Show HN: Time tracking with plain text files

klog

klog is a file format and a command line tool for time tracking.

The idea behind klog is to store data in plain text files in a simple and human-readable format. The notation is similar to how you would write down the information into a physical notebook using pen and paper. By using the klog command line tool you can search and evaluate your data.

 ✦  Download – Get the latest version of the command line tool

 ✦  Guide – Learn how to use klog

 ✦  Specification – Understand the file format in-depth

klog in a nutshell

Let’s say you started a new job and want to use klog for tracking work times:

2018-03-24
First day at my new job
    8:30-17:00
    -45m Lunch break

At the 24th of March 2018 you came to the office at 8:30 in the morning and went home at 17:00 in the afternoon. Somewhere in between there was a 45-minute lunch break.

As you see, klog supports different notations to record times. You can capture short summaries about your activities along with the time data (only if you want, of course), which can help you later on to make sense of what you did back in the day. And by adding tags you are able to run more fine-granular evaluations.

When stored in a file (e.g. worktimes.klg) you can use the klog command line tool to interact with it. For instance, you could evaluate the resulting total time like this:

$ klog eval --today worktimes.klg
Total: 7h45m
(In 1 record)

For MacOS users there is a menu bar widget bundled into the command line tool that allows quick and convenient access to the most important functionalities. Just run klog widget to start it up and take it from there.

Learn more about klog and how to use it by reading the guide.

Current state: v1.0-rc

As of January 2021, the current state is the v1.0 release candidate (v1.0-rc). Unless there are any obvious bugs or mistakes popping up, I want to release the first stable version as is.

My main goals from there on are…

• to validate the basic idea behind the file format (as this is the central pillar of klog)
• to learn more about different use-cases
• to make the command line tool capable of manipulating files (e.g. adding new entries)
• to find out how useful the MacOS widget is and whether it would be worth to provide such a graphical interface for other platforms
• to fix compatibility issues with Windows

If you find bugs, have ideas for improvements, or want to bounce off a thought, feel invited to open an issue on Github so that we can discuss it.

About

klog is free and open-source software distributed under the MIT license.

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