Task Roulette

A task manager that helps you stop overthinking and start doing. Organize tasks into flexible groups, let the app pick what to work on next, and track your daily progress — all designed to reduce decision fatigue.

Note: This app was vibe-coded — planned and ideated by a human, implemented with AI assistance.

Quick Start

Prerequisites: Flutter SDK and Linux dependencies must be installed first.

flutter pub get
./dev.sh
flutter test

Features

• Flexible task groups — tasks can live under multiple groups, so you organize things the way you think
• Today's 5 — a daily focus list of 5 tasks, picked by weighted random to surface what matters
• Random pick — can't decide what to do? Let the app choose for you, with "Go Deeper" for drilling into subtasks
• Start working / Done today — track what you're actively working on and what you finished today
• Priority & difficulty — tag tasks to influence how often they get picked
• Quick task & brain dump — rapidly capture ideas without worrying about where they go
• Search — find any task instantly from anywhere in the app
• Soft dependencies — mark tasks as "do after..." to gently guide your order without hard blocking
• Export / import — back up your data anytime, restore on any device
• Dark mode — easy on the eyes, with colorful task cards
• Supported platforms: Android

Setup

Prerequisites

1. Flutter SDK

   git clone --depth 1 --branch stable https://github.com/flutter/flutter.git ~/flutter
   echo 'export PATH="$HOME/flutter/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
   # If you use zsh, replace ~/.bashrc with ~/.zshrc in both lines.
   source ~/.bashrc

2. Linux desktop dependencies (Ubuntu/Debian)

   sudo apt install -y clang ninja-build lld libsqlite3-dev inotify-tools

3. Android build dependencies (optional, for APK builds)

   sudo apt install -y openjdk-17-jdk lib32stdc++6 lib32z1

   Then install the Android SDK command-line tools from https://developer.android.com/studio (under "Command line tools only") and set up:

   mkdir -p ~/Android/Sdk/cmdline-tools
   # Extract downloaded zip, move contents to ~/Android/Sdk/cmdline-tools/latest/
   export ANDROID_HOME=$HOME/Android/Sdk
   export PATH=$ANDROID_HOME/cmdline-tools/latest/bin:$ANDROID_HOME/platform-tools:$PATH
   # build-tools;28.0.3 is kept for compatibility with older Android tooling that may still reference it.
   sdkmanager "platform-tools" "platforms;android-36" "build-tools;35.0.0" "build-tools;28.0.3"
   flutter config --android-sdk $HOME/Android/Sdk
   flutter doctor --android-licenses

Install dependencies (first time only)

flutter pub get

Run

./dev.sh

This starts the app and watches lib/ for .dart file changes, triggering hot reload automatically — no need to press anything.

To run without auto-reload:

flutter run -d linux

Then press r for hot reload or R for hot restart manually.

Build debug APK (Android)

flutter build apk --debug

Output: build/app/outputs/flutter-apk/app-debug.apk — transfer to your phone and install.

Warning: Debug and release APKs have different signing keys. Installing a debug APK over a release build (or vice versa) will uninstall the existing app and wipe its data. To test a debug build safely, back up the database first using the app's export feature, or use adb to copy it:

adb exec-out run-as com.taskroulette.task_roulette cat databases/task_roulette.db > /tmp/task_roulette_backup.db

Test on phone via ADB

To sideload a debug APK over ADB without flutter run (which auto-uninstalls on signature mismatch):

flutter build apk --debug
adb install -r build/app/outputs/flutter-apk/app-debug.apk   # -r = replace if same signature
adb logcat -s flutter                                          # view Flutter debug output

Test

flutter test

Run this before committing to catch regressions. Tests cover the Task model, database operations (using sqflite_ffi in-memory), and widget rendering.

To run a specific test file:

flutter test test/models/task_test.dart

Project Structure

lib/
├── main.dart                 # App entry, theme, Provider setup
├── models/
│   ├── task.dart             # Task model
│   └── task_relationship.dart # Parent-child relationship model
├── data/
│   └── database_helper.dart  # SQLite database operations
├── providers/
│   └── task_provider.dart    # State management (ChangeNotifier)
├── screens/
│   └── task_list_screen.dart # Main screen
└── widgets/
    ├── task_card.dart        # Task grid card (tap, long-press for actions)
    ├── task_picker_dialog.dart # Search/filter dialog for linking tasks
    ├── leaf_task_detail.dart  # Leaf task detail view with Done action
    ├── empty_state.dart      # Empty state placeholder
    ├── add_task_dialog.dart  # New task dialog
    └── random_result_dialog.dart # Random pick result

test/
├── models/
│   └── task_test.dart              # Task model unit tests
├── data/
│   └── database_helper_test.dart   # DB operations tests
├── providers/
│   └── task_provider_test.dart     # Provider state management tests
└── widgets/
    ├── leaf_task_detail_test.dart   # Leaf detail widget tests
    └── task_card_test.dart         # Task card widget tests

Troubleshooting

Setting up adb

1. Install adb (Ubuntu/Debian):

   sudo apt install -y adb

2. Enable wireless debugging on your Android phone:

   • Go to Settings > System > Developer options (tap Build number 7 times to unlock)
   • Enable Wireless debugging
   • Tap Wireless debugging to open its settings, then tap Pair device with pairing code
   • On your computer:

     adb pair <ip>:<pairing-port>   # enter the pairing code when prompted
     adb connect <ip>:<port>        # use the port shown on the Wireless debugging screen (not the pairing port)

3. Verify connection:

   adb devices   # should list your device

ANR / freezes on Android

If the app becomes unresponsive on Android, capture logs:

# Clear old logs, then capture everything to a file
adb logcat -c && adb logcat > /tmp/crash_log.txt
# Now reproduce the freeze on the phone, then Ctrl+C to stop capture

# Or filter for ANR-specific messages only
adb logcat -s ActivityManager:E ANRManager:E

# Pull ANR traces after the freeze
adb pull /data/anr/traces.txt

Symbolicating release crash stacks

Release builds are obfuscated. Download debug-symbols.zip from the GitHub release, then:

unzip debug-symbols.zip -d symbols/
flutter symbolize -i stacktrace.txt -d symbols/

See docs/PERFORMANCE.md for details on database optimizations and performance considerations.