task — ultra-light Windows Task Manager (Odin)

Keyboard-first TUI + headless JSON Task Manager for Windows 11.

Zero external deps — only Odin core/base + OS system DLLs
Low cost — ~1 Hz refresh by default, preallocated buffers, self-overhead shown
JSON mode — scripts/agents can query and control without opening the TUI

Install (releases)

MSI (recommended)

Download task-*-windows-x64.msi from Releases, run it (admin).
Installs to C:\Program Files\task and adds it to the system PATH.

msiexec /i task-0.1.0-windows-x64.msi
:: uninstall:
msiexec /x task-0.1.0-windows-x64.msi

One-liner (per-user, no admin)

irm https://github.com/aquaticcalf/task/releases/latest/download/install.ps1 | iex

Installs to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\task and updates user PATH.
Uninstall: download uninstall.ps1 from the same release, or delete that folder.

Portable ZIP

Unzip task-*-windows-x64.zip and put task.exe on your PATH.

Scoop

After a release (manifest is attached as task.json):

scoop install https://github.com/aquaticcalf/task/releases/latest/download/task.json

Build from source

build.bat
:: or
odin build . -out:task.exe -o:speed -subsystem:console

Requires Odin on PATH (Windows 10/11).

Package locally (zip + optional MSI)

# zip + standalone exe
.\scripts\package-release.ps1 -Version 0.1.0

# also build MSI (needs .NET SDK + WiX tool)
.\scripts\package-release.ps1 -Version 0.1.0 -Msi

Artifacts land in dist/.

Releases

Kind	When	Tag	Notes
Beta (prerelease)	Every green push to `master`	`beta`	Rolling; MSI/zip named `task-beta-*`
Stable	You cut a version	`vX.Y.Z` (e.g. `v0.1.1`)	Release workflow

Stable release

git tag v0.1.2
git push origin v0.1.2

Or Actions → Release → Run workflow.

Beta (automatic)

Push to master → CI job beta updates the rolling prerelease:

https://github.com/aquaticcalf/task/releases/tag/beta

PRs only build/test (no beta publish).

TUI

task

Key	Action
`1`–`7`	Tabs: Processes, Performance, Details, Services, Startup, Users, App history
`↑` `↓` / `j`	Move selection
`/`	Filter (Esc cancel)
`k`	Kill process (confirm `y`)
`t`	Kill process tree
`e`	Efficiency mode (EcoQoS)
`o`	Open file location in Explorer
`s` / `r`	Cycle sort column / reverse
`p`	Pause refresh
`[` `]`	Slower / faster refresh
`Space`	Start/stop selected service
`d`	Disable selected startup entry
`F5`	Force refresh
`q`	Quit

JSON API (headless)

task --json help
task --json summary --seconds 1
task --json processes --sort cpu --limit 20
task --json process --pid 1234
task --json performance --seconds 2
task --json services
task --json startup
task --json users
task --json kill --pid 1234
task --json kill --pid 1234 --tree
task --json priority --pid 1234 --class high
task --json efficiency --pid 1234 --enable true
task --json affinity --pid 1234 --mask 0xF
task --json service --name Spooler --action stop
task --json startup-disable --location HKCU\Run --name Foo
task --json open-location --pid 1234

{"ok":false,"error":"..."}

Use --seconds N (1–10) for multi-sample CPU % accuracy.

Layout

main.odin / collect_*.odin / tui / json_api
installer/Package.wxs     MSI (WiX)
scripts/package-release.ps1
scripts/build-msi.ps1
scripts/install.ps1       per-user installer
scripts/uninstall.ps1
.github/workflows/ci.yml
.github/workflows/release.yml

Metrics sources

Area	Implementation
GPU % (system + per-process)	PDH `\GPU Engine(*)\Utilization Percentage` (same family Task Manager uses)
Disk %	PDH `\PhysicalDisk(_Total)\% Disk Time` (fallback: process IO sum)
Temperature	PDH `\Thermal Zone Information(*)\Temperature` + WMI `MSAcpi_ThermalZoneTemperature`
Fan	WMI `Win32_Fan.DesiredSpeed` when firmware exposes it
Per-process network	`GetExtendedTcpTable` / UDP + `GetPerTcpConnectionEStats` byte counters
App history	Session aggregate by image: lifetime CPU, TCP bytes, GPU Engine, memory
Protected processes	Enables `SeDebugPrivilege` when available; admin still required for some targets

Values may still be n/a on hardware that does not publish ACPI/WMI sensors — that is a platform gap, not a missing code path.

task