Help Guide

Introduction

Flowcus is an intelligent task management application for macOS that helps you collate your tasks into a single, holistic view so you can visualise them more effectively. It currently integrates with OmniFocus, Things and TaskPaper.

Unlike traditional task managers that present tasks as flat lists, Flowcus organises your tasks into a Kanban board with columns representing workflow stages (like "To Do," "In Progress," "Done") and swimlanes for categorisation. But Flowcus goes beyond visualisation — it actively helps you work better by surfacing what matters, identifying what's being neglected, and automating the organisational work that slows you down.

Key benefits of Flowcus include:

• Intelligent Task Surfacing: Radar analyses your tasks daily and presents the 3–5 you should focus on, scored by urgency, momentum, and neglect
• Ghost Detection: Finds tasks you've been avoiding, vaguely defined items, and work that's slipped backward — before they become dead weight
• Task Manager Integrations: Connect to OmniFocus, Things and TaskPaper
• Rule-Based Automation: Automatically assign tasks to the right columns and swimlanes based on rules you define
• Multi-Tag Support: Slice your work across multiple dimensions that a single category never could
• Command Palette: Drive everything from the keyboard with natural language commands
• Task Inspector: View full task context without leaving the board
• Sidekick: An AI assistant built directly into your workflow for task refinement, breakdown, and planning
• Customisable: Configure columns, swimlanes, filters, and WIP limits to match how you work

Whether you're a productivity enthusiast or just looking for a better way to stay on top of your work, Flowcus provides a powerful, yet intuitive interface for managing your tasks.

Getting Started

System Requirements

• Mac with Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3, or later) — Intel Macs are not supported
• macOS 13.0 (Ventura) or later
• Approximately 100 MB of disk space
• For OmniFocus integration: OmniFocus 3 or later
• For Things integration: Things 3 or later

Installation

1. Download & install Flowcus
2. Launch Flowcus from your Applications folder or Launchpad

Connecting to Task Sources

Flowcus works with these task sources:

OmniFocus Integration

1. In Flowcus, go to Settings → Sources
2. Enable "OmniFocus"
3. Note: You will need to grant permission if macOS asks if Flowcus can control OmniFocus
4. Your OmniFocus tasks will appear on the Kanban board

Things Integration

1. In Flowcus, go to Settings → Sources
2. Enable "Things"
3. Flowcus communicates with Things via its URL scheme — no additional permissions are required
4. Your Things tasks will appear on the Kanban board

TaskPaper Integration

1. In Flowcus, go to Settings → Sources
2. Enable "TaskPaper"
3. Select a TaskPaper file to use as your task source
4. Your TaskPaper tasks will appear on the Kanban board

You can use multiple task sources simultaneously and visualise tasks from all of them together on a single board.

Core Concepts

The Kanban Board

The kanban board is the central visualization in Flowcus, representing your workflow as a series of columns & swimlanes with tasks moving from left to right as they progress. The board allows you to:

• See tasks organized in columns and swimlanes
• Move tasks between columns to change their status
• Drag tasks between swimlanes to categorize them
• Filter tasks by various criteria

Key components:

• Columns: Vertical sections representing workflow stages
• Swimlanes: Horizontal rows for categorizing tasks
• Task Cards: Individual cards representing tasks

Columns and Workflow Stages

Columns represent stages in your workflow. By default, Flowcus includes:

• To Do: Tasks that haven't been started
• Doing: Tasks you're currently working on
• Done: Completed tasks

Each column has a type:

• Queue columns: Hold tasks waiting to be worked on
• Active columns: Contain tasks actively being worked on
• Completed columns: Hold finished tasks
• Dropped columns: Contain discarded/unwanted tasks

Tasks move from left to right as they progress through your workflow. You can customize columns to match your specific process.

Swimlanes

Swimlanes provide horizontal organization across your kanban board. They can represent:

• Projects
• Categories
• Priority levels
• Custom groupings

Each swimlane contains its own set of tasks across all columns, allowing you to track progress within specific categories.

Task Cards

Task cards represent individual tasks and display key information:

• Task name
• Project (if applicable)
• Tags
• Due date
• Task age
• Flags and indicators
• Blocked status

Task Management

Task Inspector

The Task Inspector gives you full context on any task without leaving the board. Click on a task card (or press Enter with a task selected) to open the inspector panel, where you can:

• View and edit task name, notes, and due date
• Manage multiple tags
• See the task's full history of state changes
• View which column and swimlane the task belongs to
• Check blocked status and blocking reasons
• Flag or unflag the task

The inspector keeps you in flow by providing everything you need in a side panel rather than forcing you to switch views or applications.

