Why your to-do list should be a tree
Every project I've ever planned started the same way: a bubble in the middle of a page with branches coming off it. Marketing over here, build over there, ops somewhere at the bottom. Then I'd open my task manager and flatten that living shape into a single column of checkboxes — and lose the map I just drew.
TwigDo exists because the flat list is the wrong default. It's the launch note for what we built instead.
Lists hide the shape of your work
A flat list answers one question: what's next? It can't answer the questions that actually decide whether a project ships:
- Which branch of this project is falling behind?
- If I cut scope, which limb do I prune?
- Is "Marketing" 10% done or 90% done — and what's the remaining 10% made of?
In TwigDo, every task is a bubble on a tree, and every bubble carries a progress ring that fills as its sub-tasks complete. Crucially, it also drains — un-complete a sub-task, add new ones, and the ring honestly slides back. Your plan changing shouldn't break your progress tracking; it should update it.
Four lenses, one tree
Different moments need different surfaces. Planning wants a canvas. Execution wants a checklist. Reviews want a board. Audits want a grid. Most tools make you pick one and pay a tax forever.
TwigDo keeps four views — mind map, list, Kanban and table — pointed at the same underlying tree. Edit a name in the table and the bubble renames. Drag a sticky between Kanban columns and the branch moves. There is no "sync" button because there's nothing to sync: it's one structure with four lenses.
Branches you can hand to someone else
My favourite feature fell out of a real need: delegating part of a project without sharing all of it. Any task in TwigDo can spin off into its own linked project with two-way sync. The parent tree shows a live shell of the spin-off; the spin-off is a full project of its own. On team plans you can invite a collaborator to just that branch — they never see the rest of your tree.
Local-first, because your plans are yours
The free tier needs no account: everything lives in your browser, exportable as JSON or SVG anytime. Cloud sync is an opt-in upgrade, not a ransom. That's a deliberate stance — a tool that holds your plans shouldn't hold them hostage.
TwigDo is built in public by a tiny team at SEQUEL AI. If you've ever sketched a project as branches on paper, go plant your first tree — it takes about ten seconds.