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GoTrack FAQ

Configuration

How do I add custom trackers?
Press s to open settings, then navigate to the tracker configuration section. You can add new trackers with names and select their type.

What tracker types are available?

  • Binary: yes/no, true/false (checkbox)
  • Duration: time span (hours:minutes)
  • Numeric: any number (integer or decimal)
  • Rating: 1–5 star rating
  • Text: free-form text notes

How do I enable Obsidian export?
In settings (s), find the Obsidian section. Enter your vault path and optionally a template. Each day's entry will be mirrored as a markdown file.

Controls and navigation

What are the key keyboard shortcuts?

  • a: Add/edit full entry
  • x: Quick entry (one tracker only)
  • p: Pomodoro timer (logs to a duration tracker)
  • e: Edit recent entries
  • u: Undo last save
  • d: Delete entry
  • s: Settings & Setup
  • ?: Toggle help overlay
  • h/l: Switch tabs
  • j/k: Scroll view
  • q: Quit

How do I use the date shortcuts? When prompted for a date, you can use:

  • t or today
  • y or yesterday
  • -N (e.g., -2 for two days ago, -7 for a week ago)
  • MM-DD (e.g., 05-01 for May 1st)
  • YYYY-MM-DD (e.g., 2026-05-01)

What is the difference between "Add Entry" (a) and "Quick Entry" (x)?

  • Add Entry (a): Opens a full form for the chosen date, showing all trackers in their respective categories. Best for your end-of-day reflection.
  • Quick Entry (x): A streamlined flow to log a single value for today only. Use this for "fire and forget" tracking throughout the day (e.g., logging a cup of coffee or a quick workout).

How does the Pomodoro timer work? Press p to start a session. You'll pick a duration tracker (e.g., "Deep Work" or "Coding") and a time (default 25m). While active, GoTrack shows a countdown. When finished (or if you stop early with enter), the elapsed time is automatically added to that tracker for today.

Visuals and Insights

What do the different symbols in heatmaps mean?

  • ■ (or #): Activity recorded/Goal met
  • · (or .): No activity recorded
  • ▪ (or o): Partial progress (for numeric trackers)

How are correlations calculated in the Insights tab? GoTrack calculates the Pearson Correlation Coefficient (r) between pairs of numeric trackers.

  • r = +1.0: Strong positive correlation (as X goes up, Y goes up)
  • r = -1.0: Strong negative correlation (as X goes up, Y goes down)
  • r = 0.0: No linear correlation It also shows a scatter plot to help you visualize the relationship.

What is the "Biggest Mover" in the Review tab? This identifies the tracker with the largest absolute percentage change compared to the previous period (week or month). It's a great way to spot sudden shifts in your habits.

Settings and Data

Where is my config file? GoTrack stores everything in your workspace directory (chosen during setup). The default is usually ~/.gotrack. Look for config.json and data.db.

Can I change the colors? Yes! Go to Settings (s) -> Appearance to choose a theme (GoTrack, Catppuccin, Nord, etc.). You can also enable/disable the "Starfield" background animation.

How do I back up my data? GoTrack supports a "Backup Command" that runs every time you save. See the Backup Recipes section below for examples using Git, rclone, or Syncthing.

Does GoTrack support multiple workspaces? Currently, GoTrack uses a single workspace defined in ~/.gotrack_workspace. You can manually edit this file to point to a different directory if needed.

Backup recipes

Git (local version history)

Turn your workspace into a git repo and auto-commit every save:

# One-time setup — run in your terminal
cd ~/.gotrack          # or wherever your workspace is
git init
git add -A
git commit -m "initial"

Backup command to set in GoTrack:

git -C ~/.gotrack add -A && git -C ~/.gotrack commit -m "backup $(date +%Y-%m-%d)"

Every entry save creates a new commit. Run git log in ~/.gotrack to see the history.

Git + remote (GitHub/Gitea for off-site backup)

After the git setup above, add a remote:

cd ~/.gotrack
git remote add origin git@github.com:yourname/gotrack-data.git

Backup command:

git -C ~/.gotrack add -A && git -C ~/.gotrack commit -m "backup $(date +%Y-%m-%d)" ; git -C ~/.gotrack push

Privacy note: this will push your raw tracking data to the remote. Use a private repo.

rclone (cloud: S3, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.)

# One-time: configure a remote named "mycloud"
rclone config

Backup command:

rclone sync ~/.gotrack mycloud:gotrack-backup

Syncthing (peer-to-peer sync, no cloud required)

Add ~/.gotrack as a shared folder in the Syncthing GUI. No backup command needed — Syncthing watches the directory and syncs on change automatically.

Restic (encrypted snapshots)

# One-time: initialise a repo (local or remote)
restic -r /path/to/restic-repo init

Backup command:

restic -r /path/to/restic-repo backup ~/.gotrack

Does reinstalling wipe my data?
No. The binary and data are separate. Replacing gotrack won't affect your workspace database.

AI assistants and MCP

See AI_AGENTS.md for connecting Cursor and other MCP clients to gotrack mcp, and for SQLite concurrency notes.