rem — CLI for macOS Reminders

A Go CLI that wraps macOS Reminders. Sub-200ms reads via cgo + EventKit. Single binary, no dependencies at runtime.

Installation

# macOS (recommended)
curl -fsSL https://rem.sidv.dev/install | bash

# Or via Go
go install github.com/BRO3886/rem/cmd/rem@latest

Install this skill into your agent:

# Claude Code or Codex
rem skills install

# OpenClaw
rem skills install --agent openclaw

Quick Start

# See all lists with reminder counts
rem lists --count

# Add a reminder with natural language date
rem add "Buy groceries" --list Personal --due tomorrow --priority high

# List incomplete reminders in a list
rem list --list Work --incomplete

# Search across all reminders
rem search "meeting"

# Complete a reminder by short ID
rem complete abc12345

# View stats
rem stats

Command Reference

Reminder CRUD

| Command | Aliases | Description | |---------|---------|-------------| | rem add | create, new | Create a reminder | | rem list | ls | List reminders with filters | | rem show | get | Show full details of one reminder | | rem update | edit | Update reminder properties | | rem delete | rm, remove | Delete a reminder | | rem complete | done | Mark reminder complete | | rem uncomplete | — | Mark reminder incomplete | | rem flag | — | Flag a reminder | | rem unflag | — | Remove flag |

List Management

| Command | Aliases | Description | |---------|---------|-------------| | rem lists | — | Show all lists | | rem list-mgmt create | lm new | Create a list | | rem list-mgmt rename | — | Rename a list | | rem list-mgmt delete | lm rm | Delete a list |

Search & Analytics

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | rem search <query> | Search title and notes | | rem stats | Show statistics and per-list breakdown | | rem overdue | Show overdue reminders | | rem upcoming | Show reminders due in next N days (default: 7) |

Import/Export

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | rem export | Export to JSON or CSV | | rem import <file> | Import from JSON or CSV file |

Skills & Other

| Command | Description | |---------|-------------| | rem skills install | Install rem skill for AI agents | | rem skills uninstall | Uninstall rem skill from AI agents | | rem skills status | Show skill installation status | | rem interactive / rem i | Interactive menu-driven mode | | rem version | Print version | | rem completion | Generate shell completions (bash/zsh/fish) |

For full flag details on every command, see references/commands.md.

Key Concepts

Short IDs

Reminders have UUIDs like x-apple-reminder://AB12CD34-.... The CLI displays the first 8 characters as a short ID (AB12CD34). You can pass any unique prefix to commands — rem complete AB1 works if it matches exactly one reminder.

Natural Language Dates

The --due flag accepts natural language:

rem add "Call dentist" --due tomorrow
rem add "Submit report" --due "next friday at 2pm"
rem add "Quick task" --due "in 30 minutes"
rem add "Wrap up" --due eod

Supported patterns: today, tomorrow, next monday, in 3 hours, eod, eow, 5pm, 2026-02-15, and more. See references/dates.md for the full list.

Priority Levels

| Level | Flag value | AppleScript value | |-------|-----------|-------------------| | High | --priority high | 1 (range 1-4) | | Medium | --priority medium | 5 | | Low | --priority low | 9 (range 6-9) | | None | --priority none | 0 |

Output Formats

All read commands support -o / --output:

• table (default) — formatted table with borders
• json — machine-readable JSON
• plain — simple text, one item per line

The NO_COLOR environment variable is respected.

URL Storage

macOS Reminders has no native URL field. rem stores URLs in the notes/body field with a URL: prefix and extracts them for display.

Common Workflows

Daily review

rem overdue                          # Check what's past due
rem upcoming --days 1                # See today's reminders
rem list --list Work --incomplete    # Focus on work items

Batch operations with JSON

rem export --list Work --format json > backup.json
rem import backup.json --list "Work Archive"

Scripting with JSON output

# Get overdue count
rem overdue -o json | jq 'length'

# List all incomplete reminder titles
rem list --incomplete -o json | jq -r '.[].name'

Public Go API

For programmatic access, use go-eventkit directly:

import "github.com/BRO3886/go-eventkit/reminders"

client, _ := reminders.New()
r, _ := client.CreateReminder(reminders.CreateReminderInput{
    Title:    "Buy milk",
    ListName: "Shopping",
    Priority: reminders.PriorityHigh,
})
items, _ := client.Reminders(reminders.WithCompleted(false))

See go-eventkit docs for the full API surface.

Limitations

• macOS only — requires EventKit framework and osascript
• No tags, subtasks, or recurrence — not exposed by EventKit/AppleScript
• --flagged filter is slower (~3-4s) — falls back to JXA since EventKit doesn't expose flagged
• List deletion may fail on some macOS versions