whatdoing 2.1.3

Terminal dashboard for tracking what you're working on

whatdoing

Terminal dashboard for tracking what you're working on. Shows all your projects at a glance, lets you drill into any one, and surfaces live data (git activity, Docker status, last modified file) without leaving the terminal.

Built for ADHD brains managing dozens of unfinished projects across multiple devices.

Install

pipx install whatdoing

Or with pip:

pip install whatdoing

Setup

whatdoing needs a directory where each subdirectory is a project. The structure looks like:

~/projects/
  my-app/
    _OVERVIEW.md
  website/
    _OVERVIEW.md
  side-project/

1. Create the config

mkdir -p ~/.whatdoing

Create ~/.whatdoing/config.yaml:

# Required: path to the directory containing your project folders
base_path: ~/projects

# Optional: subdirectory within base_path where projects live
# (leave blank if projects are directly inside base_path)
overview_dir:

# Optional: preferred text editor (defaults to micro, then $EDITOR, then nano)
editor: nano

# Optional: SSH host for remote docker status checks
docker_host: myserver

2. Add a project

Create a directory with an _OVERVIEW.md file:

mkdir -p ~/projects/my-app
cat > ~/projects/my-app/_OVERVIEW.md << 'EOF'
---
Status: Active
Priority: High
Next_action: Build the thing
Type: app
---

# My App

## What is this?

Description of the project.

## Blockers

None
EOF

3. Launch

whatdoing

Projects without an _OVERVIEW.md still appear in the dashboard (dimmed) and you can create one from inside the app.

Usage

whatdoing                 Dashboard - show all projects
whatdoing <name>          Jump to a project (fuzzy match)
whatdoing scratch         Open scratchpad
whatdoing journal         Open journal
whatdoing guide           User guide
whatdoing --help          This message

Keyboard Shortcuts

Dashboard

Key	Action
Enter	Open selected project
/	Filter projects by name
s	Open scratchpad
l	Open journal
?	Help
q	Quit

Project View

Key	Action
Click / Enter on section	Edit section inline
Ctrl+S (in editor)	Save section
Esc (in editor)	Cancel edit
a	Add new section
e	Open full file in text editor
u	Edit status
p	Edit priority
n	Edit next action
w	Log work to journal
b	Back to dashboard

YAML Frontmatter

Each _OVERVIEW.md supports these frontmatter fields:

---
Status: Active          # Shown color-coded in dashboard
Priority: High          # High / Medium / Low
Next_action: Do thing   # Shown in dashboard and project view
Type: app               # Free text label
Energy_required: high   # Shown in project view
Time_estimate: 2h       # Shown in project view
code_path: /path/to/src # For git status checks
docker_name: my-container  # For docker status checks
Tags:
  - tag1
  - tag2
---

File Locations

What	Where
Config	~/.whatdoing/config.yaml
Scratchpad	~/.whatdoing/scratchpad.md
Journal	~/.whatdoing/journal/YYYY-MM-DD.md
Session state	~/.whatdoing/state.json

Override the config directory with WHATDOING_HOME env var.

License

MIT