Rogue Agenda project ledger

Last updated: 2026-08-16

Product direction

Rogue Agenda is a Rust, Ratatui, and SQLite reimagining of Lotus Agenda 2.0. The goal is functional fidelity to its information-management ideas and visual rhythm, not binary or document compatibility. Documents use .agnd; each is a self-contained SQLite database. Every product string uses Rogue Agenda.

The central principle is “capture first, organize later.” An item is stored once and may participate in many category relationships and saved views. The TUI keeps the original's high-information gray workspace, blue title bands, red selection, columnar item view, and function-key strip, while adding dynamic layout, mouse interaction, conventional shortcuts, UTF-8, and modern durability.

Research basis

Lotus Development Corporation, Lotus Agenda User's Guide 2.0 (1989), scanned at Internet Archive. The contents identify items, notes, hierarchical and mutually exclusive categories, explicit/conditional assignments, sections, live views, datebook views, alarms, numeric calculations, filters, dependencies, bulk marking, sorting, automatic conditions/actions, import/export, printing, backups, managers, macros, and accessories.
Lotus Development Corporation, Starter Applications 2.0 (1990), scanned at Internet Archive. It documents Activities Planner, Account Manager, People Manager, priorities, contacts, expenses, weekly tracking, and status reports.
Tavis Ormandy's hands-on “Lotus Agenda” article and animations. These establish the actual screen grammar: two-line blue file/view header, gray unboxed canvas, section and column headings, dot-prefixed category values, red selection, blue F1–F10 command tiles, and examples of natural-language extraction.
Bob Newell's Agenda FAQ and James Fallows' contemporary account. These clarify the distinctive behavior: single-copy items, category inheritance, negative assignment, aliases/abbreviations, incremental structure, and named live views.
Period reviews from the Los Angeles Times and HUMANIST archives corroborate long notes, free-form entry, priorities, Boolean reports, and automatic filing.
The preserved Agenda 2.0 Help file documents the Macro Manager, Learn workflow, note-style Macro Editor, complete brace-command catalog, variables, special values, error/break handlers, key notation, macro menus, and manager indicators.

Research URLs:

