timeglance

Config-driven time planning at a glance - one web UI controls two planners:

• Weekly - your routine sheet with topic layers. Print it or set it as a desktop wallpaper.
• Year - a wide year-at-a-glance planner, with layers fed by your own calendars, public holidays, and manually added events. Print it or set it as a desktop wallpaper.

One web control panel drives both - preview live, toggle layers, edit the YAML, export, or set the wallpaper:

...and the rendered output you print or set as a wallpaper:

Try it instantly (Docker)

The zero-install way to see the control panel and renders - a test drive, not a deployment target. A container can't reach your desktop session, so Docker can never set the wallpaper (the UI auto-hides it, and a scheduled "set wallpaper" renders the file but skips the set). Bridging the host display/DBus into a container isn't something we intend to solve - to actually use timeglance on your desktop, install it locally (next section).

docker compose run --rm timeglance timeglance init   # first run: scaffold year/ + weekly/ config.yaml
docker compose up                                    # then open http://localhost:8753

Config, outputs and scheduler state are bind-mounted under ./year, ./weekly and ./state, so the UI edits files on your host. Outputs are written as your host user — the compose file defaults to 1000:1000 (the usual first Linux user), so it just works for most; if your uid differs, run UID=$(id -u) GID=$(id -g) docker compose up.

Install (Ubuntu/Debian)

The simplest way on a Debian-based desktop. Grab the .deb from the latest release and install it - apt pulls every dependency (the Python libraries, poppler, native Cairo/Pango stack, tray AppIndicator, fonts) from your distro:

sudo apt install ./timeglance_<version>_all.deb

Then launch timeglance from your applications menu - the tray icon appears and opens the control panel, no terminal needed. Or drive it from the CLI (timeglance is now on your PATH):

timeglance init     # scaffold year/ + weekly/ config.yaml from the templates
timeglance serve    # the control panel at http://localhost:8753

A pure-Python install under /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages run by your system Python, with every dependency satisfied by your distro's own apt packages. CI builds and install-tests the .deb on Ubuntu 24.04, 25.10 and 26.04; other recent releases may work. Remove with sudo apt remove timeglance.

Install (Python/uv)

Needs Python 3.12+ and uv. WeasyPrint and CairoSVG load native libraries (Cairo, Pango, GDK-PixBuf) at runtime, and the wallpaper feature rasterizes the sheet with poppler's pdftocairo; most Linux desktops already have these, but on a minimal or server install add them first (Debian/Ubuntu):

sudo apt-get install libcairo2 libpango-1.0-0 libpangocairo-1.0-0 libgdk-pixbuf-2.0-0 poppler-utils
uv sync
uv run timeglance init      # scaffold year/ + weekly/ config.yaml from the templates
uv run timeglance serve     # the control panel at http://localhost:8753

Config, state and rendered output live under the XDG base directories by default (~/.config/timeglance, ~/.local/state/timeglance, ~/.local/share/timeglance); set TIMEGLANCE_HOME=$PWD to keep it all in the current folder instead.

Headless renders (each flag has a YAML equivalent):

uv run timeglance render year --theme light --layout vertical   # render the year planner
uv run timeglance render weekly --format both                   # render the weekly sheet

Set and forget (systemd timer)

To re-render (and optionally re-wallpaper) on a schedule with nothing running and nothing to start after a reboot:

timeglance install              # write a user service + timer and enable it now
timeglance install --time 06:30 # or pick the time (default: schedule.yaml's)
timeglance uninstall            # remove it

(From a source checkout, prefix these with uv run.) This drops timeglance-render.service (a oneshot that runs timeglance run, honouring your schedule.yaml) and timeglance-render.timer into ~/.config/systemd/user/, then enables the timer. Persistent=true means a run missed while the machine was off happens on the next boot. Change the time by re-running timeglance install --time HH:MM.

Setting the Plasma wallpaper needs an active graphical session, so a render while you're fully logged out writes the files but can't paint - it repaints on your next session. For renders while logged out (no wallpaper), enable lingering: loginctl enable-linger $USER.

Tray controller

A system-tray menu to open the panel and flip the schedule - a launcher and quick toggles, not the scheduler (the timer above keeps running whether or not the tray is open).

The .deb already includes it: after apt install, launch timeglance from your applications menu and the tray icon appears (it pulls the system AppIndicator/GObject libraries as dependencies). From a source checkout, add the extra and the system libraries, then run it:

sudo apt install python3-gi gir1.2-ayatanaappindicator3-0.1
uv sync --extra tray
uv run timeglance tray

The menu opens the control panel (starting the server first if needed), starts/stops it, picks the port, and toggles the schedule: enabled, time, which planners render, and which set the wallpaper. Autostart adds an XDG autostart entry so the tray is there every session (the same thing KDE's System Settings → Autostart manages). Quitting the tray only closes the panel it started - the systemd timer keeps running regardless.

Docs

• Motivation - why this exists, and how it fits a GTD/calendar setup
• The control panel - preview, config editor, scheduler & activity log
• Configuration - year & weekly YAML, calendar (.ics) sources
• Reference - every CLI flag and YAML key
• Wallpaper - KDE Plasma, per-screen native-resolution rendering
• Use as a library - import and render PNG/PDF/SVG from Python
• Contributing - setup, CI, releasing

Limitations

• Weekly activities can't overlap in time. Two activities over the same slot on the same day render on top of each other, so only one reads clearly.