Hackatime

Hackatime is a free, open-source coding time tracker built by Hack Club. It uses the WakaTime plugin ecosystem, so any editor that supports WakaTime works with Hackatime. Think of it like WakaTime, but free and built for teenagers.

It works by sending "heartbeats" from your editor to the Hackatime server every time you type or save a file. These heartbeats are used to calculate how much time you've spent coding on each project.

You MUST use Hackatime for every software project

Hackatime is how we track the hours you spent coding. Without it, your software project cannot be submitted for review and you will not get credit for the work you did. Finish the setup steps below before you write any code.

What about art, design, or other non-coding work?

Hackatime only tracks editor time, so things like sprite art, UI mockups, level design, music, or any work you do outside a code editor won't show up there. That's fine, log those hours a different way:

Post a journal entry describing what you made and how long it took. Attach screenshots, files, or a quick recording. One journal per session is plenty.
Or use Lapse to record a timelapse of the work (great for art and Figma).

Hackatime is still required for the code itself. Use journals or Lapse to add the non-coding hours on top.

When you record a Lapse (or any other timelapse or screen recording) for art or asset work, paste the video link in your journal entry (YouTube unlisted works, or any CDN URL that plays the file) so the reviewer can confirm the hours.

Heads up: art and asset hours generally shouldn't exceed ~40% of your project's approved hours, unless the art is exceptionally high quality. See Good Journaling for the full rule.

AI usage is allowed, but keep it polished

HC AI and other AI tools are fine for help. They are not fine for dumping a generated project on us. Your submission must be code you understand, with obvious polish, testing, and your own iteration on top. Heavy AI usage will be rejected. That includes unreviewed generated code, copy-pasted output, and AI-written journals. When in doubt, rewrite it in your own words. Journals must always be written by you, never by AI.

Setting Up Hackatime

Open the Hackatime Setup Wizard →

The setup wizard walks you through everything: creating your account, grabbing your API key, and giving you a personalized install command to run in your terminal. The command is unique to you since it includes your API key.

macOS / Linux / WSL: The wizard gives you a curl command to paste into your terminal.
Windows: The wizard gives you a PowerShell command instead.

The script configures everything automatically, and for VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, Zed, and Xcode it even installs the editor plugin for you.

Not seeing your time?

Try restarting your editor after running the setup wizard. If you're still stuck, ask for help in #hackatime-help on the Hack Club Slack.