Task Coach - Your friendly task manager

Task Coach is a free/libre/open task manager for keeping track of projects and todo lists.

It's over 20 years old, and development was stagnant in recent years. Here, the project is continued again and has been updated to Python3!

Screenshots

Quick Start

Download the package for your system from the latest release:

After installing, Task Coach should be in normal system launchers (Applications → Office → Task Coach). For CLI, the launch command is taskcoach.py.

Linux

Debian / Ubuntu

Install instructions for Debian Trixie (similar for other Debian/Ubuntu systems, just use the appropriate .deb file):

cd ~/Downloads
wget https://github.com/taskcoach/taskcoach/releases/latest/download/taskcoach_2.0.2.18_debian-13-trixie.deb
sudo apt install ./taskcoach_2.0.2.18_debian-13-trixie.deb

To uninstall:

sudo apt remove taskcoach
sudo apt autoremove  # optional: remove unused dependencies

Arch Linux / Manjaro

cd ~/Downloads
wget https://github.com/taskcoach/taskcoach/releases/latest/download/taskcoach-2.0.2.18-arch.pkg.tar.zst
sudo pacman -U taskcoach-2.0.2.18-arch.pkg.tar.zst

To uninstall:

sudo pacman -R taskcoach
sudo pacman -Qdtq | sudo pacman -Rs -  # optional: remove orphaned dependencies

Fedora

cd ~/Downloads
wget https://github.com/taskcoach/taskcoach/releases/latest/download/taskcoach-2.0.2.18-fedora43.rpm
sudo dnf install ./taskcoach-2.0.2.18-fedora43.rpm

To uninstall:

sudo dnf remove taskcoach
sudo dnf autoremove  # optional: remove unused dependencies

AppImage

Run on any Linux without installation:

cd ~/Downloads
wget https://github.com/taskcoach/taskcoach/releases/latest/download/TaskCoach-2.0.2.18-x86_64.AppImage
chmod +x TaskCoach-2.0.2.18-x86_64.AppImage

To launch the AppImage, open the file or run:

./TaskCoach-2.0.2.18-x86_64.AppImage

To remove: simply delete the AppImage file.

Flatpak

A single-file Flatpak bundle is also published. It needs flatpak installed; the first install pulls the GNOME runtime from Flathub.

cd ~/Downloads
wget https://github.com/taskcoach/taskcoach/releases/latest/download/TaskCoach-2.0.2.18-x86_64.flatpak
flatpak install ./TaskCoach-2.0.2.18-x86_64.flatpak
flatpak run io.github.taskcoach.TaskCoach

To remove:

flatpak uninstall io.github.taskcoach.TaskCoach

The Flatpak bundles its own libayatana-appindicator, so the system-tray icon works without host packages (on GNOME you still need the AppIndicator extension, as noted below).

Linux System Tray

Task Coach uses libayatana-appindicator for the system tray icon on Linux. This provides consistent behavior across all desktop environments (KDE, XFCE, MATE, LXQt, LXDE, Cinnamon) and works on both X11 and Wayland.

The package is installed automatically with the .deb/.rpm packages. For manual installation:

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install gir1.2-ayatanaappindicator3-0.1

# Fedora
sudo dnf install libayatana-appindicator-gtk3

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S libayatana-appindicator

Note: GNOME Shell removed built-in system tray support. GNOME users need the AppIndicator Support extension to see tray icons. Ubuntu pre-installs this extension.

macOS

Download the .dmg for your Mac (Apple Silicon for M1/M2/M3/M4, Intel for older Macs). Open the DMG and drag Task Coach to Applications.

On first launch, macOS will block the app because it's not notarized. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down, and click "Open Anyway" next to the Task Coach message.

See README_INSTALL_MACOS.md for detailed instructions with screenshots.

Windows

Download the .exe installer and run it. Windows will show a security warning because the app is not signed with a Microsoft certificate. Click "More info" then "Run anyway" to proceed.

For the portable version, extract the .zip and run TaskCoach.bat from the folder (or TaskCoach.vbs for silent launch without a console window).

See README_INSTALL_WINDOWS.md for detailed instructions with screenshots.

Running from Source

For development or if you prefer running from git:

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/taskcoach/taskcoach.git
cd taskcoach
./setup.sh
./taskcoach-run.sh

See docs/DEBIAN_BOOKWORM_SETUP.md for detailed setup options, troubleshooting, and platform-specific instructions.

Testing after git installaion

Quick sanity check to verify the installation:

./test_taskcoach.sh

This tests Python version, dependencies, module imports, and wxPython patch status.

License

Task Coach is free software licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.

Copyright (C) 2004-2026 Task Coach developers

Architecture Overview

Task Coach is a desktop application developed in Python using wxPython for its GUI. It follows the Model-View-Controller pattern with three main layers:

• Domain layer: Classes for tasks, categories, effort, notes and other domain objects
• GUI layer: Viewers, controllers, dialogs, menus and other GUI components
• Persistence layer: Loading/saving domain objects to XML files (.tsk) and exporting to various formats

Source Code Overview

Key packages:

Documentation

• README_INSTALL_MACOS.md - macOS installation with security bypass
• README_INSTALL_WINDOWS.md - Windows installation with SmartScreen bypass
• DEBIAN_BOOKWORM_SETUP.md - Detailed installation and setup
• PACKAGING.md - Packaging across all platforms (deb, rpm, Arch, AppImage, Flatpak, Windows, macOS)
• APPIMAGE.md - AppImage build details
• FLATPAK.md - Flatpak build details
• CRITICAL_WXPYTHON_PATCH.md - wxPython compatibility patch details

Support

• Report bugs or request features at GitHub Issues: https://github.com/taskcoach/taskcoach/issues
• Ask for help or have other open discussion at https://github.com/orgs/taskcoach/discussions