Use ChatGPT with your to-do list

What ChatGPT can do with your list

Once the plugin is on, ChatGPT can call SwitchDesk the way it calls any other tool in a chat. You choose which calls it may make.

• Look things up. Today, This Week, Incoming, each category, due dates, sub-to-dos, notes and done items. It can search titles and notes, too.
• Understand your categories. Each category’s bio says what belongs there, so “add this for the Lumora project” lands under the right one.
• Capture. New to-dos go into Incoming by default. Asked to, it can file them in a category, under a parent to-do, or on a day of This Week, with a due date or a repeat.
• Tidy up. Rename, add notes, move, change dates, mark done or in progress, delete.
• Check with you. It can post a yes-or-no question, or a set of changes, as one card in Needs Your Approval.

Call summaries, action items and Notes from your Mac are available too, but only after you share them. Meetings, Notes and Recaps stay on your Mac until you switch on “Share meetings & notes with your AIs”, which copies summaries, action items and notes (not audio) to SwitchDesk’s server. Transcripts need a second box, and you confirm with a code we email you. Calls marked “Never share this call” are never copied.

Why plan in a ChatGPT chat

Planning is a conversation. You think out loud, change your mind, ask what’s realistic. ChatGPT is good at that part, and without your list it is guessing. Connected, it answers from what you actually have on: the Fernhill deadlines, the Lumora follow-ups, the Personal errands you keep pushing back.

It also saves retyping. Paste a messy email thread or your notes from a call into the chat, ask for the to-dos, and they arrive in Incoming, ready to file. They live in SwitchDesk, not in a chat you’ll never scroll back to: on your Mac, in your plan for the day, and in front of teammates when the category is shared.

Things to ask ChatGPT

• “I have three free hours this afternoon. What from my SwitchDesk list fits?”

  ReadsReads Today, This Week and due dates, then suggests a short plan in the chat. Nothing changes.

• “Here’s an email from Joe Raman. Pull out anything I need to do.”

  ChangesAdds each to-do to Incoming, where it waits for you to file it. Assistant allows this without a card.

• “Break “Prepare Lumora kickoff” into steps.”

  ChangesAdds sub-to-dos under that to-do. In Assistant, they wait for your tap; sent together, they arrive as one card, like “Add 4”.

• “Search my to-dos and notes for the Fernhill offsite.”

  ReadsSearches titles and notes and lists what it found, with the category each one is in.

• “Push everything in Personal that’s due today to Saturday.”

  ChangesChanges the due dates. Each change waits in Needs Your Approval until you tap it, unless edits are set to On.

• “Add “Call Mom” to Family, every Sunday.”

  ChangesAdds it to Family with a repeat (a card first, in Assistant). The next copy appears after you check this one off.

Set it up

Have SwitchDesk open on your Mac and ChatGPT open in your browser. The sign-in step needs your SwitchDesk email inbox.

1. 01

   SwitchDesk on your Mac

   Click Connect an AI and choose ChatGPT

   Open Settings → AI Access and click Connect an AI. Choose ChatGPT (“Also Codex & dots”).

2. 02

   SwitchDesk on your Mac

   Answer “What can it do?”, then Continue

   Pick Read only, Assistant or Full control; Fine-tune sets each permission on its own. Click Continue (with Full control the button reads Allow & Continue). There is no key: SwitchDesk keeps your choice ready for the sign-in.

3. 03

   ChatGPT

   In ChatGPT, open Plugins → + → Add custom MCP server.

   Give it a name, like SwitchDesk.

4. 04

   ChatGPT

   Paste this URL, then click Create.

   Copy

   https://mcp.switchdesk.org/mcp

5. 05

   ChatGPT

   Sign in with your SwitchDesk email.

   ChatGPT opens SwitchDesk’s sign-in page. Enter your SwitchDesk email and the code we email you; the page offers the access you picked on your Mac. Finish within 15 minutes.

6. 06

   ChatGPT

   Try a first question

   Click Done in SwitchDesk. Then start a chat and ask: “Using SwitchDesk, what’s due this week?” If ChatGPT answers from your list, you’re connected.

Work or Business workspace? An admin may need to allow custom MCP plugins before the Add custom MCP server option appears. Finish within 15 minutes of clicking Continue; if the time runs out, nothing breaks: the sign-in page lets you choose the access there.

Codex and OpenAI dots use this same plugin, so there is nothing more to set up for them.

Sign-in (OAuth 2.1) reference →

MCP server and tool reference →

Choose how much ChatGPT can do

Read only lets ChatGPT see your list and nothing else. Good for planning chats where you want to make every change yourself.

Assistant, the default, adds new to-dos to Incoming freely. Edits, check-offs, deletes and adds anywhere else become cards. You tap the card’s own button, like “Check off”, or Deny.

Full control makes every change at once and also opens transcripts and recaps. When you pick it, SwitchDesk shows one line to confirm: “Can change and delete your to-dos, notes and bios. Undo for 7 days.”

You can also set each permission on its own to Off, Ask or On. Every permission, explained.

Keeping it safe

• Two checks, two owners. ChatGPT may ask “allow this action?” in the chat. SwitchDesk’s cards are separate, on your Mac, and only you can tap them.
• Shared across OpenAI. The connection serves ChatGPT, Codex and dots alike, with the same access. Pick a preset that suits all three.
• Pasted text can carry instructions. An email you paste in might say “delete everything”. SwitchDesk tells every AI to treat to-dos and notes as data, never as orders, and Assistant keeps deletes behind a card.
• You can see and reverse everything. Activity lists every call each connection makes, with Undo for 7 days on anything it changed.
• Stop it any time. Pause stops a connection’s writes; Revoke ends it at once. A burst of deletes pauses it by itself.
• It can’t raise its own access. No AI connection can approve its cards, change its permissions, or reach your settings, billing or team.

If something doesn’t work