Toggl Track
Track time quickly, edit entries, and report by project, client, and tag
The core loop is buildable, but a dependable replacement becomes a real weekend or multi-day project. For Toggl Track, track time quickly, edit entries, and report by project, client, and tag. The hard boundary is cross-platform apps, background tracking, integrations, team controls, and sync, plus ubiquitous capture, coaching, and team workflow.
Build verification: not recorded. How we judge buildability
What you give up
- cross-platform apps, background tracking, integrations, team controls, and sync
- cross-device history
- team timesheets and payroll
- behavioral datasets
- blocking across every platform
Why people still pay
People still pay for Toggl Track because the timer is simple, but people pay for frictionless capture and a history they trust enough to invoice or change habits from. The recurring cost buys idle detection, permissions, app metadata, privacy, notifications, sync, reports, integrations, and backups, not just the visible interface.
Your build guide
The stack, security requirements, and agent rules for a focused replacement.
Before you start
- Runtime and tools: TypeScript, React, Node, SQLite and decimal.js for explicit decimal calculations.
- Before starting: A representative CSV with known totals, currency and date conventions, and an agreed calculation specification.
Use these project rules and optional skill references alongside the prompt. Review each skill before adding it to your agent; the AGENTS.md export includes the same guidance.
Project rule — domain: Store Client, Project, TimeEntry, Tag and EditRevision; only one running timer per user and reported duration follows an explicit timezone/rounding policy.
Project rule — scope and recovery: Start with one user and manual corrections. Time reports are not payroll calculations or proof of attention; avoid hidden activity capture and retain raw intervals for reconciliation.
Project rule — acceptance: Start a timer in one tab, attempt another in a second and edit an entry crossing midnight; prevent concurrent timers and show consistent daily/project totals.
Project rule — delivery: document real setup commands and permissions; do not claim a build, accuracy level, performance result or security certification that has not been demonstrated.
Recommended skill: web-design-guidelines — review keyboard access, focus, validation, error recovery and the readable work/review interface or HTML report. Follow the maintainer's installation instructions and match its requirements to the chosen runtime.
Recommended skill: sharp-edges — review configuration and API defaults against the app-specific invariants and recovery boundaries above; this is not a security certification. Follow the maintainer's installation instructions and match its requirements to the chosen runtime.
Implementation plan
Phase 1
Pin the working slice and create its example input: Start and stop project timers, edit entries with a history, group by client/tag and export reproducible time reports. Confirm setup: A representative CSV with known totals, currency and date conventions, and an agreed calculation specification.
Phase 2
Implement persistence and write-time invariants before decorating the UI: Store Client, Project, TimeEntry, Tag and EditRevision; only one running timer per user and reported duration follows an explicit timezone/rounding policy.
Phase 3
Connect the working view to real saved state. Preserve imported source rows and units, use decimal arithmetic with stated rounding, and retain correction history. Missing values are unknown rather than zero; reports describe records and assumptions rather than giving advice.
Phase 4
Expose the app-specific limits and recovery path in context: Start with one user and manual corrections. Time reports are not payroll calculations or proof of attention; avoid hidden activity capture and retain raw intervals for reconciliation.
Phase 5
Walk through this concrete acceptance case and preserve its exported evidence: Start a timer in one tab, attempt another in a second and edit an entry crossing midnight; prevent concurrent timers and show consistent daily/project totals. Finish the README and backup/restore instructions; report unfinished capabilities explicitly.
Build the following focused alternative to Toggl Track. This is a deliberately limited personal or small-team substitute, not parity with the paid service. WORKING SLICE Start and stop project timers, edit entries with a history, group by client/tag and export reproducible time reports. SETUP AND ARCHITECTURE Use TypeScript, React, Node, SQLite and decimal.js for explicit decimal calculations. Prerequisites: A representative CSV with known totals, currency and date conventions, and an agreed calculation specification. Before integrating anything, record actual versions and permissions, plus model files or provider limits only where used, in the README; make unavailable dependencies visible rather than simulating success. DOMAIN MODEL AND INVARIANTS Store Client, Project, TimeEntry, Tag and EditRevision; only one running timer per user and reported duration follows an explicit timezone/rounding policy. IMPLEMENTATION CONTRACT Preserve imported source rows and units, use decimal arithmetic with stated rounding, and retain correction history. Missing values are unknown rather than zero; reports describe records and assumptions rather than giving advice. Provide an input/setup view, the main work view, and a review/export view appropriate to this workflow. Preserve the last saved state if a job or save fails. Include empty, loading, permission-denied, partial and retryable-error states. Log identifiers and error categories without secret values or unnecessary private content. APP-SPECIFIC BOUNDARY AND RECOVERY Start with one user and manual corrections. Time reports are not payroll calculations or proof of attention; avoid hidden activity capture and retain raw intervals for reconciliation. ACCEPTANCE SCENARIO Start a timer in one tab, attempt another in a second and edit an entry crossing midnight; prevent concurrent timers and show consistent daily/project totals. Also reopen the app after an interrupted operation, confirm the saved record/export remains inspectable, and document the recovery action. These are implementation acceptance requirements, not a claim that this guide has been tested. DELIVERY Deliver a runnable repository with migrations or project-format versioning, a non-sensitive example, environment/permission setup, the exact manual acceptance steps, and a backup/export-and-restore walkthrough. Implement the working slice before optional integrations; list any deferred paid-product capabilities honestly. Do not add capabilities outside the working slice just to resemble the original product. PROJECT RULES FOR AGENTS.md Keep the domain invariants above executable at the write boundary. Propose scope changes before adding providers or permissions. Never fabricate source evidence, publish results, identity matches or successful delivery. Preserve user originals and require an explicit confirmation for destructive changes or external publication.
