Quick Start • Feature Tour • Tech Stack • Local Dev

---

Clean dark UI, fast keyboard flow, project rollups, deadline focus, and daily dispatch planning in one screen.

Why It Feels Great

Local-first by default	Your data stays on your machine in SQLite (dispatch.db).
One workspace for everything	Tasks, projects, notes, and dispatches stay connected.
Keyboard-friendly UX	Fast actions, global search, and shortcut support keep flow uninterrupted.
Built for real execution	Deadline focus, progress rollups, and upcoming work are always visible.

Feature Tour

• Dashboard: instant visibility into active tasks, notes, dispatches, deadlines, and project activity.
• Tasks: status + priority + due dates + project links.
• Projects: progress rollups and scoped task lists.
• Notes: markdown editing, preview, and export.
• Dispatch: daily planning surface with rollover support.
• Personal Assistant (Beta): streaming AI chat powered by Vercel AI SDK, with in-app actions via a local MCP (Model Context Protocol) tool server.
• Search: global search across tasks, notes, and dispatch records.
• Recycle Bin: restore or permanently remove archived items.
• Auth: GitHub OAuth and local development credentials.

Tech Stack

Quick Start

Docker Setup (Recommended)

Dispatch includes production launchers that create/update .env.prod and run Docker Compose.

Prerequisites:

• Docker Desktop (Windows/macOS) or Docker Engine + Compose plugin (Linux)
• docker available on your PATH, with Docker running before setup
• Internet access to pull the default image (ghcr.io/nkasco/dispatchtodoapp:latest)

Use one of the following:

.\dispatch.ps1 setup

./dispatch.sh setup

GitHub Auth in Docker:

• During setup, choose Enable GitHub OAuth sign-in? and provide AUTH_GITHUB_ID / AUTH_GITHUB_SECRET.
• Set NEXTAUTH_URL to the public URL users will open in the browser.
• If this runs on a dedicated server in your home/lab network, use the server hostname or LAN IP in NEXTAUTH_URL instead of localhost.
• In GitHub OAuth app settings, set the callback URL to:
  • <NEXTAUTH_URL>/api/auth/callback/github
  • Example: http://dispatch-server:3000/api/auth/callback/github

Local Development - Prerequisites

Use this section only if you are running Dispatch locally with Node.js (npm run dev, npm run build, npm run start).

• Node.js 20.9+ (LTS recommended).
  Node includes npm, which is required for local development commands.
• Git (recommended for pulling updates).
• If native module install fails (for better-sqlite3), install platform build tools:
  • Windows: Visual Studio Build Tools (C++ workload)
  • macOS: Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install)

Manual Setup (Alternative)

1. Install

npm install

2. Configure env

Create .env.local (local Node.js/dev runtime only):

Docker setup uses .env.prod, not .env.local.

# Required for NextAuth
AUTH_SECRET=your_random_secret
NEXTAUTH_URL=http://localhost:3000

# GitHub OAuth (optional)
AUTH_GITHUB_ID=your_github_oauth_client_id
AUTH_GITHUB_SECRET=your_github_oauth_client_secret

# Optional (defaults to ./dispatch.db)
DATABASE_URL=./dispatch.db

3. Migrate database

npm run db:migrate

4. Run app

npm run dev

Open http://localhost:3000.

npm run dev starts both services:

• Next.js app on http://localhost:3000
• Dispatch MCP server on http://localhost:3001 (used by Personal Assistant tool calling)

Dev Login (Optional)

• Seeded account: test@dispatch.local / test
  • Run npm run db:seed first to create the seeded account.

Dispatch is an independent open-source project and is not affiliated with any other software using the name Dispatch.

---