timetracker-csv 0.1a3

A lightweight, repo-based, command-line timetracker that stores data in csv files

Timetracker-csv

Track time spent on multiple projects, one repo at a time.

A lightweight, repo-based, researcher name-based, command-line time tracker that stores data in csv files.

• Advantages
• Quickstart
• Installation
• Other time-trackers

Advantages

• Freedom software (aka open-source)
• Own your data
• Human-readable ASCII data stored in csv files
• Modify your data if you forget to log time
• Quick to set up
• Quickly see the current task being recorded
• Quickly see elapsed time spent on the current task
• No clicking and clicking and clicking on a GUI
• No required use of the internet or cloud-based services
• Data supported for each time interval includes:
  • A required free-form descriptive message
  • An optional activity or type
  • Any number of tags
• Plans to support exporting data for import by external time-tracking viewers

Quickstart

The name used by this time tracker is determined by the USER environmental variable by default.

1) Initialize a .timetracker/ directory

$ trk init
Initialized empty timetracker directory: /DIR/.timetracker for name(dvk)

2) Start the timer

$ trk start
Timetracker started Wed 03:19 PM: 2025-01-22 15:19:46.479951 for name(dvk)

3) Stop the timer

$ trk stop -m 'Accomplished the planned task'
Elapsed H:M:S=0:01:36.981588 added to ./.timetracker/timetracker_dvk.csv

4) Reporting functions are coming...

Installation

Install with pip:

$ pip install timetracker-csv

Or install from source:

$ git clone [e-mail]:dvklopfenstein/timetracker.git
$ cd timetracker
$ pip install .

Other timetrackers

• 13k stars ActivityWatch
• 85 stars ti
• 44 stars tim
• 6 stars Jupyter timetracker uses aTimeLogger csv format
• https://atimelogger.pro/ csv files
• List of timetrackers in PyPi
• web-based time tracking application
• Wage Labor record:
  • jupyter-timetracker - GUI too complex/too close to DB editing tools. No support for clients
  • tim CLI only, no idle time detection but uses hledger as a backend!
  • salary-timetracker CLI only, tracking bound to git repos, fixed hourly rate but hey it uses CSV files!
  • ttrac CLI only, no idle time detection, no support for clients or tasks but uses JSON files!
  • tickertock only with a StreamDeck, wants to use cloud service as backend but uses a hardware interface!
  • mttt CLI only, no idle time detection but uses plain text files!
  • tt-cli CLI only, no idle time detection, no support for clients
  • timetracker CLI only, no idle time detection, no support for clients
  • 1k stars hamster comes pretty close but seems outdated/abandoned and a little bit too complex

Copyright (C) 2025-present, DV Klopfenstein, PhD. All rights reserved