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Show HN: An open source alternative to Wakatime

42 points by jemiluv8 2y ago

I built an open source alternative to wakatime because I don't think a wakatime premium should cost more than a Github copilot subscription. The problem wakatime solves is rather straightforward. Their hardest bit of business is creating all those plugins, besides that the backend just ingests plugin data and organizes it into a dashboard that gives insights into developer work habits. I also felt features like goals, invoices and management of clients shouldn't require premium subscription. And for the most part, I feel I'm right. Especially after implementing these features. The website is now in beta testing and I'd love your feedback on some of the metrics you'd like to see that are not currently on the wakatime website. I've already added stats about the amount of coding time spent writing code. And for me it feels like a big deal thus far. I've also been playing with an idea of showing developer focus/attention as buckets of heartbeats over time or heartbeat frequency over time. I feel there is more. Looking forward to hearing your feedback

thanmayijr 2y ago
[flagged]
- jemiluv8 2y ago
  Hello
jemiluv8 2y ago
Let me know if anyone has challenges setting up.
- botanical76 2y ago
  When trying to login via GitHub, I was redirected to "https://wakana.io/login?error=An+unexpected+error+occurred+while+logging+in+using+github.+Try+again+later.+If+this+persists%2C+contact+support https://wakana.io/login?error=An+unexpected+error+occurred+w...", without an error message being displayed.
  - jemiluv8 2y ago
    Try the email otp for now.
  - jemiluv8 2y ago
    This has been fixed. You may now login with github.
xnx 2y ago
Hoping someone can change the title to something like "Shown HN: Wakana - Open source wakatime alternative"
- jemiluv8 2y ago
  This is embarrassing. At the time I was making the post, HN kept rejecting it and the title became shorter and shorter with every try. I am trying to edit the title now without much success. Thanks for the suggestion. It would’ve helped people know what it was about better than the current title
  - spacechild1 2y ago
    The missing title happens to be quite effective click bait, so I would keep it :)
    - jemiluv8 2y ago
      hahahaaa. The title has been updated. Great observation fyi
airstrike 2y ago
Home page says: > Copy and paste this into your ~/.wakatime.cfg file [settings] api_url = https://api.wakana.io/api api_key = ## replace this with your api key when you login From the FAQ: > This is a self-hosted version of wakatime.com that is open source and free to use. We rely on the same open source plugins and collect the same data that is available from wakatime's open source plugins. Naturally this being FOSS, I see from the README on github that you have a choice to self-host, so maybe that ought to be front and center on the home page? Actually the README has a ton of content that could be on the site
- jemiluv8 2y ago
  I agree. There is a lot that is not on the homepage. I’d welcome any contributions. I barely managed to put together a decent homepage.
jonny_eh 2y ago
What's wakatime?
- jemiluv8 2y ago
  It is a tool used by developers to keep track of time spent in their editor as well as related metadata like which projects were worked on, which languages were used and so on
Diti 2y ago
Why does such a tool need an API and an external connection? I use `arbtt`, which is local-only.
- echoangle 2y ago
  > Why does such a tool need an API and an external connection? So time spent on different devices can be tracked under a single user account, I guess.
  - Klaster_1 2y ago
    This problem exists indeed and I encounter it from time to time when I switch between desktop and laptop. My time tracking tool [0] is local-only and I still didn't come up with a solution that lets it remain so and a PWA at the same time. Solutions that allow you to sync data without a dedicated server (as in running specifically for your app needs) range from trivial ones like storing the data in a Google Drive all the way to P2P. [0] https://github.com/Klaster1/timer-5 https://github.com/Klaster1/timer-5
    - jemiluv8 2y ago
      Ideally a tool like this should be a desktop app. But people tend to use multiple devices or even change their devices and then the question of data migration comes in. It also helps to be able to access these stats anywhere instead of just on the device it is installed on. Eventually, this can become a hybrid. But the expedient solution is what we have now.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
neilv 2y ago
WakaTime offers business/enterprise licensing, where self-improvement/introspection suddenly looks exactly like corporate task management, employee surveillance, and performance metrics. So, "leaderboard" (fun!) becomes "stack-ranking" (vicious!). How do you see Wakana positioned and used, in practice? * Will it be used by the individual for self-improvement and time management? * Will metrics-crazed companies use it to whip-crack employees? * Will even a non-corporate leaderboard/ranking be twisted and gamed for self-promotion?
- jemiluv8 2y ago
  I share your sentiments as a developer. That was one of my motivations for starting work on this. I wanted developers to decide and develop some of these metrics. I am not sure how exactly that looks like and I am hoping open source will help in figuring that out. In the meantime please check the faq. Developer productivity is not something that can be measured with simple metrics like time spent coding.
- jemiluv8 2y ago
  > Will it be used by the individual for self-improvement and time management? At the moment my only goal is for the developer to use it to track and observe work habits. All else is not really applicable at the moment.
rustc 2y ago
So this uses https://github.com/wakatime/wakatime-cli https://github.com/wakatime/wakatime-cli under the hood. Is there any way to make wakatime-cli store all data locally in a file (like sqlite or csv)?
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
j1elo 2y ago
The Docker instructions at https://github.com/jemiluv8/wakana https://github.com/jemiluv8/wakana point to using this image: ghcr.io/muety/wakapi:latest Seems that "muety/wakapi" is the source project from which this one was forked, so, is that Docker image just an artifact of forking the README and forgetting to update it?
- jemiluv8 2y ago
  Yup. My bad. My fork needs lots of readme and other updates

