rem

A blazing fast CLI for macOS Reminders. Sub-200ms reads AND writes via EventKit, natural language dates, and import/export — all in a single binary.

Documentation | Architecture | go-eventkit

Features

Sub-200ms reads AND writes — EventKit via cgo (go-eventkit), direct memory access, no IPC
Single binary — EventKit compiled in via cgo, no helper processes
Natural language dates — tomorrow, next friday at 2pm, in 3 hours, eod
19 commands — full CRUD, search, stats, overdue, upcoming, interactive mode
Multiple output formats — table, JSON, plain text
Import/Export — JSON and CSV with full property round-trip
Powered by go-eventkit — use the same library directly for programmatic Go access
Shell completions — bash, zsh, fish

Installation

Quick install (recommended)

curl -fsSL https://rem.sidv.dev/install | bash

Downloads the latest release, extracts, and installs to /usr/local/bin.

Via Go

go install github.com/BRO3886/rem/cmd/rem@latest

Requires Go 1.21+ and Xcode Command Line Tools (cgo compiles EventKit bindings).

Manual download

Download from GitHub Releases:

# Apple Silicon
curl -LO https://github.com/BRO3886/rem/releases/latest/download/rem-darwin-arm64.tar.gz
tar xzf rem-darwin-arm64.tar.gz
sudo mv rem /usr/local/bin/rem

# Intel
curl -LO https://github.com/BRO3886/rem/releases/latest/download/rem-darwin-amd64.tar.gz
tar xzf rem-darwin-amd64.tar.gz
sudo mv rem /usr/local/bin/rem

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/BRO3886/rem.git
cd rem
make build
# Binary is at ./bin/rem

Requirements

macOS 10.12+ (uses EventKit for all reads and writes via go-eventkit, AppleScript only for flagged operations)
Xcode Command Line Tools (for building from source — cgo/clang + framework headers)
First run will prompt for Reminders app access in System Settings > Privacy & Security

Quick Start

# List all reminder lists
rem lists --count

# Create a reminder
rem add "Buy groceries" --list Personal --due tomorrow --priority high

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

# Search reminders
rem search "meeting"

# Show reminder details
rem show <id>

# Complete a reminder
rem complete <id>

# Show statistics
rem stats

Commands

Reminders

# Create
rem add "Title" [--list LIST] [--due DATE] [--priority high|medium|low] [--notes TEXT] [--url URL] [--flagged]
rem add -i                          # Interactive creation

# List
rem list [--list LIST] [--incomplete] [--completed] [--flagged] [--due-before DATE] [--due-after DATE] [-o json|table|plain]
rem ls                              # Alias

# Show
rem show <id>                       # Full or partial ID
rem get <id> -o json

# Update
rem update <id> [--name TEXT] [--due DATE] [--priority LEVEL] [--notes TEXT] [--url URL]

# Complete / Uncomplete
rem complete <id>
rem done <id>                       # Alias
rem uncomplete <id>

# Flag / Unflag
rem flag <id>
rem unflag <id>

# Delete
rem delete <id>                     # Asks for confirmation
rem rm <id> --force                 # Skip confirmation

Lists

# View all lists
rem lists
rem lists --count                   # Show reminder counts

# Create a list
rem list-mgmt create "My List"
rem lm new "Shopping"               # Alias

# Rename a list
rem list-mgmt rename "Old Name" "New Name"

# Delete a list
rem list-mgmt delete "Name"         # Asks for confirmation
rem lm rm "Name" --force

Search & Analytics

rem search "query" [--list LIST] [--incomplete]
rem stats                           # Overall statistics
rem overdue                         # Overdue reminders
rem upcoming [--days 7]             # Upcoming due dates

Import / Export

# Export
rem export --list Work --format json > work.json
rem export --format csv --output-file reminders.csv
rem export --incomplete --format json

# Import
rem import work.json
rem import reminders.csv --list "Imported"
rem import --dry-run data.json      # Preview without creating

Interactive Mode

rem interactive                     # Full interactive menu
rem i                               # Alias
rem add -i                          # Interactive add

Output Formats

All list/show commands support --output (-o):

rem list -o table                   # Default, formatted table
rem list -o json                    # Machine-readable JSON
rem list -o plain                   # Simple text
rem list -o json | jq '.[].name'   # Pipe to jq

Color output respects NO_COLOR:

NO_COLOR=1 rem list
rem list --no-color

AI Agent Skills

rem skills install                 # Interactive picker
rem skills install --agent claude  # Claude Code only
rem skills install --agent all     # All supported agents
rem skills status                  # Check installation status
rem skills uninstall               # Remove the skill

Shell Completions

# Bash
rem completion bash > /usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d/rem

# Zsh
rem completion zsh > "${fpath[1]}/_rem"

# Fish
rem completion fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/rem.fish

Date Parsing

rem supports natural language dates:

