I Gave Things 3 an AI Agent (Because Things 4 Is Still "Any Decade Now")

I love Things 3. Unreasonably. I've run my entire life through it for a decade: the company, the fundraise, marathon training blocks, motorcycle trips, groceries. It is the calmest, most carefully made piece of software I own.

It also hasn't had a major version since 2017.

That's not a dunk. It's just the Cultured Code way. Things 1 shipped in 2008. Things 2 in 2012. Things 3 in 2017. Do the math on Things 4 and you land somewhere between "eventually" and "any decade now." Meanwhile it's 2026: I have an AI agent that writes half my code, and a to-do app that can't hear it. No boards. No time-blocking. No command palette. No natural-language input.

So I stopped waiting and built the update myself, from the outside.

Meet SUUR Things

SUUR Things is a free, open-source MCP server and local dashboard for Things 3 on macOS. It does two jobs.

1. It gives a compatible MCP client structured access to your tasks. This command connects Claude Code:

claude mcp add suurthings -- uvx suur-things-mcp

Other MCP clients, including Claude Desktop and Codex, have their own configuration steps; use the project's installation guide for the client you use. Then ask "what should I work on today?" and let your agent answer from your actual Today list. It can capture natural-language tasks ("add pick up race bib friday 4pm, tag errand"), turn an implementation plan into a Things project, or help triage a messy Inbox. Configure the client's tool approvals and ask it to preview changes before writing. Review-before-write depends on those controls; the server does not guarantee it for every client.

2. It gives you the views Things never shipped. A local dashboard (uvx suur-things-mcp dashboard) that looks faithfully like Things but adds: Kanban boards where each card is a whole project, an Eisenhower matrix on any list, P1–P4 priority levels powered by your own tags, a 6am–11pm time-blocking timeline for Today, a ⌘K command palette, YouTube-thumbnail cards for link-heavy projects, and git repo links with a commit/PR pulse for developer projects.

The one design decision that matters

Cultured Code's own AI-integration guidance is blunt: writing directly to the Things database is unsafe and can corrupt it. So SUUR Things never does.

• Reads come from the local SQLite database, opened strictly read-only.
• Writes go exclusively through the official things:/// URL Scheme, the same mechanism Things documents for Shortcuts and AppleScript.

This avoids direct database writes, the specific corruption risk identified in that guidance. It does not make agent actions harmless: an incorrect URL Scheme operation can still create or change the wrong task. Review the target, dates and project before approving a bulk change. The dashboard's extra concepts (boards, quadrants, time-blocks) live in a separate local overlay file; deleting that file removes the overlay, but does not undo task changes already made through Things.

The dashboard runs locally at 127.0.0.1; the project does not require its own cloud account or telemetry service. A connected AI client can send task content to its model provider. That path follows the client's configuration and privacy terms. Local dashboard storage does not make the entire agent workflow local, so review the client and the task content before connecting it.

What you need

• Things 3 for Mac. This is a companion for your existing Things database, not a replacement. No Things, nothing to see.
• macOS. This companion uses the Mac's local Things database and URL handling.
• uv (or Python 3.10+). With uv installed, uvx downloads and runs the package.

Try it

The full story, with screenshots of every view, lives on the SUUR Things page. The code, docs, and install guide are on GitHub. It's MIT-licensed; if it makes your Things calmer or your agent smarter, a star helps other Things people find it.

Stop waiting for Things 4.