Alas Format

Alas is using Markdown format with some constraints.

The following example shows all special forms of the Alas plan file format.

# My Plan

## Inbox

- [ ] Buy new sneakers
- [ ] #home - Fix the lamp
- [ ] #work - Schedule a meeting with the new administration person

## 2022-07-28, Thursday

- [ ] Develop photos
- [X] Pay bills

## 2022-07-27, Wednesday

- Met with Mike and Molly
  They have a new apartment. It's closer to our place.
- [X] #work - Weekly meeting
  - Discuss slow tests
  - Should we migrate to a new server?
- [X] #work - Review open pull requests
  Jane made 2 pull requests related to the billing system. Review those
  carefully.
- [X] #work - Fix the flaky test

Title

Each plan has a title with the plan name such as # My Plan.

Inbox

After the title, there’s the optional inbox section that starts with ## Inbox. The inbox section has tasks, but it can also be empty.

Days

Each day starts with a day title, optionally followed by events, optionally followed by tasks. Events and tasks can’t be mixed.

A day starts with the date title in the following form - the title mark (##), followed by a date in the following form YYYY-MM-DD, followed by a comma, followed by a day name (Monday, Tuesday, etc.)

For example:

## 2022-07-28, Thursday

Events

Each event starts with a dash (-), followed by an event title, optionally followed by an event body.

They are used to log stuff that happened that you want to remember.

The following event has only a title:

- Met with Mike and Molly

The following 2 events have a body. A body is optional. A body is all text that follows the event title and it’s indented 2 spaces. It can, but it doesn’t have to start with a dash or some other symbol.

- Saw a wryneck
  I was suprised to see a wryneck. They shouldn't get back for another month.
  I guess that's because it's so hot this year.
- Jane called me today
  - They have a dog
  - They plan a trip in May

Tasks

Each task starts with a dash (-), followed by a checkbox ([ ] or [X]), followed by a task title, optionally followed by a task body.

This task has an unchecked checkbox, which means it’s uncompleted:

- [ ] Buy new sneakers

The following task is completed. It also shows that #work - Fix the flaky test is a valid title. The title has a tag (#work). At the moment of writing, tags don’t have a special meaning in Alas, but you can use them to organize your tasks.

- [X] #work - Fix the flaky test

The following 2 tasks have a body. A body is optional. A body is all text that follows the task title and it’s indented 2 spaces. It can, but it doesn’t have to start with a dash or some other symbol.

- [X] #work - Weekly meeting
  - Discuss slow tests
  - Should we migrate to a new server?
- [X] #work - Review open pull requests
  Jane made 2 pull requests related to the billing system. Review those
  carefully.