[3] It is inspired by a PIM from the 1980s called Lotus Agenda, notable because of its "free-form" approach to information management.

Lead developer of Agenda, Mitch Kapor, was also involved in the vision and management of Chandler.

[9][10] Early responses praised its open nature and its unified approach to management of different information types.

[11] Despite this, the lack of a stable version and the small developer base diminished public interest in the project.

Chandler is the subject of the non-fiction book Dreaming in Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4732 Bugs, and One Quest for Transcendent Software by Scott Rosenberg.