Sidekick

Flowcus includes Sidekick — an AI assistant built directly into your workflow. Sidekick integrates with your local or remote LLM and brings AI into your task management without leaving the board. Use it to:

• Refine tasks: Improve vague or poorly defined tasks into clear, actionable items
• Break down work: Decompose large tasks into smaller, manageable subtasks
• Plan ahead: Get suggestions for next steps and prioritisation

Sidekick is designed to assist your thinking, not replace it — helping you articulate and organise work more effectively.

Moving Tasks Between Columns

Moving tasks between columns updates their status in your workflow:

Using Drag and Drop

1. Click and hold on a task card
2. Drag it to the desired column
3. Release to drop the task in the new column

Using Keyboard

1. Select a task by clicking on it
2. Press the Space key (or ⌘-]) to move it to the next column
3. Press ⌘-[ to move it to the previous column

When a task is moved to a completed or dropped column, it's automatically marked as completed or dropped in the source.

Completing Tasks

You can complete tasks either by:

1. Dragging a task to a completed column
2. Selecting a task and pressing ⌘⇧↩ (Command+Shift+Return)

Blocking and Unblocking Tasks

When you're waiting on something external before you can continue a task, you can block it:

Blocking a Task

1. Right-click on a task and select "Block Task" or press b
2. Enter a reason for blocking (optional)
3. Click "Block"

Blocked tasks display a visual indicator and can include a note explaining why they're blocked.

Unblocking a Task

1. Right-click on a blocked task or press b
2. Select "Unblock Task"

Tags and Flags

• Tags appear on task cards as badges — Flowcus supports multiple tags per task, letting you slice work across different dimensions
• Flagged tasks include a flag icon and have a highlighted border
• Toggle flags via the context menu or by pressing ⇧⌘L with a task selected

Rule-Based Assignments

Rule-based assignments automatically place tasks into the right columns and swimlanes based on criteria you define. Instead of manually dragging every new task to its correct position, you can set up rules that do it for you.

Rules can be based on:

• Tags
• Task source (OmniFocus, Things, TaskPaper)
• Project or folder
• Flags and other task properties

To configure rules:

1. Click on ... in a column or swimlane header
2. Choose "Assignment Rules"
3. Define your criteria

When new tasks arrive on the board, they're automatically placed according to your rules — keeping your board organised without manual effort.

Command Palette

The Command Palette provides fast, keyboard-driven access to everything in Flowcus. Open it with ⌘⇧P and start typing to:

• Navigate to any task, column, or swimlane
• Execute commands using natural language
• Create, move, complete, or block tasks
• Open settings, toggle views, and switch filters
• Access Sidekick actions

The Command Palette supports natural language input, so you can type commands the way you'd describe them rather than memorising specific syntax.

Customisation

Configuring Columns

Customize your workflow by configuring columns:

• Click on ... in a column header to access customisation options
• Click + to the right of the board to add a new column

Setting Up Swimlanes

• Click on ... in a swimlane header to access customisation options
• Click + at the bottom of the board to add a new swimalne

Filtering Tasks

Tag Filtering

Filter tasks by their associated tags:

1. Open the tag filter cmd-shift-t
2. Select one or more tags to show only tasks with those tags
3. Use the "Untagged" option to show tasks without any tags
4. Clear filters by clicking the "Clear Filters" button

Keyboard Shortcuts

• ⌘,: Open settings
• ⌘K: Toggle project information display
• ⌘⇧↩: Complete selected task
• ⌘] or Space: Move selected task to the next column
• ⌘[: Move selected task to the previous column
• ⇧⌥ up arrow: Move selected task to the next swimlane
• ⇧⌥ down arrow: Move selected task to the previous swimlane

Advanced Features

Flowcus Radar

Radar analyses your open tasks each day and presents the 3–5 you should focus on, scored by urgency, momentum, and neglect — with clear reasons why each one ranked. It surfaces what matters so you can start your day with confidence rather than scanning your entire board.

How scoring works

Each task starts at 0 points. Points are added or subtracted based on these factors:

A task can earn points from multiple reasons. For example, a flagged task that's also overdue and aging would score 10 + 4 + 3 = 17.

What each reason means

• Overdue — This task is past its due date. It's the strongest signal that something needs action.
• Due today — The deadline is today. Handle it before it becomes overdue.
• Aging — This task has been sitting around for over a week. It may be something you keep putting off.
• Flagged — You explicitly marked this task as important.
• Momentum — This task is in your active (Doing) column but hasn't moved in over 3 days. It may be stuck.
• Neglected — The project this task belongs to hasn't had any completions in 5+ days. The whole project may need attention.
• Blocked — Something is preventing progress. The -5 penalty pushes blocked tasks down the list since you can't act on them right now.

