the moment you disconnect it in Settings.\n\nYour assistant, connected to TaskPocket\n\nWhat is on my plate today, and what can wait?\n\nThree things are dated today: • Call the dentist (reminder at 09:30) • Send the Q3 invoice, in the Freelance project • Draft the launch post, in Spring launch, with a 10 Oct deadline Two more are overdue from last week: Renew passport and Book the van. Nothing else is dated, so the rest can wait.\n\nMove the dentist call to Thursday and park the van booking in Someday.\n\nDone. Call the dentist is now on Thursday 2 Oct, reminder kept at 09:30. Book the van is in Someday with no date.\n\nTasks, projects, areas, and tags over plain JSON, with tokens you issue in Settings and scope to read, write, or both. An OpenAPI document comes with it, and it's free on every plan. No webhooks: poll with `updatedSince`.\n\n```\nGET /api/public/v1/tasks?view=today\nAuthorization: Bearer tp_pat_…\n```\n\nThe whole surface area of the app, so you know exactly what you're signing up for.\n\nToday is due today or earlier — loose tasks first, then grouped by project. Upcoming, Deadlines, Someday and Completed sit beside it, and that is the entire set.\n\nWork\n\nHome\n\nLaunch v2\n\nMove flat\n\nType the date and the repeat into the title. The parser lifts them out.\n\nPay rent on the 1st, every month\n\nCapture, search and complete without reaching for the mouse.\n\nThe day something is actually due is a different question from the day you plan to start it. This view answers only the first one.\n\nOverdue\n\nThis week\n\nLater\n\nThird Thursday, last business day, every 2 weeks after completion.\n\nThe whole app, on a plane, no signal. It syncs when you're back.\n\nA sidebar that stays short because projects finish.\n\nKeep the page you're reading, with the selected text as the note.\n\nEvery task, project and checklist in one JSON file, on every plan.\n\n```\n{\n  \"areas\": [ … ],\n  \"projects\": [ … ],\n  \"tasks\": [\n    { \"title\": \"Pay rent\",\n      \"dueDate\": \"2026-09-01\",\n      \"repeat\": \"monthly\" }\n  ]\n}\n```\n\nType #call in a title and it's tagged. Spaces in names are fine. Free on every plan.\n\nSaved filters that sit with your projects and fill themselves. By tag, date, list, or title. Premium.\n\nPictures, PDFs, documents and notes, on the task they belong to. Previews in the app. 100 MB free, 5 GB on Premium.\n\ncup-noodles-cat-sketch.jpg\n\n50 KB\n\nsunflower-postcard.jpg\n\n85 KB\n\ntokyo-itinerary.md\n\n725 B\n\nryokan-confirmation.pdf\n\n2.6 KB\n\npacking-list.txt\n\n624 B\n\nDay 2: Yokohama\n\nI built this because every task app I liked was locked to one operating system, and every one that wasn't had grown into something I needed a weekend to set up.\n\nThere's no team and no investors, which means nobody here needs this to become an enterprise product. Every task on the roadmap lives in TaskPocket — I use it to build it.\n\nThe changelog is public and dated. If something's missing, it's on the roadmap or it's a no, and I'll tell you which.\n\nStart for free, upgrade when you need more. No credit card required to sign up.\n\n$0/forever\n\nNo card, no trial clock, no expiry.\n\nFor anyone who wants a calm place to manage tasks.\n\n$3.99/month\n\nBilled monthly. 7-day free trial, then cancel anytime.\n\n$34.99/year\n\nThat's $2.92 a month — you keep $12.89 a year versus paying monthly. 7-day free trial.\n\n$59.99 once\n\nPay once, keep Premium forever. No subscription, no renewal.\n\nFor anyone who has outgrown five projects.\n\nPrices show in your local currency at checkout. Nothing you've already made is deleted if you go back to Free. Everyone who signed up while TaskPocket was free for everyone keeps Premium at no cost — that promise stands.\n\nNot yet. It's in development. The web app works in any mobile browser in the meantime, and you can add it to your home screen. It's not as good as a real app, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise.\n\nYes. Put a time on a task and you get a notification at it — in your browser with the tab closed, and on your iPhone. Free on every plan, one reminder per task, and it's the only thing TaskPocket will ever send you: no digests, no streaks, no nagging. Location reminders are the one kind it doesn't do; that's Apple's territory and they're better at it.\n\nNot ours, but you can connect your own. TaskPocket has no assistant, no summariser and no model reading your list; the date parser is a deterministic grammar, not a language model. What it does have is an MCP server: add one URL in Claude or ChatGPT, approve access on a consent screen, and your assistant can read and change your tasks. Disconnect it in Settings at any time. Your list isn't sold and isn't training data for anyone's model — that's a promise about the business, not about which features exist.\n\nThey're both good, and both bigger than this. The honest answer is that TaskPocket does less on purpose: no assignments, no comments, no shared workspaces, no AI assistant, no habit tracker, no Pomodoro timer. Seven words make up the whole app, and it's built by one person who uses it every day. If you want a tool your team lives in, use theirs.\n\nOn the iPhone, yes — your tasks live in a real database on the device, so you can add, reorder and complete things with no signal, and it syncs when you're back. The web app needs a connection. That's a real difference between the two, and worth knowing if you spend time on planes or trains. Files are the one exception on the phone: adding or opening one needs a connection.\n\nNothing is deleted. You keep every project and area you made. While you're over the free limit of 5 projects and 2 areas, you can't create new ones or restore any from the Trash. Files work the same way: everything you uploaded stays and opens, and new uploads wait until you're under 100 MB. Export stays free on every plan.\n\nAndroid, importing from other apps, and a way to mark priority. None of them are in TaskPocket today — I'd rather tell you that than list them on the pricing page as if they were.\n\nYes, and here's what that means concretely. One click exports every task, project and checklist as JSON, and every file you attached downloads from Settings → Storage. Deleting your account removes everything immediately, files included. Your tasks are never sold, never used as training data, and never read by an AI unless you connect one yourself.\n\nRoughly in this order, and without dates on purpose — a date on a roadmap is a promise, and I would rather ship these than defend a calendar. Nothing here exists yet.\n\nA way to say this one matters more, without inventing a date to fake it.\n\nA native app rather than the web app on a phone screen. The web app works on Android today; this is not that.\n\nAfter Android. Same list, in a window, without a browser tab.\n\nFree plan, no card, about thirty seconds to your first task.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-taskpocket-a-to-do-app-with-an-mcp-server-instead-of-built-in-ai", "canonical_source": "https://taskpocket.io/", "published_at": "2026-10-18 14:39:55+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-10-18 15:18:28.062934+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-agents", "agent-protocols", "ai-tools", "ai-products"], "entities": ["TaskPocket", "Model Context Protocol"], "also_reported_by": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-taskpocket-a-to-do-app-with-an-mcp-server-instead-of-built-in-ai", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-taskpocket-a-to-do-app-with-an-mcp-server-instead-of-built-in-ai.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-taskpocket-a-to-do-app-with-an-mcp-server-instead-of-built-in-ai.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/show-hn-taskpocket-a-to-do-app-with-an-mcp-server-instead-of-built-in-ai.jsonld"}}