Deno script to create a reminder from CLI (in Apple's Reminders app)

quick-reminder.ts

// Deno CLI script to add reminders to Apple's Reminders app parsing the
// due date with natural language.
// Requires reminders-cli (https://github.com/keith/reminders-cli) to be
// installed in order to run. Uses reminders-cli instead of Applescript/JXA
// because reminders-cli is much faster.
// Uses chrono-node (https://github.com/wanasit/chrono) to parse the date (which
// in my opinion works better than reminders-cli natural lanaguage parser).
//
// Example usage:
// ```
// quick-reminder Doctor appointment in 2 weeks at 5pm
// ```
import chrono from "https://esm.sh/chrono-node";
import { iter } from "https://deno.land/std/io/util.ts";
import * as Colors from "https://deno.land/std/fmt/colors.ts";
import { format } from "https://deno.land/std/datetime/mod.ts";

// Helper function to run CLI script from Deno.
interface ExecOptions {
  verbose?: boolean;
}

const decoder = new TextDecoder();

async function exec(cmd: string, options: ExecOptions = {}) {
  const { verbose } = options;
  const p = Deno.run({
    cmd: ["/bin/sh", "-c", cmd],
    stdout: "piped",
    stderr: "piped",
  });
  let stdout = "";
  let stderr = "";
  const stdoutPromise = (async function () {
    for await (const chunk of iter(p.stdout)) {
      const decoded = decoder.decode(chunk);
      if (verbose) await Deno.stdout.write(chunk);
      stdout += decoded;
    }
    p.stdout.close();
  })();
  const stderrPromise = (async function () {
    for await (const chunk of iter(p.stderr)) {
      const decoded = decoder.decode(chunk);
      if (verbose) await Deno.stderr.write(chunk);
      stderr += decoded;
    }
    p.stderr.close();
  })();
  const { success } = await p.status();
  await Promise.all([stdoutPromise, stderrPromise]);
  p.close();
  if (!success) {
    throw new Error(stderr);
  }
  return stdout.trim();
}

// Use reminders-cli (https://github.com/keith/reminders-cli) to add a reminder.
async function run() {
  // Ensure reminders-cli is installed.
  try {
    await exec(`reminders`);
  } catch (_err) {
    throw new Error(
      `Reminders CLI doesn't seem to be installed. See https://github.com/keith/reminders-cli.`
    );
  }

  // Get input args.
  // For a better UX, we allow writing the entire string without quotes.
  const inputStr = Deno.args.join(" ");
  if (!inputStr) {
    throw new Error(
      `Missing input. Example usage: $ quick-reminder Doctor appointment tomorrow`
    );
  }

  // Get default reminders list.
  // Since the reminders.app API doesn't expose the "default" list, we'll pick
  // the first one available from the list of reminders list (which follows the
  // order set in the Reminder app).
  const remindersCLIShowListsStdout = await exec("reminders show-lists");
  const availableReminderListNames = remindersCLIShowListsStdout.split("\n");
  const defaultReminderListName = availableReminderListNames[0];
  if (!defaultReminderListName) {
    throw "Unable to load reminder lists";
  }

  // Extract the natural-lanaguage date from the input string using chrono-node.
  const chronoParsingResult = chrono.parse(inputStr)[0];
  const naturalLanguageDueDate = chronoParsingResult?.text || "";
  const reminderText = inputStr.replace(naturalLanguageDueDate, "").trim();
  const reminderDueDate = chronoParsingResult?.start?.date();

  // Use reminders-cli to add the reminder to reminders.app.
  await exec(
    reminderDueDate
      ? `reminders add ${defaultReminderListName} "${reminderText}" --due-date "${reminderDueDate}"`
      : `reminders add ${defaultReminderListName} "${reminderText}"`
  );
  const prettyCheckMark = Colors.green("✔");
  const prettyReminderText = Colors.magenta(reminderText);
  const prettyReminderListName = Colors.magenta(defaultReminderListName);
  if (reminderDueDate) {
    const prettyReminderDueDate = Colors.magenta(
      format(reminderDueDate, "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss")
    );
    console.log(
    `${prettyCheckMark} Added a new "${prettyReminderText}" reminder to the "${prettyReminderListName}" list with due date ${prettyReminderDueDate}`
    );
  } else {
    console.log(
      `${prettyCheckMark} Added a new "${prettyReminderText}" reminder to the "${prettyReminderListName}"`
    );
  }
}

try {
  await run();
} catch (err) {
  console.error(`${Colors.red("✘")} ${err?.message}`);
}

Requires reminders-cli to be globally installed.

Usage:

deno run --allow-run quick-reminder-raw-gist-url Doc appointment tomorrow at 2:30pm