calendar-event-manager · git:20260818.e92c812 · 2026-08-18 · sha256 61d6024ef7f46419
calendar-event-manager git:20260818.e92c812A
Immutable. This exact content never changes and is served at /api/v1/blob/61d6024ef7f46419.
---
name: calendar-event-manager
description: user wants to create a macOS Calendar event with sound alarms and paired Reminders, schedule a meeting, RSVP to an invitation, or set reminders.
allowed-tools: Bash, Read, AskUserQuestion
---
# Calendar Event Manager
Create macOS Calendar events with **tiered sound alarms** and **paired Reminders** so events are never missed across Mac and iOS.
> **Self-Evolving Skill**: This skill improves through use. If instructions are wrong, parameters drifted, or a workaround was needed — fix this file immediately, don't defer. Only update for real, reproducible issues.
## CRITICAL RULES (Hard-Learned Truths 2026-02-12)
> **These rules are NON-NEGOTIABLE. Violating any of them defeats the purpose of this skill.**
### 1. Calendar + Reminders ALWAYS Together
Every event MUST create BOTH:
- **Calendar event** with multiple `sound alarm` entries (custom sound per tier)
- **Reminders** (3 minimum) as a separate notification channel
Never create one without the other.
### 2. Use `sound alarm`, NOT `display alarm`
```applescript
-- CORRECT: audible alert with custom sound
make new sound alarm at end of sound alarms with properties {trigger interval:-60, sound name:"Glass"}
-- WRONG: silent visual banner only
make new display alarm at end of display alarms with properties {trigger interval:-60}
```
Each alarm supports its own `sound name` property. Use DIFFERENT sounds for different tiers so the user knows which alert level it is by sound alone.
### 3. ONLY Long Sounds (>= 1.4 seconds)
Short sounds get missed and ignored. NEVER use sounds under 1.4 seconds.
**APPROVED sounds only:**
| Sound | Duration | Use For |
| --------- | -------- | ------------------------- |
| Funk | 2.16s | At event time (loudest) |
| Glass | 1.65s | 1 hour before |
| Pop | 1.63s | Morning-of / 3 hrs before |
| Sosumi | 1.54s | Day-before |
| Ping | 1.50s | 30 min before |
| Submarine | 1.49s | Alternative |
| Blow | 1.40s | Gentle early reminder |
**BANNED sounds:** Hero, Basso, Bottle, Purr, Frog, Morse, Tink (all < 1.4s)
### 4. Multiple Early Reminders Are Mandatory
**Calendar accepts at most 5 alarms per event** (verified 2026-08-17 on a CalDAV
calendar: adding a 6th silently evicts an earlier one, with no error). Budget the
5 slots deliberately and do NOT spend one duplicating a Reminder that already
fires at the same moment.
Default alarm tiers:
| Tier | Trigger | Calendar Sound | Reminder |
| ------------- | --------- | -------------- | ----------------- |
| 1 day before | -1439 min | Blow | "TOMORROW: ..." |
| Night before | -720 min | Sosumi | — |
| 1 hour before | -60 min | Glass | (via Calendar) |
| 30 min before | -30 min | Ping | (via Calendar) |
| At event time | 0 min | Funk | Due-time reminder |
Plus 3 Reminders: "TOMORROW:" (day before, 9 AM), "TODAY:" (morning-of), and the
due-time one.
> **Use -1439, never -1440.** An exact 1440-minute (24 h) offset is silently
> dropped by Calendar — the alarm simply does not appear on read-back. Verified
> twice on 2026-08-17. `-1439` persists.
#### Early-morning events (before ~9:30 AM)
The default tiers misfire for early events. Adjust:
- The **morning-of 9 AM** Reminder fires _after_ an 08:30 event. Move it to
~90 min before the event instead.
- A **-180 min** tier on an 08:30 event rings at **05:30**, waking the user three
hours early. Drop it; use the night-before **-720** tier instead.
