Add due dates and reminders to your todos with inline annotations.

Due Date Annotations

Add a due date to any checkbox item by appending a (due ...) annotation:

- [ ] Submit report (due 2026-04-01)
- [ ] Call dentist (due 2026-04-01 09:00)

mdnb parses these annotations and renders color-coded urgency indicators next to the todo:

• Red: overdue
• Orange: due today
• Yellow: due within 3 days
• Gray: future

Completed todos (checked off) show no urgency indicator regardless of the date.

Reminder Notifications

To get a macOS notification before a due date, add remind with a duration:

- [ ] Team standup (due 2026-04-01 09:00 remind 15m)
- [ ] Deploy v2 (due 2026-04-05 remind 1d)

Supported duration units:

Unit	Meaning	Example
m	Minutes	30m = 30 minutes before
h	Hours	2h = 2 hours before
d	Days	1d = 1 day before
w	Weeks	1w = 1 week before

When the reminder fires, you'll see a system notification with the task text. Clicking the notification opens mdnb and navigates to the note containing the todo.

Date-Only vs Date+Time

• Date only (due 2026-04-01): the task is considered due at the start of that day. Reminders fire relative to midnight.
• Date and time (due 2026-04-01 09:00): the task is due at the specific time. Reminders fire relative to that time.

Settings

Configure reminder behavior in Settings > Reminders (Cmd+,):

• Default reminder: automatically add a reminder duration to new due dates that don't specify one. Options range from 5 minutes to 1 day, or Off.
• Notify at due time: send an additional notification when the due time arrives (in addition to any earlier reminder).
• Reminder sound: enable or disable the notification sound.

Tips

• Due date annotations work only on checkbox lines (- [ ] or - [x]), not on regular text.
• Annotations inside fenced code blocks are ignored.
• You can combine due dates with any other text on the checkbox line: - [ ] Buy groceries for dinner party (due 2026-04-01 remind 1d)
• Checking off a todo cancels its pending reminder.