TurtleTask on your desktop

Install

• macOS — brew install --cask reindance/turtletask/turtletask, or download the .dmg from the latest release. Universal build, signed and notarised.
• Windows — the setup .exe or .msi from the latest release. The installer brings the WebView2 runtime if it's missing.
• Linux — AppImage, .deb or .rpm from the latest release (x86_64).

The app starts hidden and lives in the tray. On first run a short tour has you try the hotkey, switch on start at login, and send a test notification.

Signing in

The app never sees your password. It shows a short code and opens app.turtletask.app/connect in your browser, where you're already signed in — single sign-on and two-factor included, because that's where they already happen. Approve the device by name and the app is connected.

• It acts as you: your email on every change, your name on comments, the same as the web app.
• It is never an admin, whatever your role. Organisation settings stay a browser job.
• Settings → Devices in the web app lists every connected device and revokes any one. Changing your password disconnects them all.
• Several organisations? Sign in to each; the palette switches between them.

The palette

Press Ctrl+Shift+Space (⌘+Shift+Space on a Mac; change it in Settings). One input does everything:

• Nothing typed shows what needs you — the same bands as Home: late or blocked, inbox, unscheduled, should have started, in flight, upcoming. Tab flips between just you and everyone.
• Type to search the board; #17 jumps straight to a task. A turtletask://task/17 link opens the palette on it from anywhere.
• Add a task from one line: "Fix login redirect" @chen "Platform" "Atlas" 3 — title in quotes, then who, team, project and working days in any order. Names are matched against your organisation's own people, teams and projects and offered as you type. Extras: mon or due:fri, p1, tag:x, status:blocked, -- notes.
• Act on a row: Ctrl+S starts it, Ctrl+B blocks or unblocks it, Ctrl+D completes it. Ctrl+. opens the Home tile's full set — done, extend, defer, size, unblock, accept or reject a request, archive — and whatever you've typed becomes the comment. Every action has the web app's eight-second Undo and respects the same collision check.
• Raise a request: ask "What you need" "Team" -- detail sends it to the team's inbox, unassigned and unscheduled until they accept it, with Undo to withdraw.
• Narrow the list: team:data, @maya, project:atlas, tag:launch, status:blocked on their own filter what needs you rather than searching; they sit as chips beside Mine and All. Ctrl+Shift+S keeps any search or filter as a chip of your own, on this machine.
• Comment: #17 // waiting on Sam, or // words with a row highlighted.
• Book time off: ooo fri, ooo 21-25 sep @maya Dentist, ooo next week — with a preview of the working days and, afterwards, how many tasks moved around it.

Notifications

The app keeps one live connection to your organisation while it runs, so the list is always current and the tray shows how many things need you. Native notifications go out only for things with a "you" edge: you were assigned a task, a task of yours changed status, someone commented on a task of yours, a request arrived. Never for your own changes, and never for tasks that merely slid because something upstream moved.

• A switch per kind in Settings, with a test button.
• Quiet hours hold everything back between two times; the tray count still moves.
• Morning digest, at a time you choose on working days: one notification — "2 late, 1 blocked, 1 starts today, 3 requests waiting" — and nothing when nothing needs you.

Updates

The app updates itself: it checks shortly after launch and every six hours, offers Install and relaunch, verifies the download against a key built into the app, and relaunches. Homebrew installs update the same way. Linux .deb and .rpm installs are updated through the package manager and get a notice instead.

Platform notes

• Wayland. Global shortcuts can't be grabbed on Wayland sessions. On GNOME, Settings offers Bind in GNOME, which registers a system keybinding for you; on other Wayland desktops bind turtletask-desktop --toggle to a key in your keyboard settings. The tray icon works everywhere.
• NVIDIA on Wayland. The app disables WebKitGTK's DMA-BUF renderer itself when it finds the NVIDIA driver; for other unusual GPUs set WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER=1.
• Notification clicks open the palette on macOS; other desktops deliver the notification without a click action.
• Self-hosting? The app talks to app.turtletask.app by default and needs a server recent enough to serve /api/meta; an older server gets a clear message rather than a blank palette.