Where Tap is right now

Tap has entered an extended experimental phase. Most of what's driving development comes from using it on a small farm — keeping track of willow plantings, counting goose eggs, and anything that comes up while we work on this piece of land.

To make Tap work better for that kind of use and to figure out what it should become next, we've temporarily suspended new signups. Existing accounts keep working as they always have.

If you'd like to follow along, the blog is the the place for specifics on Tap and we're covering the farm on Substack.

What to do with observations

Capture them

Open Tap on the web and write a line. Or send one in through the API. Every record gets a timestamp without you having to think about it.

Add structure as you need it

Plain text is fine. Most observations start that way and stay that way. When you want more out of them, add a few marks:

2024-01-17 finished the API documentation
2024-01-17 /work finished the API documentation +time:3
2024-01-17 /work finished the API documentation +time:3 #writing
2024-01-17 /work finished the API documentation +time:3 #writing !milestone
  • /folders for projects and contexts
  • +beans:value for tracking quantities
  • #tags for categorization
  • !events for moments worth marking

Use as much or as little as you like. Folders, tags, and beans are whatever you decide they mean.

Use what you've got

Browse the timeline. Sum your beans with a formula. Pull everything down through the API and run it through whatever tool you prefer. The point of collecting observations is being able to use them later — Tap tries to optimize intake and output as much as possible.

A few examples:

/willow planted 200 cuttings in the back row +cuttings:200 #spring
/geese 14 eggs from the run today +eggs:14
/work fixed the login bug +time:2.5 #backend
/health !headache started
/budget coffee and pastry -gold:8.50 #breakfast

None of these categories are required. They're just what we happen to track.

Spells, for when you'd rather not remember

A Spell is a scheduled prompt or digest. Set one up to text you at 5pm asking what you accomplished today, or to email a digest of the week's observations every Sunday morning. Whatever helps you keep collecting.

Text Reminder

Need a nudge? It could make all the difference.

Email Digest

What’s the point of writing it down if you never look at it?

Learn more

Your observations stay yours

  • Export your full history any time (we call this SaaS to-go).
  • Use the API to build whatever you want on top of your data.
  • The core parsing engine is open source.
  • No lock-in. Your records are plain text underneath.

Start with one observation

Pick something small — what you ate for breakfast, what you got done this morning, when the chickens started laying. Write it down. Then write the next one tomorrow.

If you find collecting observations useful, keep going!