What's excluded

The Radar only scores incomplete, non-dropped tasks. Tasks in the Done or Dropped columns are never shown.

Ghost Tasks

Ghost Detection finds the tasks you've been avoiding — the vaguely defined ones, the stale ones, and the ones that slipped backward — and prompts you to deal with them before they become dead weight.

A task becomes a ghost when it matches one or more of these criteria:

1. Stale — The task hasn't been modified in a while. For tasks in active columns, this means more than 7 days without a change. For tasks in queue or backlog columns, the threshold is 14 days (since these are expected to sit longer).

2. Vague — The task name is too short or lacks a clear action verb. "Taxes" is vague; "File tax return" is not. Flowcus uses a clarity scoring system to evaluate task names and flag those that are ambiguous.

3. Moved Backward — The task was moved from a later column to an earlier one in the last 30 days, signalling regression rather than progress.

4. Sparse — The task has no notes and no subtasks, and was created more than 3 days ago. New tasks get a grace period, but older tasks with no detail are worth reviewing.

Each criterion contributes to a severity score. Ghosts are visually highlighted on the board at two tiers:

• Low severity: The task matches one criterion (e.g. stale)
• High severity: The task matches multiple criteria (e.g. stale and vague)

The following tasks are never flagged as ghosts:

• Completed or dropped tasks
• Tasks deferred until a future date
• Snoozed tasks (you can snooze a ghost to dismiss it temporarily)
• Tasks without a board position

Task History

Task History provides an audit trail of every state change for every task on your board. It records when tasks were created, moved between columns, blocked, unblocked, completed, and more.

Task History powers both Radar and Ghost Detection — giving those features the data they need to score tasks by momentum, detect regression, and identify neglect. You can view a task's full history in the Task Inspector to understand how it got to its current state.

Nothing hides in plain sight when you have a complete record of how your work has moved through your system.

WIP Gauge

The WIP (Work In Progress) Gauge helps you monitor and manage your workload by providing a visual indicator of your current work in progress levels.

Understanding the WIP Gauge

The WIP Gauge appears in the toolbar as a horizontal bar with color zones:

• Green: Work in progress is at a healthy level
• Amber: Work in progress is approaching your defined warning threshold
• Red: Work in progress has exceeded your maximum threshold

Keeping your WIP within appropriate limits helps:

• Improve focus by reducing context switching
• Increase throughput by limiting multitasking
• Identify bottlenecks in your workflow
• Maintain a sustainable workload

Configuring the WIP Gauge

1. Go to Settings → WIP Gauge
2. Enable the WIP Gauge toggle
3. Configure your thresholds:
   • Warning Threshold: When exceeded, the gauge turns amber
   • Maximum Threshold: When exceeded, the gauge turns red
4. Choose whether to include Queue columns in WIP calculations:
   • When enabled, tasks in Queue columns count toward your WIP
   • When disabled, only tasks in Active columns count toward your WIP

Troubleshooting

Permission Issues

OmniFocus Automation Permission

If Flowcus cannot access OmniFocus:

1. Go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Automation
2. Ensure Flowcus is allowed to control OmniFocus
3. Restart both applications

Task Synchronisation Problems

Tasks Not Appearing

If tasks aren't appearing in Flowcus:

1. Check that the correct task source is enabled in Settings → Task Manager
2. Verify that OmniFocus or Things is running (if using their integration)
3. Check permissions as described above
4. Restart Flowcus

Changes Not Syncing Back

If changes in Flowcus aren't reflected in your task manager:

1. Check permissions
2. Verify that OmniFocus or Things is running
3. Try completing a different task to test synchronization
4. Restart both applications

Things Integration Issues

If Flowcus cannot communicate with Things:

1. Verify Things is running
2. Check that the Things integration is enabled in Settings → Sources
3. Restart both applications

UI Issues

Task Cards Not Displaying Correctly

If task cards appear cut off or display incorrectly:

1. Adjust the zoom level using the zoom controls in the toolbar
2. Check if dynamic type settings are very large
3. Restart Flowcus

Common Error Messages

"Cannot Connect to OmniFocus"

This indicates Flowcus cannot communicate with OmniFocus:

1. Verify OmniFocus is running
2. Check automation permissions
3. Restart both applications

FAQ

See FAQ

Additional Support

For additional help email support