Install with Go

BurrowTime requires Go 1.24 or newer when you install from source.

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

Make sure the Go binary directory is on your PATH, then check the installation:

burrowtime --version
burrowtime capabilities --json

Download a release

Each tagged release has checksummed archives for Linux, macOS, and Windows. The archive contains burrowtime and the optionalwatson compatibility executable.

Open the latest GitHub release.

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/fabean/BurrowTime.git
cd BurrowTime
make build
./bin/burrowtime

Optional Clockify plugin

Want to export completed entries? Install the separateClockify plugin. It currently requires both executables from main; it is not included in the latest release or the standard install.

Choose where data lives

Set BURROWTIME_DIR to choose a permanent data directory, or pass--data-dir for one command. Without either, BurrowTime follows the platform configuration directory.

BURROWTIME_DIR="$HOME/.local/share/burrowtime" burrowtime status

burrowtime --data-dir /path/to/test-data report --week

Watson stays separate. The primary command does not write into Watson's directory. Use the migration command when you want a deliberate copy.

Next step

Run burrowtime to open the terminal UI. If you want a coding agent to track its own task, continue to the agent time tracking guide.