1 files changed, 103 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..33e980e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,103 @@
+## notyet: a text-based recursive task tracker
+
+*notyet* is a simple but powerful tool to keep track of tasks you have
+not yet done.  It is opinionated and targeted to software developers,
+but there is no reason you cannot use it to plan other projects or
+your daily life.
+
+notyet keeps track of tasks which are each one line in a text file,
+similar to the todo.txt format.
+(notyet ignores a leading `#` or `//` in the text files to
+allow putting tasks into C/C++ files and many scripting languages.)
+
+Tasks can have four different states, represented by the first
+non-whitespace character of the line:
+
+* Open tasks: `-`
+* Maybe tasks: `?`
+* Finished tasks: `x`
+* WONTFIX tasks (tasks you decided not to do): `X`
+
+After the state character, there must be whitespace, followed by the
+task description.
+
+The first two task states are regarded as undone, the last two states
+are regarded as done.
+
+Tasks can be nested by using indentation: if you indent a task deeper
+than the previous task, it is regarded as a subtask.
+notyet has no limit on indentation depth.
+I recommend using two spaces for each level.
+
+Additionally, a task can have a deadline if it starts with the ISO
+format `YYYY-MM-DD`.
+
+When you run notyet, it will read the task file (by default `~/.notyet`,
+use `-f` to override) and *aggregate the tasks*:
+
+* Tasks where all subtasks are done are regarded as done.
+* Tasks where all subtasks are maybe are regarded as maybe.
+* A sum of open tasks and total tasks is computed and appended to
+  tasks which have subtasks.
+* Tasks where subtasks have a deadline adopt the earliest deadline.
+* Tasks with deadline display how many days are left.
+* Tasks are sorted by state and alphabetically.
+* By default, done tasks are not shown (use `-a` to show all tasks).
+
+The result is printed as a tree, so you quickly see what you still
+need to do.
+
+## Special directives
+
+When a task description starts with a special directive, additional
+features can be used:
+
+* `#include FILENAME` adds the tasks of FILENAME as subtasks.
+* `#includeall GLOB` behaves like `#include FILENAME` for each match
+  of the glob.
+* `#exec COMMANDLINE` runs the specified command and parses it as subtasks.
+  This can be used to integrate external sources of tasks.
+* `#splat` replaces the task itself and its direct subtasks with all
+  their subtasks.  This can be used to flatten an `#includeall` or output
+  of `#exec` into the task tree.
+
+## Filtering support
+
+If you have a large list of tasks, it can be difficult to find
+particular tasks.  Thus, the arguments of the `notyet` script define a
+filter:
+
+* By default, all *words* that appear on the command line must appear
+  in the task.
+* If a subtask matches, the parent task matches too.
+* If a task matches, all subtasks match too.
+* A special behavior exists for words that start with `@`, so called *tags*:
+  if multiple tags are given, it is enough if a task matches only one tag.
+  E.g. the filter `@bug @feature` will show all tasks that are marked
+  using `@bug` or `@feature`.
+
+## Editing support
+
+As notyet only aggregates tasks from potentially many files, it can be
+hard to find them to mark them as done.  To help with this, run
+notyet with the `-e` flag, which will spawn `vim` with a predefined macro
+to visit the line a task originates from when pressing RET or TAB.
+
+In order to provide editing support for `#exec`, the subprocess can
+prefix each line of output with `FILENAME:LINENUMBER`, followed by a TAB.
+
+## Installation
+
+Copy the script `notyet` into your PATH.
+It just needs Ruby and its standard library.
+
+## Copyright
+
+notyet is in the public domain.
+
+To the extent possible under law,
+Leah Neukirchen <leah@vuxu.org>
+has waived all copyright and related or
+neighboring rights to this work.
+
+http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/