Tasks and todos

Tasks in Banter are just checkboxes in notes — but every checkbox in every note rolls up into one task system, so “write it where it came up” and “see it all in one place” stop being a trade-off.

The four states

Click a checkbox to cycle quickly through Open, Done, Skipped, and back to Open. Right-click the checkbox for the full cycle, including In progress. Tasks can be:

State	Meaning	In markdown
Open	Not done yet	- [ ]
In progress	Actively being worked	- [/]
Done	Completed	- [x]
Skipped	Deliberately not doing it	- [-]

Skipped is not clutter — it’s context. A task you crossed out tells the assistant (and future you) that “send the legal redlines” was considered and dropped, which is different from never having existed. Skip instead of deleting.

Due dates

Click the calendar icon on any task to set a due date. Agents working over MCP use the text form: - [ ] Send proposal (due: 2026-07-10).

Find tasks in the timeline

Open a folder to see tasks from its notes, or All Folders for tasks across your workspace. A folded note lists its tasks beneath the summary. Subtasks fold under their parent; done and skipped tasks fold into a separate line.

Choose Filter → Tasks for Any open task, In progress, Overdue, Due today, Upcoming, or No date. This narrows the notes to ones containing a matching task. The task category links beside Today are shortcuts to the same filters and appear when that category has tasks. Their numbers count individual tasks; the numbers inside Filter count matching notes, so one note with several tasks counts once there. In progress can overlap a due-date category.

Click a task’s text in a summary to open its actions: Mark complete, Mark in progress, Mark open, Skip, or Open in note, as appropriate for its status. Click its date or calendar icon to change the date directly. When a parent is folded, its displayed date can be the earliest date among its open subtasks; expand it to edit the parent’s own date.

Status and date changes to a loaded note work offline and sync when you reconnect. If the note has a pending suggested edit, review it before changing its tasks from the timeline. If a task has changed or is still loading, open its note to check the current version.

Help me plan opens an assistant conversation with the task and its note as context. It starts a planning conversation; it does not complete the task or carry out the work.

When a folder has a brief

A brief has its own Next steps. While a brief exists, its next steps drive the folder’s task badge and the Next steps shortcut beside Today. The category links below the brief and Filter → Tasks still show the checkboxes in your notes.

Folder badges prioritize overdue tasks, then tasks due today, then other open tasks; they are not always the total number of tasks. A collapsed folder includes its subfolders in that count; expand it to see each folder’s own count. The badge tooltip explains its category and source.

A brief with no remaining next steps still owns the folder’s count: it does not fall back to the checkboxes in notes. All Folders follows its own brief when it has one, and otherwise counts note tasks across the workspace, including folders that have their own briefs.

Let the assistant work the list

Tasks are part of the workspace, so the assistant can read and write them:

What are my open todos for Acme?

Add a task to the Acme note: send the security questionnaire, due Friday.

MCP-connected agents can read and update the same tasks — “check my Banter todos” works from Claude too (what connected agents can do).