### 5. macOS Notification Settings Prerequisite
Calendar notifications must be enabled in System Settings:
- System Settings > Notifications > Calendar > Allow Notifications = ON
- Alert style = Banners or Alerts
- Play sound = ON
Open with: `open "x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.Notifications-Settings.extension"`
---
## TodoWrite Task Templates
### Template A: Create Event from Invitation
```
1. Extract event details (title, date, time, location, notes, RSVP)
2. Create Calendar event with 5-tier sound alarms (Blow, Sosumi, Glass, Ping, Funk)
3. Create 3 Reminders (TOMORROW, TODAY morning, due-time)
4. Verify event and reminders created
5. Report full schedule to user
```
### Template B: Create Event from User Description
```
1. Ask user for: event name, date/time, duration, location
2. Create Calendar event with 5-tier sound alarms (max Calendar allows)
3. Create 3 Reminders
4. Verify event and reminders created
5. Report full schedule to user
```
### Template C: Test Notification Setup
```
1. Create test Calendar event 3 min in future with sound alarms (1 min, 2 min tiers)
2. Create test Reminder 2 min in future
3. Wait for user confirmation of notifications
4. Clean up test event and reminders
```
---
## AppleScript Date Construction (CRITICAL)
**NEVER use `date "STRING"` in AppleScript.** String-based date parsing is locale-dependent and silently produces wrong results:
| Anti-pattern | What happens | Example |
| ------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------- |
| `date "April 1, 2026 at 6:00:00 PM"` | On 24h systems, "PM" is ignored → 06:00 | 4 failures in amonic session |
| `date "2026-04-01 18:00:00"` | ISO parsed as individual numbers → year 12169 | 1 failure |
| `set month` before `set day to 1` | Day 31 + April (30 days) → rolls to May 1 | 1 failure |
**ALWAYS use programmatic date construction:**
```applescript
-- Build date safely: day-first-then-month prevents rollover
set d to current date
set day of d to 1 -- safe floor FIRST (prevents month rollover)
set month of d to April
set year of d to 2026
set day of d to 1 -- now set actual target day
set hours of d to 18 -- 24h format, no AM/PM ambiguity
set minutes of d to 0
set seconds of d to 0
```
### Calendar Discovery (run first)
```applescript
tell application "Calendar"
set output to ""
repeat with c in calendars
set output to output & name of c & " (writable:" & writable of c & ")" & linefeed
end repeat
output
end tell
```
Use the first `writable:true` calendar. Never assume "Home" or "Calendar" exists.
### Full Event Creation (Copy-Paste Ready)
```applescript
tell application "Calendar"
-- Build start date programmatically
set startDate to current date
set day of startDate to 1
set month of startDate to MONTH_CONSTANT
set year of startDate to YEAR_INT
set day of startDate to DAY_INT
set hours of startDate to HOUR_24
set minutes of startDate to 0
set seconds of startDate to 0
-- Build end date (1 hour later)
set endDate to startDate + 1 * hours
tell calendar "WRITABLE_CALENDAR_NAME"
set newEvent to make new event with properties {summary:"EVENT_NAME", start date:startDate, end date:endDate, location:"LOCATION", description:"NOTES"}
tell newEvent
-- EXACTLY 5 alarms: a 6th silently evicts one of these.
-- -1439 not -1440: an exact 24h offset is silently dropped.
make new sound alarm at end of sound alarms with properties {trigger interval:-1439, sound name:"Blow"}
make new sound alarm at end of sound alarms with properties {trigger interval:-720, sound name:"Sosumi"}
make new sound alarm at end of sound alarms with properties {trigger interval:-60, sound name:"Glass"}
make new sound alarm at end of sound alarms with properties {trigger interval:-30, sound name:"Ping"}
make new sound alarm at end of sound alarms with properties {trigger interval:0, sound name:"Funk"}
end tell
end tell
reload calendars
end tell
```
### Verification (always run after creation)
Verification is NOT optional. Every failure logged in this file was silent —
the create step returned success in all of them.
```applescript
tell application "Calendar"
tell calendar "WRITABLE_CALENDAR_NAME"
set e to first event whose summary contains "EVENT_NAME"
set out to (summary of e) & " | " & (start date of e) & " -> " & (end date of e) & linefeed
-- Read BOTH classes: Calendar reports sound alarms back as display alarms.
set out to out & "alarms=" & ((count of display alarms of e) + (count of sound alarms of e)) & linefeed
repeat with a in display alarms of e
set out to out & " " & (trigger interval of a) & linefeed
end repeat
repeat with a in sound alarms of e
set out to out & " " & (trigger interval of a) & linefeed
end repeat
return out
end tell
end tell
```
Confirm the alarm COUNT and every trigger interval — do not just confirm the
event exists. Dropped alarms are the most common silent failure.
