Plantera

Too busy writing code to remember to water your plants? Try Plantera, a simple CLI tool that lets you track and schedule watering of your little work buddies.

Installation

Requires Python 3.11+.

# with pipx (recommended)
pipx install plantera

# with pip
pip install plantera

# with uv
uv tool install plantera

Quick Start

# Add a plant species to the library
plantera add-species Crassula "Jade Plant" "Soak when soil is completely dry"

# Add a plant
plantera add Bob Crassula 2026-04-01 7 "North-facing windowsill"

# See what needs watering today
plantera show --due

# Mark a plant as watered
plantera watered Bob

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Commands

add

Add a plant to your collection.

plantera add <nickname> <genus> [last-watered] [interval] [environment]

• nickname — your name for the plant (e.g. Bob)
• genus — must exist in the species library
• last-watered — date in YYYY-MM-DD format (default: today)
• interval — watering interval in days (default: 7)
• environment — optional description of the plant's location (e.g. "South-facing windowsill")

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add-species

Add a plant species to the library.

plantera add-species <genus> <common-name> [care-info]

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show

Show your plants or the species library.

plantera show [--name] [--species] [--due]

• --name — show a single plant by nickname, including environment and care info
• --species — show the species library instead of your plants
• --due — show only plants due for watering today
• --name cannot be combined with --species or --due

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watered

Mark a plant as watered. Recalculates the next watering date automatically.

plantera watered <nickname>

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snooze

Delay a plant's next watering date by a number of days.

plantera snooze <nickname> [days]

• days — number of days to delay (default: 1, max: 365)

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update

Update a plant's details.

plantera update <nickname> [--nickname] [--genus] [--last-watered] [--next-watering] [--interval] [--environment]

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update-species

Update a species in the library.

plantera update-species <genus> [--genus] [--common-name] [--care-info]

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delete

Delete a plant from your collection.

plantera delete <nickname>

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delete-species

Delete a species from the library.

plantera delete-species <genus>

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remind

Send a desktop notification for any plants due or overdue for watering. Designed to be run on a schedule.

plantera remind

Schedule plantera remind to run daily using cron (Linux), launchd (macOS), or Task Scheduler (Windows).

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config

View or update Plantera settings.

plantera config [setting] [--value] [--delete]

• Run without arguments to display all current settings
• auto_interval — once set, enables automatic watering interval adjustment. Each time you mark a plant as watered, Plantera blends the real gap since last watering into the current interval using an exponential moving average: new_interval = alpha × actual_days + (1 − alpha) × current_interval. A higher alpha (e.g. 0.7) reacts faster to recent waterings; a lower alpha (e.g. 0.2) keeps it more stable. Default: 0.4.
• claude_api_key — once set, unlocks the diagnose and update-care-info commands.

plantera config claude_api_key --value sk-ant-...
plantera config auto_interval --value 0.3
plantera config auto_interval --delete

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update-care-info

Use Claude AI to review and update the care info for a species in your library.

plantera update-care-info <genus>

Requires claude_api_key to be set via plantera config.

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diagnose

Diagnose a plant's condition using Claude AI. Accepts a text description, an image, or both. Plantera automatically includes the plant's species, care info, environment, and watering history as context so Claude can give a more informed response.

plantera diagnose <nickname> [--condition] [--picture]

• --condition — text description of what you're observing (e.g. "yellowing leaves")
• --picture — path to an image of the plant

plantera diagnose Bob --condition "brown leaf tips, soil feels dry"
plantera diagnose Bob --picture /path/to/photo.jpg
plantera diagnose Bob --condition "looks droopy" --picture /path/to/photo.jpg

Requires claude_api_key to be set via plantera config.

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Data

Plantera stores all data locally in a SQLite database at ~/.local/share/plantera/plantera.db. No accounts, no cloud, no setup required.

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Dev Setup

Requires uv.

git clone https://github.com/tmannell/plantera
cd plantera
uv sync --all-groups
uv run pytest

Tests are written with pytest and cover all CLI commands and service functions.