A Ruby gem for printing TODO items to ESC/POS thermal printers. Print manual todos or sync with Apple Reminders to get physical copies of your tasks.

• 🖨️ Direct thermal printer support - Works with ESC/POS compatible receipt printers
• 📝 Manual todo creation - Create and print todos from the command line
• 🍎 Apple Reminders integration - Automatically print todos due today from your Reminders app
• 🔍 Auto-printer detection - Finds connected USB serial printers automatically
• ⚡ Interactive mode - User-friendly prompts for creating todos
• 🎯 macOS Quick Actions - Print todos directly from the Services menu
• ⏰ Automation ready - Set up cron jobs for daily todo printing

• macOS (for Apple Reminders integration)
• Ruby >= 2.7.0
• ESC/POS compatible thermal printer (USB)
• SQLite3 (for Reminders access)

Clone the repository and install from source:

git clone https://github.com/lape/todo_printer.git
cd todo_printer
bundle install
rake install

This will install the todo_printer command globally on your system.

Todo printer supports configuration via ~/.config/todo_printer/config.yml:

# Default printer device
printer_device: /dev/cu.usbserial-12345

# Print settings
print_settings:
  wrap_width: 32
  auto_cut: true
  
# Reminders settings
reminders:
  include_notes: true
  priority_symbols:
    high: "🔴"
    medium: "🟡"
    low: "🟢"

Copy config.yml.example to get started:

mkdir -p ~/.config/todo_printer
cp config.yml.example ~/.config/todo_printer/config.yml

# List available printers
todo_printer --list-printers

# Print a single todo
todo_printer -t "Buy milk" -d "2% organic" --priority "High"

# Interactive mode (prompts for details)
todo_printer

# Print all Apple Reminders due today
todo_printer --reminders

# Use a specific printer
todo_printer -p /dev/cu.usbserial-12345 -t "Todo item"

todo_printer -t "Team meeting" -d "Discuss Q4 goals" --priority "High"

Output:

================================
        TODO ITEM
================================
Title: Team meeting
Priority: High
--------------------------------
Discuss Q4 goals
--------------------------------
Created: 2025-06-23 14:30
================================

todo_printer --reminders

1. Open the shortcut.applescript file in Script Editor
2. Export as an Application or Quick Action
3. Add to System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services
4. Now you can print todos from any app's Services menu

Due to macOS security restrictions, the best approach for automation is to use a standalone script that can be directly added to Full Disk Access:

1. Install the standalone script:

   sudo cp print_reminders_standalone.rb /usr/local/bin/print_reminders_todo
   sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/print_reminders_todo

2. Grant Full Disk Access:

   • Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access
   • Click the lock to make changes
   • Click the "+" button
   • Press Cmd+Shift+G and enter /usr/local/bin/print_reminders_todo
   • Click "Open" to add the script
   • Ensure the checkbox is enabled

3. Set up cron job:

   # Edit your crontab
   crontab -e
   
   # Add this line to print todos every morning at 8 AM
   0 8 * * * /usr/local/bin/print_reminders_todo >> /tmp/todo_printer.log 2>&1

4. Verify it's working:

   # Test manually
   /usr/local/bin/print_reminders_todo
   
   # Check logs after cron runs
   tail -f /tmp/todo_printer.log

The standalone script (print_reminders_standalone.rb) is a self-contained version that doesn't require Ruby gems or bundler, making it ideal for system-level automation.

If you prefer using the installed gem, you'll need to grant Full Disk Access to both /usr/sbin/cron and your Ruby installation. However, this is more complex and less reliable than the standalone script approach.

Todo printer works with ESC/POS compatible thermal printers including:

• Generic POS-80 series printers
• Epson TM series (TM-T88, TM-T20, etc.)
• Star Micronics printers with ESC/POS mode
• Most 58mm and 80mm USB thermal receipt printers

The gem automatically detects printers at:

• Named printer: POS80_Series_POS80_Printer_USB
• USB serial devices: /dev/cu.usbserial* and /dev/tty.usbserial*

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/lape/todo_printer.git
cd todo_printer

# Install dependencies
bundle install

bundle exec rake test

This project uses RuboCop for code linting:

# Check code style
bundle exec rubocop

# Auto-fix issues
bundle exec rubocop -a

todo_printer/
├── bin/                       # Executable files
│   └── todo_printer          # Main CLI executable
├── lib/                      # Library code
│   ├── todo_printer.rb       # Main module file
│   └── todo_printer/         # Module components
│       ├── version.rb        # Version constant
│       ├── printer.rb        # Core printer functionality
│       ├── apple_reminders.rb # Reminders integration
│       ├── config.rb         # Configuration management
│       └── cli.rb            # Command-line interface
├── spec/                     # Test files
├── todo_printer.gemspec      # Gem specification
├── Gemfile                   # Development dependencies
└── Rakefile                  # Build tasks

### Core Components

1. **TodoPrinter::Printer** - Core printer functionality:
   - ESC/POS command generation
   - Direct device communication
   - Auto-detection of USB printers
   - Text formatting and wrapping

2. **TodoPrinter::AppleReminders** - Apple Reminders integration:
   - Direct SQLite database access
   - Filters todos due today
   - Priority and list support

3. **TodoPrinter::CLI** - Command-line interface:
   - Argument parsing
   - Interactive mode
   - Configuration management

4. **TodoPrinter::Config** - Configuration handling:
   - YAML configuration files
   - User preferences
   - Default settings

## Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (`git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature`)
3. Commit your changes (`git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature'`)
4. Push to the branch (`git push origin feature/amazing-feature`)
5. Open a Pull Request

### Development Guidelines

- Write tests for new features
- Follow Ruby style conventions (enforced by RuboCop)
- Update documentation as needed
- Add entries to CHANGELOG.md

## Troubleshooting

### Printer not found

If your printer isn't detected automatically:

1. List available printers:
   ```bash
   todo_printer --list-printers

2. Check USB connections:

   ls /dev/cu.* | grep -E "(usbserial|POS)"

3. Specify printer manually:

   todo_printer -p /dev/cu.usbserial-12345 -t "Test"

Grant Terminal/iTerm access to Reminders:

1. System Preferences → Security & Privacy → Privacy
2. Select "Reminders"
3. Check your terminal application

• Ensure printer supports ESC/POS commands
• Check printer is powered on and connected
• Try printing a test page first
• Verify character encoding (UTF-8)

This project is available under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

• ESC/POS command reference documentation
• Apple Core Data timestamp handling techniques
• Ruby ESC/POS printing community

• GitHub Repository
• Bug Reports