OpenTime

A universal, human-readable format for your goals, tasks, habits, reminders, events, appointments and projects.

OpenTime is a new plain-text standard designed to bring clarity and ownership to the way you manage your time.

Where Markdown made your thoughts portable, OpenTime makes your schedule portable — across apps, devices, platforms, and decades.

Why OpenTime Exists

Most productivity tools lock your data inside their system. Your tasks live in one app, your habits in another, your schedule somewhere else — and none of them speak a shared language.

Even when they claim to “sync,” you're still stuck inside someone else's worldview.

OpenTime changes that by giving you:

  • A single format for everything: goals, tasks, habits, reminders, events, appointments, and projects
  • Plain-text files you own locally (.ot)
  • Total portability between apps who are open enough to adopt a standard, or accept a standard at all
  • No vendor lock-in
  • Future-proof, human-readable data

Your time should belong to you — not to the tools you use.

What Makes OpenTime Different

Human-readable

You can open an .ot file in any text editor. It makes sense at a glance. You can read it like a human.

App-agnostic

Any app can read or write OpenTime. No licenses. No restrictions. They just need to accept YAML formats.

Extensible

Apps can add their own x_* fields without breaking the standard.

Local-first

Your data starts with you — not a server.

Round-trip safe

Nothing gets lost when moving between apps. Everything stays intact within your saved .ot file.

Built for the next decade

OpenTime supports modern scheduling concepts: recurring habits, flexible tasks, time windows, deep metadata, and more.

Why It Matters

Time is the most valuable thing you have. In some philosophies, it's the only thing you have.

It deserves a format that's:

  • portable
  • future-proof
  • open
  • flexible
  • and truly yours

OpenTime gives you the freedom to structure your life the way you want — and take it with you wherever you go.

Where Elysium Fits In

Elysium is the first app built natively around OpenTime.

It's both:

  • a powerful productivity system for everyday life
  • and the reference implementation for the .ot format
  • a shared foundation the community can shape, extend, and evolve

But OpenTime isn't just for Elysium.

It's for any developer building:

  • calendar apps
  • task managers
  • habit trackers
  • journaling tools
  • productivity dashboards
  • PKM systems
  • or anything connected to time

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