Chaku.
A self-hosted to-do app, forked from Vikunja.
cha·ku noun Quechua, also chaccu
The Andean round-up: a community forms a chain, gathers the vicuña herd, shears what is needed, and lets the animals go.
Vikunja is named for the vicuña. Chaku is named for the gathering.
Chaku is our working fork of Vikunja: the same self-hosted to-do lists, kept close to upstream, plus native Apple apps. It plans our own work every day.
A fork that stays close.
Vikunja is excellent software: projects, labels, kanban, CalDAV, and a clean REST API, built by kolaente and contributors. Chaku tracks it release by release; the current build sits on v2.4.0.
- A hardening pass over backend and frontend: stricter image and API-token validation, calmer logs, graceful shutdown, and focus fixes in dialogs.
- Housekeeping: the styling layer moved to current Bulma, and small UI annoyances (the date-picker popup among them) got fixed.
- Deployment, backup, and monitoring automation for running one instance well.
- A new name and icon, so nobody mistakes our build for the original.
The list is short on purpose. If you want a great self-hosted to-do app today, use Vikunja. Chaku is for people who want to follow where we take it.
It plans our day.
Chaku is the task backend at sysinit. People leave work for coding agents on its boards through the standard API, agents report back the same way, and our books and product sites are planned there. Dogfooding sets the roadmap: things get built when we miss them ourselves.
The Mac app is out.
The main reason this fork exists: task management with native Apple manners. One SwiftUI codebase for iOS and macOS, Swift 6 throughout, speaking the standard Vikunja API. The Mac app you can download today; the iOS build is still in testing.
Quick capture
A global Quick Entry panel on the Mac (⌃⌥Space), quick add with ⌘N, and a command palette.
Planning views
Today, Upcoming, and Favorites with date bands, defer-until, and reschedule presets.
At home on the platform
Sign-in with TOTP or an API token, credentials in the Keychain, a Dock badge, and Markdown task notes.
Chaku 1.0 for macOS
Signed and notarized, so it opens on a double-click with no Gatekeeper detour, and it updates itself from here. No account, no installer, no App Store.
Download for macOSmacOS 26 or newer · universal (Apple silicon and Intel) · 7.8 MB
Chaku needs a Vikunja instance, or none at all — it can keep a workspace on the Mac itself and move it onto a server later. The iOS app is still in testing; sign up below to hear when it lands.
Source, soon.
Chaku inherits Vikunja's AGPL-3.0 license, and the fork's source release is being prepared. The apps follow their own timeline.
Hear when things ship.
A few messages a year: the source release, app builds, and major versions. You also join sysinit-news, the sysinit newsletter with occasional product updates.
The signup uses double opt-in and covers both lists. Every message includes an unsubscribe link.