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When you capture a thought, Tuck checks its wording for a possible todo. This looks actionable means Tuck saved a proposed todo linked to the thought. The check uses a fixed list of English words and phrases. It does not use an AI model, infer your intent, or learn from past captures.

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What Tuck checks

Tuck first parses capture syntax and recognized timing. It checks both the text remaining after a recognized date or time phrase is removed and the full parsed text. Either version can match. For each check, Tuck:
  1. Trims whitespace from the beginning and end of the text, including leading blank lines.
  2. Takes the first remaining line.
  3. Collapses repeated whitespace on that line into a single space and trims it.
Later lines do not contribute to that check.

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When the wording check returns no

Before checking words, Tuck rejects a line if it:
  • Is empty.
  • Is longer than 160 characters after whitespace is normalized.
  • Starts with ", “, or «.
  • Ends with ?.
These limits apply to the wording check. An explicit todo instruction can still create a todo.

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Words that match at the start

The line must start with one of these words or phrases. Matching ignores capitalization.
The match must end at a word boundary: call matches, but calling does not. A verb alone, such as Call, also matches.

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Phrases that match anywhere

Any of these phrases can appear anywhere on the checked line:
Matching ignores capitalization and requires word boundaries around the phrase. The apostrophe in don't forget must be the straight apostrophe shown here; don’t forget with a curly apostrophe does not match that phrase.

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Examples

These examples describe the wording check, without an explicit todo marker or reminder override. If the first checked line is Meeting notes and the next line is Call Chesley, the wording check returns no. Put the action on the first line if you want it considered.

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Why you might get a todo without the suggestion

Explicit todo syntax tells Tuck to create an open todo directly:
  • Start with *, todo:, or /todo, followed by your thought.
  • Include a supported repeat token: ~daily, ~weekly, or ~monthly.
For example, * Remember to water the plants creates a todo even though the wording alone does not match.
The * prefix skips the suggestion by creating a todo directly. It does not suppress todo creation or mean “keep this as a thought only.”
For ordinary in-app captures, a wording match creates a proposed todo and the capture box shows This looks actionable. Explicit todos are saved as open and show Tucked as a todo. Inbound SMS, email, and API captures that qualify as todos are also saved as open, without that ask. Being inbound does not by itself make every capture a todo. The web app capture store also creates a todo when an explicit reminder timestamp is supplied. Unless the capture is inbound or marked explicit, that todo is still proposed. A recognized date in the text alone is not an additional wording rule. See Capture thoughts, Use todos, and Capture syntax for the surrounding workflow.