$ open in your agent (prompt prefilled, you press enter), copy the prompt or copy or download AGENTS.md · generated from this app's build plan
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Alternatives to building your own
all 8 free alternatives to Toggl Track →· no votes, no pay-to-list · just what's real
Toggl Track pricing
| plan | monthly | annual (per mo) | what you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| free | $0/user | $0/user | Up to 5 users; unlimited projects, clients, and time entries; 30 API requests/hour/user/organization; 1 connected Google or Outlook calendar account. |
| starter | $12/user | $9/user | Unlimited users; billable rates, project estimates, tasks, and reporting. |
| premium | $20/user | $14/user | Unlimited users; approvals, labor-cost tracking, audits, and advanced project controls.First annual year is promoted at $14/user/month; regular annual renewal is $18/user/month. |
| enterprise | — | — | Custom seats, security, support, and terms.Custom quote. |
free tierUp to 5 users; unlimited projects, clients, and time entries; 30 API requests/hour/user/organization; 1 connected Google or Outlook calendar account.
billingmonthly + annual; Premium annual is $14/user/month for year 1 then $18/user/month; Enterprise custom
hidden costsEvery workspace member needs a license; vacant licenses remain billed until manually removed; added seats are prorated; refunds are generally limited to billing-system errors.
pricing sources checked 2026-08-14 · pricing source ↗
Questions about Toggl Track
Can you build your own Toggl Track with AI?
Partly. The core loop is buildable, but a dependable replacement becomes a real weekend or multi-day project. For Toggl Track, track time quickly, edit entries, and report by project, client, and tag. The hard boundary is cross-platform apps, background tracking, integrations, team controls, and sync, plus ubiquitous capture, coaching, and team workflow.
What does the Toggl Track build prompt cover?
The prompt starts with this scope: Start and stop project timers, edit entries with a history, group by client/tag and export reproducible time reports. Full-product capabilities excluded from the comparison include: cross-platform apps, background tracking, integrations, team controls, and sync; cross-device history; team timesheets and payroll. Follow the implementation plan and its prerequisites before expanding the build.
How do I use the prompt, AGENTS.md and agent skills?
Start with the Toggl Track prerequisites and stack, then copy the prompt into your coding agent. Save the project rules as AGENTS.md in the project root. Linked skills are optional packages or source instructions for specific tasks; review their current contents and install only those matching the chosen stack. A skill does not supply API credentials or verify the finished app.
How long will this Toggl Track project take?
The catalogue estimate is one sitting for the limited scope. Setup, integration approvals, debugging, deployment and ongoing maintenance can add time. This is an estimate, not a delivery guarantee.
What would I give up by replacing Toggl Track?
cross-platform apps, background tracking, integrations, team controls, and sync; cross-device history; team timesheets and payroll; behavioral datasets; blocking across every platform. People still pay for Toggl Track because the timer is simple, but people pay for frictionless capture and a history they trust enough to invoice or change habits from. The recurring cost buys idle detection, permissions, app metadata, privacy, notifications, sync, reports, integrations, and backups, not just the visible interface.
What price is this guide comparing against?
The recorded Starter plan is $12/mo per seat (monthly per user), checked 2026-08-14. Check the linked pricing source before buying. Building your own also has hosting, API and maintenance costs; the recorded amount is not a guaranteed saving.
What can I use instead of building Toggl Track?
Super Productivity: A local task timer with tags, reports and exports; collaboration is not the point. solidtime: Modern multi-user timers, clients and billable rates in one Compose stack; the desktop apps are still beta. Kimai: Timesheets, rates, reports and invoices are all there; approvals need its free plugin and the server still needs an adult. Compare all listed options at https://howtovibecodeit.dev/toggl-track/alternatives. Check each option's license, hosting needs and feature limits.