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Tasks

Tasks page with multiple lists

To-do items with assignment, due dates, priorities, lists, and bidirectional sync to either Microsoft To Do or Google Tasks. Pick whichever your family already uses; same UI in Prism either way.

What's in a task

  • Title (required)
  • Description: not editable in the Prism task modal; it only round-trips from Microsoft To Do / Google Tasks notes on sync.
  • List: which task list it belongs to. Nullable (inbox).
  • Assigned to: family member, or unassigned.
  • Due date: date+time, optional.
  • Priority: high / medium / low. Defaults to medium; there is no "none".
  • Category: free-form tag (Health, School, Errands, Shopping).
  • Completed: boolean. When completed, completedAt and completedBy populate.

Task lists

Lists are the primary organizational unit. Common patterns:

  • Inbox: catch-all for unsorted tasks.
  • Family: household-shared (groceries, errands).
  • Home: house maintenance, repairs.
  • Work: per-parent work tasks.
  • School: per-child school tasks.

Create lists in Settings → Integrations → (Google or Microsoft) card → New List. Each list has:

  • Name
  • Color: colored dot in the picker + per-task tag.
  • Sort order: drag to reorder in the picker.
  • External sync source: optional Microsoft To Do or Google Tasks list to bidirectionally sync with.

Delete a list and its tasks become unassigned (moved to the inbox); they're not deleted.

Adding tasks

  • Add Task button: opens the modal with all fields.
  • Inline text input: at the top of the Tasks page, type a title, press Enter, task created in the current filter view.

Both require login (parent or child). The inline form auto-assigns the current logged-in user as createdBy.

Completing tasks

Tap the checkbox to mark complete. The row strikes through and dims. The undo button in the nav bar lets you reverse the check for ~5 seconds.

If the task syncs to MS To Do / Google Tasks, the completed status propagates to the external provider on the next sync cycle.

Deleting tasks

Parents only. Two places: the trash icon on the task row, and the Delete button inside the task's edit window. Both confirm first.

Deleting a synced task also deletes it in the provider. That happens immediately, not on the next sync. If the provider cannot be reached the task is still removed from Prism and a tombstone stops the next sync re-adding it, so the deletion sticks either way.

Filtering + sorting

  • By list: picker dropdown, "All lists" / "Unassigned" / specific list.
  • By person: avatar filter pills at the top.
  • By priority: filter chip.
  • Show completed toggle: off by default. When on, completed tasks appear at the bottom with the strikethrough.

Sort options:

  • By due date: overdue first, then today, then upcoming, then no-date last.
  • By priority: high → medium → low.
  • By title: alphabetical (A→Z).

Grouping

The Group dropdown supports nested grouping:

  • None: flat list.
  • By Person: cards per family member.
  • By List: cards per task list.
  • Then by secondary group: when the primary group is Person, you can also sub-group by List (or vice versa). Sub-groups render as colored left-border dividers inside the primary group card.

The drag-reordered order of the group columns persists to localStorage (prism:task-group-order when flat-grouped, prism:task-nested-group-order when nested). The chosen grouping mode itself is not persisted.

Reordering

Drag-and-drop within a group (touch + mouse). Note there is no per-task order persistence: only the drag order of the group columns is stored (see Grouping).

For cross-list moves, drag a task onto a different list's card header to reassign.

Sync providers

Pick one provider per Prism instance:

Microsoft To Do (bidirectional)

  1. Settings → Integrations → Microsoft card: connect your account.
  2. In the same card, for each Prism list pick an MS To Do list to sync it with.

Bidirectional, newest-wins. Fields synced: title, notes (= description), completed, due date.

Steps (MS To Do's sub-items) are not imported — Prism has no subtask concept, so they are skipped rather than flattened. Attachments are not imported either.

Google Tasks (bidirectional)

  1. Settings → Integrations → Google card: connect your account (same Google OAuth used for Calendar, Tasks scope added).
  2. In the same card, pick which Google Tasks list maps to which Prism list.

Same shape as MS: bidirectional, newest-wins, title + notes + completed + due date. Subtasks and attachments are not imported.