Implemented in this prototype

.agnd SQLite documents, schema migration metadata, foreign keys, WAL, transactions, integrity-friendly soft deletion, and automatic checkpoints.
Items with free text, note, priority, When, Done, alarm, numeric value, recurring schedule, creation/update timestamps, manual order, and prerequisite links. Completion advances recurring work and carries alarms and filing forward.
Categories with hierarchy, inheritance in queries, kinds (standard, date, numeric), match phrases, mutually exclusive siblings, and many-to-many links.
Explicit assignment and automatic text-based assignment.
Explicit negative category assignments that override automatic filing.
Natural-language date extraction for common relative, weekday, and ISO forms.
Live saved views, datebook presentation, category/done/date/priority filters, search filtering, configurable sort, and responsive columns.
Interactive creation, editing, and deletion of saved live views and category definitions, including hierarchy, match phrases, kinds, and exclusivity.
Persistent per-view fields, headings, widths, order, numeric aggregates, filtered multi-section layouts, collapsed sections, and view reordering.
Parsed Boolean expressions with and/or/not, parentheses, text/note/ category matching, numeric comparisons, state predicates, and relative due dates.
User-authored category conditions with live match preview and deterministic assign, exclude, priority, numeric value, When, alarm, recurrence, and Done actions. Rules apply iteratively, respect explicit overrides, and detect non-convergence.
Default All Items, Tasks, Upcoming, Recently Done, and Datebook views.
Agenda-style item workspace, View Manager, Category Manager, command menu, item editor, property editor, notes, category chooser, help, and status messages.
Marking and bulk completion; Trash view, soft discard, and recovery.
Responsive wide/compact rendering and mouse row/command/view interaction.
Vi-style h/l saved-view navigation with wraparound and legacy [/] aliases.
Application Preferences persisted as typed TOML at ~/.config/rogue-agenda/preferences.toml: theme, command bar, rule/return/item markers, autosave, confirmations, date/time display, and number separators; predefined values use Space-open keyboard/mouse choice popovers.
Six bundled palettes: Lotus-inspired Classic, Mono, Amber, Greenscreen, Nord, and Catppuccin Mocha. The three additional themes enforce at least 7:1 selected-row contrast without changing the original three.
Dedicated, contrast-checked canvas-heading colors across all themes for column titles, sections, Datebook dates, aggregates, and empty-view messages.
Transactional per-document settings embedded in .agnd: description, backup-on-open, Trash and completed-item policies, automatic filing, numeric date order, week boundary, natural-language named times, and note tab width.
Consistent manual/startup .agnd.bak backups, timed WAL checkpoints, configurable Trash maintenance, and confirmations for permanent operations.
Text and iCalendar import; view-scoped CSV, JSON, Markdown, styled HTML, and iCalendar export with notes, categories, dates, priority, completion, and recurring RRULE schedules.
Document-local Agenda macro programs with raw keystroke playback; named and modified key commands; local and persistent global variables; arithmetic and string expressions; branches, loops, cross-macro calls, error/break handlers; input boxes, messages, horizontal/vertical menus; special context variables; AUTOEXEC; and attachable keyboard shortcuts.
Agenda-inspired Macro Manager (Ctrl-G, with legacy Alt-F3 alias) with add/edit/run/delete/key binding and replace/append Learn recording. Recordings operate across the live TUI, show a LEARN indicator, and stop/save from anywhere with Ctrl-G; plain a replaces the unreliable modified-function-key append gesture.
Responsive full-screen Macro Editor with original-style F5 return/save, Esc cancellation and terminal-safe Ctrl-V key capture, plus modern cursor editing and syntax highlighting for commands, labels, variables, values, comments, delimiters, and malformed source.
Demo data, CLI help, README, MIT license, and unit/integration tests.

Supported with a modern interpretation

Numeric calculations: per-item numeric values and view total/average are supported; arbitrary category formula programs are intentionally represented by the safer aggregate model.
Conditions/actions: category match phrases and date parsing run on item changes; assignments are immediately re-evaluated. Shell-executing actions are omitted by design, while deterministic filing actions are supported.
Printing: view-aware Markdown and styled HTML reports are the portable print/preview path, alongside CSV and JSON data exports.
Backups: SQLite durability is supplemented by explicit/manual and backup-on-open .agnd.bak snapshots after a full WAL checkpoint. Ordinary filesystem backup tools also work on .agnd files.
Clipboard/accessory capture: terminal paste into the new-item form replaces the DOS resident accessory.
Macros retain Agenda's compact hybrid of literal keystrokes and {COMMAND} entries while applying those actions to Rogue Agenda's modern TUI.

Delayed / unsupported

These are the few features that either depend on obsolete DOS integration or need a larger follow-on implementation:

Arbitrary formula columns that reference several numeric categories. Current view columns support sum, avg, count, min, and max aggregates.
Rich-text/font markers, printer control sequences, page-layout preview, and named printer configurations.
Lotus Metro/List Manager/STF compatibility, DOS accessories, and import of external legacy .MAC files (outside the project's format-compatibility goal).
Historic macro protection, hidden-list indicators, external source-file attachment, and per-screen run restrictions. Macro source, Learn recording, execution, key binding, AUTOEXEC, and persistent variables are already native.
DOS macro single-stepping/speed/frozen-window effects and an internal clipboard bridge. Their command syntax and #CLIPBOARD value are recognized; screen-pacing directives are safe no-ops and the clipboard currently reads empty.
Password encryption. A description field is supported by schema metadata; weak historic password protection will not be imitated without real encryption.
Desktop notifications while the application is closed. Due alarms are shown prominently while Rogue Agenda is running.

Near-term plan

Add desktop alarm integration and in-application snooze controls.
Add encrypted documents and secure unlock handling.
Add property-based tests for complex hierarchy and rule combinations.
Add a structured text definition-file importer for unusual legacy datasets.

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