Input	Meaning
`today`	Today at 9:00 AM
`tomorrow`	Tomorrow at 9:00 AM
`next monday`	Next Monday at 9:00 AM
`next friday at 2pm`	Next Friday at 2:00 PM
`in 2 days`	2 days from now
`in 3 hours`	3 hours from now
`in 30 minutes`	30 minutes from now
`eod` / `end of day`	Today at 5:00 PM
`next week`	7 days from now
`next month`	1 month from now
`5pm`	Today (or tomorrow) at 5:00 PM
`2026-02-15`	February 15, 2026
`2026-02-15 14:30`	February 15, 2026 at 2:30 PM

Go API

rem is powered by go-eventkit — use it directly for programmatic access to macOS Reminders in your own Go programs:

go get github.com/BRO3886/go-eventkit

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "time"

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

func main() {
    client, err := reminders.New()
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }

    // Create a reminder
    due := time.Now().Add(24 * time.Hour)
    r, err := client.CreateReminder(reminders.CreateReminderInput{
        Title:    "Buy groceries",
        ListName: "Personal",
        DueDate:  &due,
        Priority: reminders.PriorityHigh,
    })
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }
    fmt.Println("Created:", r.ID)

    // List incomplete reminders
    items, _ := client.Reminders(
        reminders.WithList("Personal"),
        reminders.WithCompleted(false),
    )
    for _, item := range items {
        fmt.Printf("- %s (due: %v)\n", item.Title, item.DueDate)
    }

    // Complete a reminder
    client.CompleteReminder(r.ID)

    // Get all lists
    lists, _ := client.Lists()
    for _, l := range lists {
        fmt.Printf("%s (%d reminders)\n", l.Title, l.Count)
    }
}

See the go-eventkit README for the full API reference.

Architecture

rem/
├── cmd/rem/              # CLI entry point
│   ├── main.go
│   └── commands/         # Cobra command definitions
├── internal/
│   ├── service/          # Service layer wrapping go-eventkit (AppleScript only for flagged ops)
│   ├── reminder/         # Domain models (Reminder, List, Priority)
│   ├── parser/           # Natural language date parsing
│   ├── export/           # JSON & CSV import/export
│   ├── skills/           # Agent skill install/uninstall/status
│   ├── update/           # Background update check (GitHub releases)
│   └── ui/               # Table formatting, colored output
├── skills/rem-cli/       # Embedded agent skill files
├── website/              # Hugo documentation site
├── Makefile
├── LICENSE
└── README.md

All reads and writes — including reminder CRUD and list CRUD — go through go-eventkit (github.com/BRO3886/go-eventkit) — an Objective-C EventKit bridge compiled into the binary via cgo. Direct in-process access to the Reminders store, no IPC. All operations complete in under 200ms.

Flagged operations use AppleScript via osascript — EventKit doesn't expose the flagged property. Default list name query also uses AppleScript.

Performance

Tested with 224 reminders across 12 lists:

Command	Time
`rem lists`	0.12s
`rem list` (all 224)	0.13s
`rem show` (by prefix)	0.11s
`rem search`	0.11s
`rem stats`	0.17s

See Performance docs for the full optimization story (JXA at 60s → EventKit at 0.13s).

Known Limitations

macOS only — requires EventKit framework and osascript
No tags/subtasks — not exposed via EventKit
--flagged filter is slow (~3-4s) — EventKit doesn't expose flagged, falls back to JXA
Immutable lists cannot be renamed or deleted (system lists like Siri suggestions)

License

MIT

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 37 Commits
.claude/commands		.claude/commands
.github/workflows		.github/workflows
cmd/rem		cmd/rem
completions		completions
docs		docs
internal		internal
journals		journals
scripts		scripts
skills/rem-cli		skills/rem-cli
website		website
.gitignore		.gitignore
CLAUDE.md		CLAUDE.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
Makefile		Makefile
README.md		README.md
go.mod		go.mod
go.sum		go.sum
skills.go		skills.go
skills_test.go		skills_test.go

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rem

Features

Installation

Quick install (recommended)

Via Go

Manual download

Build from source

Requirements

Quick Start

Commands

Reminders

Lists

Search & Analytics

Import / Export

Interactive Mode

Output Formats

AI Agent Skills

Shell Completions

Date Parsing

Go API

Architecture

Performance

Known Limitations

License

About

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Packages

Contributors 2

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rem

Features

Installation

Quick install (recommended)

Via Go

Manual download

Build from source

Requirements

Quick Start

Commands

Reminders

Lists

Search & Analytics

Import / Export

Interactive Mode

Output Formats

AI Agent Skills

Shell Completions

Date Parsing

Go API

Architecture

Performance

Known Limitations

License

About

Topics

Resources

License

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Releases 7

Packages 0

Contributors 2

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