Instant Time Tracking from Git commit messages

We just launched something really awesome that just might change your way you think time tracking can be done. Personally, I think this is super-fricking-amazingly-awesome, not having to go through a GUI at all for tracking time, rather just adding a little bit of functionality to stuff you already do anyway.

So Freckle Time Tracking now comes with Github integration, which means you can instantly log time from Git commit messages when you push updates to Github.

Here’s how it works:

Log 15 minutes:

git commit -m "Remove some extra whitespace f:15"

Log 2 hours, 30 minutes:

git commit -m "reporting, add CSV export f:2.5"

When you git push to your freckle-enabled Github repository, Github will automatically contact freckle and log time for all commits that come with the “f:time” bit.

To set this up, first grab your freckle API token. This API key is available in freckle under “Settings & Tools” in the Integration (API) tab. You’ll need this API token in the next step, configuring your Github project– in your Github Project admin section, go to “Service Hooks” and select “freckle”, then fill in your freckle subdomain, the API token you just grabbed and then the Freckle project name you want to log time for in this Github project.

Once you’ve set this up, you can log time from your commits! freckle even links back to Github, to each individual commit (the little “github.com” link after the commit message). Users are mapped with their email addresses, so these need to be the same in both Github and freckle.

Which also means that you save a minute or so that you’d need to open up the freckle web app or timer every time you do this, and rather spend the time on doing what you love, coding and creating stuff.