TODO-tracking

A rule for maintaining dated TODO files that record the steps, status, priority, and related files for coding tasks.

In plain words
What is it for?
Starting feature TODOs, listing implementation steps and affected files, and updating task status when work is in progress, complete, paused, or blocked.
Why use it?
It preserves a checkpointed task record so work can be resumed and its progress is visible.

Cursor rule for Cursor

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add rules/jakerains/citrusrules/todo-tracking
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/jakerains/CitrusRules

Made for: Cursor.

Per session 33 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 2,016 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00033 $0.02016
Opus 5 $0.00016 $0.01008
Sonnet 5 $0.00007 $0.00403
Haiku 4.5 $0.00003 $0.00202

Measured 2d ago against content hash 8ec82eb2f315, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

TODO-tracking scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 2d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

.cursor/rules/TODO-tracking.mdc · 248 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 248 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.


description: TODO Tracking System - Automatically create and maintain TODO files for features and tasks globs:

  • "**/*.{js,jsx,ts,tsx,py,go,rs,java,c,cpp,cs,rb,php,swift,kt,scala,r,m,dart,lua,jl,ex,clj,hs,ml,fs,v,vb,sql,sh,ps1,yaml,yml,json,xml,html,css,scss,sass,less,md,mdx,vue,svelte}"
  • "**/TODO/*.md"

TODO Tracking System

A system for creating and maintaining TODO files that document the step-by-step process of implementing features, similar to Claude Code's checkpoint system.

content: |

TODO Tracking System Instructions

When /TODO is detected or this rule is relevant, follow these guidelines:

1. TODO File Creation

When starting a new feature or task:

  • Create a file in ./TODO/ directory named: YYYY-MM-DD_<task-name>.md
  • Use kebab-case for task names (e.g., 2024-01-15_user-authentication-system.md)
  • If TODO directory doesn't exist, create it first

2. TODO File Structure

Each TODO file should follow this template:

# TODO: [Task Name]

**Created:** [Date]
**Status:** 🔄 In Progress | ✅ Complete | ⏸️ Paused | ❌ Blocked
**Priority:** 🔴 High | 🟡 Medium | 🟢 Low
**Related Files:** [List key files that will be modified]
**Issue/Ticket:** #[number] (if applicable)

## Overview
[Brief description of what we're implementing]

## Success Criteria
- [ ] [Specific measurable outcome 1]
- [ ] [Specific measurable outcome 2]
- [ ] [Specific measurable outcome 3]

## Dependencies

[Feature Name] ├── [Component 1] ✅ ├── [Component 2] 🔄 │ ├── [Subcomponent 2.1] ✅ │ └── [Subcomponent 2.2] ⏳ └── [Component 3] ⏳


## Implementation Steps

### Step 1: [Step Name] ✅
**Status:** Complete
What we did:
- [Action taken]
- [Files modified]
- [Key decisions made]

```[language]
// Code snippet showing the implementation

✓ Checkpoint: [What works at this point] Commit: [hash] - "[commit message]"

Step 2: [Step Name] 🔄

Status: In Progress

What we're doing:

  • [Current action]
  • [Expected outcome]

Blockers: [Any issues encountered]

Step 3: [Step Name] ⏳

Status: Pending

What we need to do:

  • [Planned action]
  • [Dependencies]

Error Log

Error 1: [Date]

Error: [Error message] Context: [Where it occurred] Solution: [How it was fixed] Prevention: [How to avoid in future]

Notes & Decisions

  • [Date]: [Important decision or note]
  • [Date]: [Why we chose approach A over B]
  • [Date]: [Architectural decision]

Code Snippets & Solutions

[Problem/Feature Name]

// Reusable code solution

Why this works: [Explanation]

Next Session

When returning to this task:

  1. [First thing to check/do]
  2. [Second thing to check/do]
  3. [Continue from: specific file and line]

Pre-Completion Checklist

  • All tests passing
  • Code reviewed / AI-reviewed
  • Documentation updated
  • Edge cases handled
  • Error handling implemented
  • Security considerations addressed

Resources

  • [Relevant documentation links]
  • [Reference implementations]
  • [Stack Overflow solutions that helped]

### 3. During Implementation
As you work through the task:

1. **Update status in real-time**:
   - Mark steps as ✅ Complete, 🔄 In Progress, ❌ Blocked, or ⏳ Pending
   - Remove time tracking - we work at AI speed!

2. **Document decisions**:
   - Why did we choose approach A over B?
   - What trade-offs did we make?
   - What assumptions are we making?

3. **Create checkpoints**:
   - After each significant step, note what's working
   - Include git commit hashes for major checkpoints
   - This helps with debugging and rolling back if needed

Read the full file on GitHub · 248 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 2d ago First seen · 248 lines · 33 tokens per session scan A 8ec82eb2f315

Subscribe to this mod's changes

TODO-tracking is a cursor rule published in the GitHub repository jakerains/CitrusRules (2 stars, last pushed 1y ago), licensed MIT. It adds 33 tokens to every session and 2,016 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-31.