[](https://get.todoist.io/leightonprice1199) ## Apple Shortcuts – Todoist Task Summary: Grab your comments & links out of Todoist’s black hole Last updated: **23 Sep 2025** Inspired by [this post on r/todoist](https://www.reddit.com/r/todoist/comments/1nkkvjq/how_do_you_all_archive_your_tasks_for_easy/), I'm sharing an Apple Shortcut I built that enables comprehensive data retrieval from [Todoist’s API](https://developer.todoist.com/api/v1#section/Developing-with-Todoist/Our-API) for what you might treat as an **archived task**. It also works fine for current tasks, too. You may be recording your completed tasks – with IDs – externally from Todoist using Zapier, IFTTT etc., but are quite possibly getting a limited picture from those routes. So, this **Todoist Task Summary** is especially handy for **accessing comments** (text and links for uploaded documents) you may have added to a task prior to it being completed. I've managed to pull back tasks from as far back as **2017** with this shortcut! It works fine with tasks in projects you've archived, too. You can see an example of the output with dummy data [online here](https://user.fm/files/v2-33dc9d2c23c8044de745773e4e63d6a5/Todoist%20Task%20Enquiry%20Example.txt) It's designed to work best on the Mac and you will require the free [Actions](https://sindresorhus.com/actions) app by Sindre Sorhus, which adds some useful extra action blocks for Shortcuts. Here's a quick overview of what [this shortcut](https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/6b7d76318c8e4c6d9df39526707f84b3) will do… * You can use an "old," all-numeric **task ID**, or a newer, alphanumeric one – associated with the new, unified API – to initiate your enquiry * If the shortcut finds you are using an older task ID that it recognises, it will **present the newer version** for you, along with the older one in its output * It provides a brief summary of **Task ID, Task Content, Task Status & Project** * Following that, it shows a prettified JSON object listing the task's attributes in an easy-to-read manner * Then, if there are **any comments associated with the task** these will be listed below the JSON, by most recent first, to oldest. The timestamp for each comment is included * It will also present any links to files you may have uploaded to comments – along with the file name – making them easily accessible. This includes audio recordings made within the browser * If there are no comments for the task, it will present, "There are no comments for this task" * It **saves the output** as a `.txt` file in the Shortcuts folder of your Mac. You can obviously change it to a location of your choice * The file uses a naming structure that looks like this… `Todoist_Task_ID_6djj9XHWnVd2Hr4V_2025-09-21_1345.txt` * Finally, it opens the file in TextEdit for your review Should you wish to send the content to, for example, an Apple Note instead, you can just adapt the shortcut however you see fit. *Full Setup instructions are within the shortcut*. I know it's a common frustration that it can feel like any reference material linked to a task in Todoist disappears into a black hole when you complete that task. Hopefully, this makes it a little more accessible. Cheers. 👍 **PS** – For the technically minded: this shortcut also handles paginated results from the unified API. While you can set a generous limit of 200 items per request, the shortcut uses a repeat loop (currently set at 3, i.e. accommodating 600 comments). You can adjust this for more runs if needed. It automatically incorporates the next_cursor key back into the URL. You can find more of my [Todoist tips and tricks listed here](https://www.leightonprice.com#todoist) *** **[Go to www.leightonprice.com](https://www.leightonprice.com)**