I built todotree to solve a problem I kept running into: TODO lists scale poorly once tasks start depending on each other.
Instead of a flat list or grep output, todotree treats TODOs as nodes in a dependency tree (inspired by Makefiles structure and Markdown format). This makes it easier to see what’s actionable, what’s blocked, and how tasks relate.
Key features: - Tree-based visualization of TODOs and their dependencies
- Automatically highlights actionable tasks (red)
- Supports completed (~ / ~~) tasks, shown in blue
- Multiple output formats: terminal, HTML, Markdown, JSON
- Simple Markdown-based input format
- Fast, standalone CLI tool (written in Rust)
I primarily use it to track technical debt and project planning in Markdown files, but it can also be used to visualize TODOs in any structured task list.
Demo + examples are in the repo: https://github.com/daimh/todotree
I’d really appreciate feedback:
- Is the dependency-tree model useful for TODOs?
- Are there similar tools people prefer?
- What would make this more useful in real projects?
Thanks!