Local-first agent time tracking

Know where your agent's time went.

BurrowTime is an open-source CLI and terminal UI for your own work and the coding agents you ask to help. Every timer stays in local files.

$ go install github.com/fabean/BurrowTime/cmd/burrowtime@latest
BurrowTime gopher holding a pocket watch beside a terminal in its burrow

$ burrowtime agent status --active

82fd91a  active   codex   client portal +PORTAL-42

lease renewed · local files only

$ burrowtime agent report --project "client portal"

client portal   2h 14m 08s

Works withCodexClaude CodeCursorGemini CLIOpenCodeMCP

Optional Clockify plugin

Track locally. Review. Send to Clockify.

Match local projects to Clockify projects with their clients visible. Round each completed entry to a configurable increment, edit the batch, and confirm before uploading. Local receipts keep reruns from exporting the same entry twice.

Your ticket tag becomes the description: +SEMA-123 exports as SEMA-123. Your local times stay exact.

Set up Clockify export

The real interface

Reports that belong in a terminal.

Browse ranges, switch between logs and reports, and filter without leaving the keyboard.

BurrowTime terminal UI showing a weekly report, changing its range, and filtering for a client project
Recorded with VHS. Open the full-size demo.

The useful kind of oversight

A timer your agent cannot quietly take over.

Agent sessions wrap ordinary BurrowTime timers with ownership and an expiry. You get a trustworthy record without turning your laptop into another SaaS dashboard.

01

Explicit by design

Tracking starts only when you ask for it and provide a project plus a task or ticket.

02

One session, one owner

Your agent keeps the exact session ID, so it never stops a timer that belongs to you or another agent.

03

Leases close loose ends

If an agent disappears, its lease expires and BurrowTime can close the timer at the last safe deadline.

04

Safe retries

Idempotency keys let clients retry without opening duplicate sessions and inflating a report.

05

Waiting does not count

Agents can pause while they need your answer, then resume the same owned session when work continues.

06

Plain local data

Completed agent sessions become standard Watson-compatible frames that appear in normal logs and reports.

Three commands, one prompt

Setup takes about a minute.

Install BurrowTime, place its bundled skill where your agent can find it, and ask for a tracked task.

1

Install the binary

Use Go or download a checksummed release for Linux, macOS, or Windows.

2

Install the agent skill

Pick one supported client, or install the portable and Claude Code copies together.

3

Ask in plain English

Name the BurrowTime project and task. The skill handles the session lifecycle.

$ go install github.com/fabean/BurrowTime/cmd/burrowtime@latest

$ burrowtime skill install codex

Installed track-time-with-burrowtime for codex

$ burrowtime skill doctor codex

OK skill for codex

OK burrowtime v0.1.2 supports agent protocol 1

 

Prompt your agent:

"Track this work in BurrowTime under

 client portal +PORTAL-42."

Agent time · this week6h 02m
client portal3h 41m
codex · PORTAL-42
release prep1h 29m
claude · REL-18
docs52m
cursor · DOCS-7

Still a great human timer

Your work and agent work share one honest report.

Open the Bubble Tea dashboard for an interactive view, or use JSON and CSV when a script needs the data. Concurrent timers remain deliberate, visible, and independently stoppable.

Open source and local

Give your agent a clock. Keep the keys.

BurrowTime stores ordinary files on your machine. No account, hosted database, or background tracking service is required.

Download BurrowTime