42 points by jemiluv8 2y ago

thanmayijr 2y ago

[flagged]

jemiluv8 2y ago
Hello

jemiluv8 2y ago

Let me know if anyone has challenges setting up.

botanical76 2y ago
When trying to login via GitHub, I was redirected to "https://wakana.io/login?error=An+unexpected+error+occurred+while+logging+in+using+github.+Try+again+later.+If+this+persists%2C+contact+support https://wakana.io/login?error=An+unexpected+error+occurred+w...", without an error message being displayed.
- jemiluv8 2y ago
  Try the email otp for now.
- jemiluv8 2y ago
  This has been fixed. You may now login with github.

xnx 2y ago

Hoping someone can change the title to something like "Shown HN: Wakana - Open source wakatime alternative"

jemiluv8 2y ago
This is embarrassing. At the time I was making the post, HN kept rejecting it and the title became shorter and shorter with every try. I am trying to edit the title now without much success. Thanks for the suggestion. It would’ve helped people know what it was about better than the current title
- spacechild1 2y ago
  The missing title happens to be quite effective click bait, so I would keep it :)
  - jemiluv8 2y ago
    hahahaaa. The title has been updated. Great observation fyi

airstrike 2y ago

Home page says: > Copy and paste this into your ~/.wakatime.cfg file [settings] api_url = https://api.wakana.io/api api_key = ## replace this with your api key when you login From the FAQ: > This is a self-hosted version of wakatime.com that is open source and free to use. We rely on the same open source plugins and collect the same data that is available from wakatime's open source plugins. Naturally this being FOSS, I see from the README on github that you have a choice to self-host, so maybe that ought to be front and center on the home page? Actually the README has a ton of content that could be on the site

jemiluv8 2y ago
I agree. There is a lot that is not on the homepage. I’d welcome any contributions. I barely managed to put together a decent homepage.

jonny_eh 2y ago

What's wakatime?

jemiluv8 2y ago
It is a tool used by developers to keep track of time spent in their editor as well as related metadata like which projects were worked on, which languages were used and so on

Diti 2y ago

Why does such a tool need an API and an external connection? I use `arbtt`, which is local-only.

echoangle 2y ago
> Why does such a tool need an API and an external connection? So time spent on different devices can be tracked under a single user account, I guess.
- Klaster_1 2y ago
  This problem exists indeed and I encounter it from time to time when I switch between desktop and laptop. My time tracking tool [0] is local-only and I still didn't come up with a solution that lets it remain so and a PWA at the same time. Solutions that allow you to sync data without a dedicated server (as in running specifically for your app needs) range from trivial ones like storing the data in a Google Drive all the way to P2P. [0] https://github.com/Klaster1/timer-5 https://github.com/Klaster1/timer-5
  - jemiluv8 2y ago
    Ideally a tool like this should be a desktop app. But people tend to use multiple devices or even change their devices and then the question of data migration comes in. It also helps to be able to access these stats anywhere instead of just on the device it is installed on. Eventually, this can become a hybrid. But the expedient solution is what we have now.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

neilv 2y ago

WakaTime offers business/enterprise licensing, where self-improvement/introspection suddenly looks exactly like corporate task management, employee surveillance, and performance metrics. So, "leaderboard" (fun!) becomes "stack-ranking" (vicious!). How do you see Wakana positioned and used, in practice? * Will it be used by the individual for self-improvement and time management? * Will metrics-crazed companies use it to whip-crack employees? * Will even a non-corporate leaderboard/ranking be twisted and gamed for self-promotion?

jemiluv8 2y ago
I share your sentiments as a developer. That was one of my motivations for starting work on this. I wanted developers to decide and develop some of these metrics. I am not sure how exactly that looks like and I am hoping open source will help in figuring that out. In the meantime please check the faq. Developer productivity is not something that can be measured with simple metrics like time spent coding.
jemiluv8 2y ago
> Will it be used by the individual for self-improvement and time management? At the moment my only goal is for the developer to use it to track and observe work habits. All else is not really applicable at the moment.

rustc 2y ago

So this uses https://github.com/wakatime/wakatime-cli https://github.com/wakatime/wakatime-cli under the hood. Is there any way to make wakatime-cli store all data locally in a file (like sqlite or csv)?

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

j1elo 2y ago

The Docker instructions at https://github.com/jemiluv8/wakana https://github.com/jemiluv8/wakana point to using this image: ghcr.io/muety/wakapi:latest Seems that "muety/wakapi" is the source project from which this one was forked, so, is that Docker image just an artifact of forking the README and forgetting to update it?

jemiluv8 2y ago
Yup. My bad. My fork needs lots of readme and other updates