BusyML description markup
Every item in a Busy collection is created and stored with a description
that uses a specific form of markup we call "BusyML".
Loosely, an item's description contains one or more space-separated words, and those works that start with a marker indicate some special data field.
The idea is to concentrate useful information in a way that's easy to remember and type.
The markers are:
#
- tag%
- data value!
- timing-related data@
- url (only one allowed)>
- repeat timing, special because the marker itself can exist as its own word (i.e. have a space after) - only one allowed
All words without markers that appear before the repeat marker are considered the "base" description, and represent the human-readable action or topic of the item.
Example
`Check new Mac prices #shopping #weekend %i88 !e14 @https://apple.com/store > repeat on saturday'
- The base is "Check new Mac prices"
- Tags are
shopping
andweekend
- One data item
i88
(specifically might refer to a GitLab issue iid if using thebusy-gitlab
integration) - 14 minutes of elapsed time
- Related url is the Apple store
- When done, the task will repeat next Saturday
Tags
Items can have tags, which are space-separated hashtags in the item description. An item can have no tags, one tag, or more than one tag. For example the following item description has the tag "errands":
go to the supermarket #errands
The only punctuation that tags can contain is the hyphen ("-").
Data values
Data values are used by integrations to correlate to outside systems. They start with %
followed immediately by a 1-letter reference to the data value being tracked. Busy itself does little with the data values; it's up to the integrations.
Timing-related data
The time tracking subsystem inserts words starting with !
into tasks. Leave them alone.
URL
Useful place to bookmark a single URL related to the item
Repeat timing
Described on the details page.