Super Productivity 18.0: Automate tasks, filter deadlines

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The task management software Super Productivity introduces a rule-based automation system, configurable issue providers, deadline functions, and security improvements in its Electron base with version 18.0. The open-source project is available for Linux, macOS, Windows, Android, and iOS.

The new automation system

The core of the new version is an automation system. Users define rules that automatically execute actions upon specific triggers. The rules support title matching via Regex as well as a condition for title prefixes (“Title starts with”). Regex (Regular Expressions) are pattern-based search expressions that allow for more precise title capture than simple text filters. This enables the automation of typical triage or inbox workflows.

The connection to external systems like Jira, GitHub, or GitLab becomes more flexible. Super Productivity now allows configuring the polling interval – i.e., specifying how often the app queries remote services for changes. Imported tasks can optionally receive default tags and default notes automatically. Also new are a two-way field synchronization, and extensions now also support deleting remote issues. The Google Calendar provider is now integrated as a bundled plugin.

Tasks in the task view can now be sorted, grouped, and filtered by due date. The view distinguishes between time frames such as “today”, “tomorrow”, or “this week”. When dragging a task to the calendar, a preview shows how long the planned time block will be. Subtasks are visually more prominent in search results.

Mobile: Swipe gestures, improved OAuth

The mobile versions receive, among other things, a swipe-to-complete gesture, more touch-friendly context menus, and vertically limited drag-and-drop on small displays. Android now also displays reminders from background synchronization.

Security relevant: For Google OAuth, the app now uses the system browser on mobile devices instead of an embedded WebView. This complies with the recommendation in RFC 8252 for native apps – an external browser separates cookies and page content from the app. Google blocks OAuth requests from embedded WebViews anyway.

Electron base secured

On the desktop, Super Productivity re-enables webSecurity in Electron and adds a permission handler. This is not a cosmetic change: Without webSecurity, the Same-Origin Policy is dropped, and the app can execute insecure content across domains. Electron's own security documentation explicitly warns against disabling this setting in production applications.

The preload script is now bundled with esbuild, which facilitates the use of Electron's sandbox mode. In sandboxed renderers, there is no full Node.js environment; privileged tasks are processed via IPC to the main process. Preload scripts retain only a limited set of Node and Electron APIs. This reduces the attack surface.

The developers have also fixed several sync errors: an incorrect “in sync” status in case of errors, loss of auth data after temporary server problems, and crashes of markdown synchronization when creating subtasks during a sync oscillation. The sync server deployment now validates Caddyfile and containers.

New theme, revised onboarding

Furthermore, version 18.0 brings a minimalist Zen theme, a revised onboarding with preset selection and localized example tasks, clickable links in task titles, keyboard shortcuts for bold and italic in comments, and a resizable always-on-top overlay. Community plugins include an Obsidian integration and a StudyForge leaderboard.

Under the hood, the project updates Angular and Capacitor, fixes memory leaks, and validates the formats of dueDay and deadlineDay during writing to prevent incorrect overdue indicators. The CSV export for work logs now also correctly processes Chinese characters.

All information about Super Productivity 18.0 can be found in the Release Notes on GitHub.

(fo)