No public web address? Google's browser sign-in needs a redirect address it will accept, which a home-network-only install does not have. Use Connect without a public URL (advanced) on the same card and paste a refresh token minted in Google's OAuth Playground — include https://www.googleapis.com/auth/tasks in the scopes. Prism then takes you straight to the list picker. See CALENDAR.md for the full walkthrough; the only difference is the scope.

Removed tasks are held for review

When a task you sync stops being listed by the provider, Prism does not delete it. It stays visible and a Review button appears in the Tasks header, where a parent chooses per task:

  • Delete — remove it from Prism too.
  • Keep — turn it into a local task. It stops syncing, and is never pushed back to the provider it was removed from.

Two safeguards sit in front of that:

  • A task must have been missing for longer than one sync interval before it is flagged, so a task you just created is never reported as deleted, and a single missed response flags nothing.
  • If an unusual number vanish at once — more than ten, or at least half of a set of four or more — nothing is flagged at all and the source records an error instead. That is the shape of an outage rather than of housekeeping, and burying you in entries would invite a bulk confirm.

A task that reappears at the provider clears its own flag on the next sync, with no action from you.

Apple Reminders (CalDAV) task sources behave the same way.

Auto-sync

  • Parents only. A child profile does not run sync; the page still shows tasks, it just does not fetch new ones.
  • Fires on dashboard mount if last sync is stale (>5 minutes ago).
  • Background sync every 5 minutes via the polling hook.
  • Pauses when the browser tab is hidden.
  • Re-fires on visibility return.
  • Also covers the screensaver mode when the Tasks widget is shown.

Manual sync button always available, useful right after adding a task on the other side.

Undo

A global undo stack covers tasks, chores, shopping items, and wishes. After completing or deleting a task, an Undo button appears in the nav bar for ~5 seconds. Tap to reverse the most recent action.

Mobile behavior

  • Single-column layout.
  • Compact header.
  • Collapsible filters: tap "Filters" to expand/collapse.
  • GripVertical drag icons hidden (touch-drag uses long-press on the row).
  • Card-level drag disabled so vertical scroll works naturally; item-level drag still works.

Common workflows

Recurring chore that's really a task

Sometimes "Take out trash every Friday" is more of a personal todo than a points-eligible chore. Add it as a task with a weekly due date in the Home list. When you complete it, manually duplicate it with next Friday's date.

(Native recurring-task support isn't shipped; it's tracked as a follow-up.)

Grocery list as tasks

Some families prefer the Shopping page; others would rather have everything in one task list. The Microsoft To Do sync lets shopping items flow into a To Do list automatically. See the Shopping guide for the per-list sync config.

Sharing a list with a non-Prism family member

The MS To Do / Google Tasks sync is the bridge. Share the Microsoft/Google list with the other person on their side; they see and edit in MS To Do or Google Tasks, you see the same data in Prism via the sync.

Troubleshooting

Tasks not syncing

  1. Settings → Integrations → (Google or Microsoft) card: is the provider still connected?
  2. In the same card: is the per-list connection enabled?
  3. Tap Sync now to force a refresh.
  4. Check the external list directly: does it have the task you expect?

Two-way sync created duplicates

Usually a one-time glitch when a task was created in both places before the first sync ran. Delete the duplicate; the deletion propagates.

Completed task came back uncompleted

The external system marked it incomplete and the newest-wins resolver applied that update. Check what happened on the external side; mark complete again if you want it gone.

"Create List" button missing

Lists are created from Settings → Integrations → (Google or Microsoft) card → New List. There's no inline list-creation button on the Tasks page; the picker only shows existing lists.

List deletion deleted my tasks

It shouldn't: tasks become unassigned (inbox) when a list is deleted. If tasks did disappear, check the audit log (Settings → Activity Log) for the actual operation.

Sub-grouping (Person → List) looks weird

The nested group view is opinionated about visual hierarchy: primary group as the card, sub-groups as colored-left-border dividers. If the nested mode confuses the layout, switch to a single grouping level or "Group: None" and sort instead.