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I often work in projects where all TODO items are bundled in one separate file. Often, I have quite a bit of TODO items which are then cluttering the agenda, while what I actually want is just a line meaning something like 'Still TODO items left in this-and-this-project'. Is there an elegant, built-in way to show such a kind of summarized status in the agenda? I imagine a line like TODO this-file.org.

One possible way to go would be to construct something like a summary item, which is then updated each time something in the file's todo tree is changed. That does feel quite hacky, though, and seems to require a bit of discipline (e.g. in organizing the layout of the project file, and not scheduling any sub-items, etc.). I would prefer a solution which relies on built-in functionality as much as possible. Any ideas?

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  • I don't think there is anything built-in that comes even close, so this will require some hashing out and discussion which probably makes this site inappropriate for the question. I would suggest asking on Reddit perhaps, or, better, on the Org mode mailing list.
    – NickD
    Jun 24, 2022 at 17:43
  • Thanks, that's probably true. I just thought I might give a shout-out to those who are in the know. Sometimes it is surprising what actually is built-in...
    – Public Image Ltd.
    Jun 26, 2022 at 13:26

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I do not believe there is a built-in to summarize based on a category and TODO keywords for org-agenda views.[1]

However, if you structure projects as subtrees or nest the headings of the file in question with a parent header, you could utilize a combination of special TODO keywords and org tracking cookies to offer a summary line.

  1. Define a todo-keyword like PROJ to signify a project (among other keywords you need to track work).
(setq org-todo-keywords
      '((sequence "PROJ" "TODO" "|" "DONE")))
  1. At the first level of any projects, add your PROJ keyword to the front and add a [ / ] or [ % ] to the end.
#+TITLE: project1.org
* PROJ Make a widget [ / ]
  1. Add second level headers using a todo keyword.
#+TITLE: project1.org
* PROJ Make a widget [0/2]
** TODO Reticulate a spline
** TODO Save your work regularly
  1. Call org-agenda either with the default n view for all todos, or with m and match your PROJ keyword. Your agenda view should contain the summary heading with the tracker cookie at the end.

[1]: That being said, if non-built-ins are acceptable, you may be able to use a group formatting string on a header if you utilized org-super-agenda. But this package is beyond my scope of knowledge.

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  • That's the perfect solution! I actually do already organize the project-specific todo's in one big tree, so the only thing I need to change is to use the more specific PROJ keyword. That's indeed a nice idea I did not think about. So the idea is basically to have a "aggregated TODO" keyword. Thanks, I'll use that solution!
    – Public Image Ltd.
    Jul 11, 2022 at 9:26

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