It's Live
TaskScratch is on the App Store for iPhone and iPad.
The Mac version is pending Apple review — I'll update this when it clears.
It's a universal app. One purchase covers all three platforms, and right now that purchase is free.
Why I Built This
There's no shortage of task apps. I've tried a lot of them. The problem isn't that they're bad — it's that every one of them has an opinion about how you should organize your life, and none of those opinions match mine. After years of adapting my workflow to fit someone else's app, I got tired of it.
The app isn't just for tasks, despite the name. It's for any list where you're crossing things off. Groceries. A packing list for a trip. The project backlog you're working through. Home repairs you keep putting off. Everything lives in the same place and works the same way.
The other reason I built it is simpler: if I'm going to ship software, I should be willing to use it myself. Having a real daily stake in the thing you're building keeps you honest. Every decision I make about TaskScratch I have to live with, which turns out to be a pretty good filter.
The Subscription Thing
This one's worth talking about directly.
A lot of apps charge monthly fees that have nothing to do with what it costs to run the service. If a developer isn't operating servers, isn't paying for storage on your behalf, and isn't covering bandwidth costs for your data — they don't have ongoing costs. A subscription in that situation is just preference pricing, dressed up as infrastructure necessity.
TaskScratch syncs through CloudKit's private database, which means your data lives in your own iCloud account. I don't operate any servers. I don't pay compute bills when you use the app. My costs don't scale with your usage because your usage doesn't touch anything I run.
The app is free to download and use. A Pro tier is coming — one-time purchase, unlocks extra features, works across all your Apple devices. No recurring charges. I set the pricing up this way because it's the honest model for what the app actually is.
What It Does and Doesn't Collect
Nothing. There are no analytics, no crash reporters that phone home, no ad identifiers, no third-party SDKs embedded for tracking. I didn't turn any of that off — I never added it. The binary Apple reviewed has no telemetry hooks.
Your data is on your device. If you use iCloud, it syncs through CloudKit's private database, which only your Apple ID can access. I have no admin view into it and no server that ever touches it. When you export a list, it goes through Apple's share sheet as Markdown or plain text — directly from your device to wherever you send it, with nothing in between.
There's a full privacy policy at /privacy/ that covers both the app and this site, written in plain language.
What's Actually in Version One
Items live in lists, and lists live in collections. The app ships with Personal and Work collections; you can rename, add, and color-code your own. Each item supports a title, notes with Markdown formatting, a priority level, a due date, subtasks, and tags. You drag to reorder, toggle completed items visible or hidden, and sort each list seven different ways.
There's a Today view broken into Overdue, Due Today, and This Week. Search is global across all collections, filterable by priority and status. The Markdown notes editor has a formatting toolbar, a preview mode, and a full-screen option.
The feature I'm most proud of is the Scratchpad. It's a local-only notepad — never synced to iCloud, ever — for the kinds of things you shouldn't put in a cloud database. Passwords you're cycling. Code snippets. Temporary notes. It's backed by SwiftData with CloudKit sync explicitly disabled at the model layer, not just turned off in settings. That distinction matters to me.
On Mac, there's a menu bar extra showing today's items. The app stays running in the background when you close the window, which is the behavior you'd expect from a Mac app and that surprisingly few iOS ports bother to get right.
iCloud sync works. Edit something on your phone, open your Mac, the change is there.
What Isn't in It Yet
The version Apple reviewed doesn't have recurring items, widgets, an Apple Watch app, Siri integration, Focus Mode filters, or the one-time Pro purchase. Shopping list mode exists as a list type but doesn't do category grouping yet. The Scratchpad doesn't have biometric lock or auto-clear timers yet.
The collaboration feature I want most — shared collections via CloudKit shared zones — isn't there either. Right now you can share a snapshot of a list through the system share sheet. That's a workaround, not the real thing, and I know it.
What's Coming
I have a long list. The things I'm working toward: recurring items, shopping list categories, the Pro upgrade, full export in Markdown and JSON and CSV, import from Apple Reminders and from the other major task apps, biometric lock and auto-clear for the Scratchpad, widgets, Watch app, keyboard shortcuts on Mac, Siri and App Intents, natural language entry, Focus Mode integration, and the CloudKit shared zones collaboration. Not in that order and not on any announced timeline. I ship when things are ready.
Go Try It
Mac version pending review. I'll post here when it's up.