### Calendar AppleScript bridge limitations (verified 2026-08-17)
| Attempt | Result | Do this instead |
| ------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `repeat with e in (every event whose summary …)` | error -1728, "Can't get item 1" | Collect `uid of (every event whose …)` first, then delete/act per uid |
| `count of (every alarm of e)` | syntax error -2741, no `alarm` class exists | Count `display alarms` + `sound alarms` separately |
| `delete (first display alarm whose …)` | error -10000, AppleEvent handler failed | Individual alarms cannot be deleted — recreate the whole event |
| `delete display alarm <index>` | error -10000 | Same: recreate the event |
| Read back `sound name` of a created alarm | Reports 0 sound alarms, N display alarms | Expected. `sound name` persists at the EventKit level; create sound alarms anyway |
### Paired Reminders Creation
> **NEVER use `default list`.** On this machine it resolves to an empty
> placeholder list literally named `DEFAULT_TASK_CALENDAR_NAME` (an
> unsubstituted template string). `make new reminder in (default list)`
> returns success and writes **nothing** — a total silent failure. Discover
> the real list by name first and target it explicitly.
```applescript
-- Discover lists FIRST; never assume.
tell application "Reminders"
set out to ""
repeat with l in lists
set out to out & name of l & " count=" & (count of reminders in l) & linefeed
end repeat
return out
end tell
```
```applescript
tell application "Reminders"
-- Target the real list BY NAME (usually "Reminders"), not `default list`.
set targetList to list "Reminders"
-- Build date programmatically (same pattern as Calendar)
set eventDate to current date
set day of eventDate to 1
set month of eventDate to MONTH_CONSTANT
set year of eventDate to YEAR_INT
set day of eventDate to DAY_INT
set hours of eventDate to HOUR_24
set minutes of eventDate to 0
set seconds of eventDate to 0
-- CRITICAL: `copy`, not `set`. `set x to eventDate` ALIASES the same date
-- object, so mutating x silently rewrites eventDate too (this corrupted a
-- due-time reminder to 07:00 on 2026-08-17). `copy` makes a real clone.
copy eventDate to morningDate
set hours of morningDate to 7
set minutes of morningDate to 0
set seconds of morningDate to 0
copy eventDate to dayBefore
set dayBefore to dayBefore - 1 * days
set hours of dayBefore to 9
set minutes of dayBefore to 0
set seconds of dayBefore to 0
make new reminder in targetList with properties {name:"NOW: EVENT_NAME", due date:eventDate, body:"LOCATION" & linefeed & "NOTES"}
make new reminder in targetList with properties {name:"TOMORROW: EVENT_NAME", due date:dayBefore, body:"Event tomorrow! LOCATION"}
make new reminder in targetList with properties {name:"TODAY: EVENT_NAME", due date:morningDate, body:"Today! LOCATION"}
end tell
```
Note `body:` must use `& linefeed &` — a literal `\n` inside an AppleScript
string is the two characters backslash-n, not a newline.
---
## Post-Change Checklist
After modifying this skill:
1. [ ] Sound reference table matches [sound-reference.md](./references/sound-reference.md)
2. [ ] All 5 alarm tiers documented with correct sounds (Calendar caps at 5)
3. [ ] BANNED sounds list is complete
4. [ ] Hook file (`hooks/calendar-reminder-sync.ts`) aligned with skill rules
5. [ ] AppleScript examples use `sound alarm` not `display alarm`
---
## References
- [Sound Reference](./references/sound-reference.md) - Full sound duration data and approved/rejected lists
- [Apple Calendar Scripting Guide](https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/AppleApplications/Conceptual/CalendarScriptingGuide/Calendar-AddanAlarmtoanEvent.html)
## Post-Execution Reflection
After this skill completes, check before closing:
1. **Did the command succeed?** — If not, fix the instruction or error table that caused the failure.
2. **Did parameters or output change?** — If the underlying tool's interface drifted, update Usage examples and Parameters table to match.
3. **Was a workaround needed?** — If you had to improvise (different flags, extra steps), update this SKILL.md so the next invocation doesn't need the same workaround.
Only update if the issue is real and reproducible — not speculative.