Why I built this
I kept running into a simple but frustrating problem.
I’d open my editor and still struggle to answer:
“What did I actually work on over the last few days or weeks?”
Commits exist, but they’re scattered and noisy when you just want a clear overview. Writing manual notes never stuck for me, and I didn’t want cloud dashboards, monitoring tools, or anything that feels like employee surveillance.
I just wanted something simple, local, and private.
What I built
So I built DevTracker, a local-first VS Code extension that helps me review my development work over time.
It focuses on a few simple things:
- captures local snapshots of code changes
- lets me quickly browse diffs and change history
- generates lightweight local summaries
- runs fully offline (no cloud, no accounts, no telemetry) Everything stays on my machine.
What it’s for (and what it isn’t)
TThis isn’t a full timesheet or reporting tool — at least not yet.
It’s simply a way to stay oriented and understand my own work without friction.
It’s been surprisingly helpful for weekly reviews and avoiding the “what did I do again?” feeling.
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What I learned building it
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- Solving your own problem is incredibly motivating
- “Local-first” design simplifies both UX and trust
- You don’t need complex analytics to get real value
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Open source & feedback
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The project is open source here:
👉 https://github.com/Agent1092/devTracker
I’d genuinely love feedback from others who care about privacy-friendly dev tools or have struggled with tracking their own work.
How do you usually review what you’ve worked on?
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