LifeTracker — Open-Source Personal Life OS

Self-hosted habit tracker, time blocker, health logger, and AI productivity assistant — built with Next.js 16, Firebase, and Telegram bots.

Live Demo · Quick Start · Features · Architecture

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⭐ If this saves you from paying for 6 productivity apps, a star helps others find it.

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What Is This?

LifeTracker is a self-hosted, open-source life OS — a single Next.js app that replaces Habitica, Toggl, Todoist, MyFitnessPal, and a journaling app simultaneously. All your data lives in your own Firebase project. No subscriptions. No vendor lock-in.

The killer feature: two Telegram bots do the data entry for you. Every 30 minutes, the check-in bot asks what you're working on. You reply in plain text — your Time Ledger updates without opening the app. The food bot works the same way: send "2 eggs and coffee", AI estimates the macros and logs them.

Built for developers and knowledge workers who want AI-generated insights from their own data — not population averages from a SaaS product.

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🚀 Quick Start (3 minutes)

# 1. Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/ashishworkacc/life-tracker.git
cd life-tracker && npm install

# 2. Configure (Firebase + OpenRouter keys)
cp .env.example .env.local
# Edit .env.local — minimum required: Firebase keys + OPENROUTER_API_KEY

# 3. Run
npm run dev
# Open http://localhost:3000 → sign up → you're in

The Telegram bots and Apple Health import are optional. The core app works with just Firebase + OpenRouter.

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Features

Core Tracking

• Habits — Daily/weekly streaks, AI-suggested emoji, count-based or boolean, pause/resume all, difficulty ratings
• Todos — P1/P2/P3 priority, due dates, AI-generated sub-task breakdown per item
• Goals & Milestones — Long-horizon tracking with linked actions
• Time Ledger — 30-minute time blocking, bulk fill, gap detection, AI day analysis
• Custom Counters — Track anything countable with XP milestones and progress charts

Health & Body

• Food Log — Plain-English Telegram input or manual entry; AI fills macros. Supports retrospective dates.
• Sleep, Weight, Vitals — Dedicated trackers with trend charts
• Apple Health Import — Upload the Health export ZIP; XML parsed client-side, bulk-imported to Firestore
• Cravings Tracker — Atomic Habits framework (Cue → Craving → Response → Reward) + 10-min urge surfing timer

AI & Automation

• Telegram Check-in Bot — 30-min nudge → reply in plain text → Time Ledger updated passively
• Food Logger Bot — "2 eggs and toast" → AI parses → macros logged automatically
• AI Habit Sort — Re-orders habit list by AI-suggested optimal execution order
• AI Sub-task Breakdown — Paste any todo title → AI generates a concrete step list
• Correlation Engine — Surfaces relationships between your tracked variables (sleep ↔ focus, etc.)
• Daily AI Summary — Morning Telegram briefing on yesterday's stats

Gamification

• XP System — Habits (+10), todos (+10), time blocks (+15), check-ins (+20), milestones (+100)
• Levels & Streaks — Exponential XP curve: 200 × 1.5^(level−1) per level
• Badges — Automatically awarded on key milestones

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Tech Stack

Category	Technology
Framework	Next.js 16.1.6 — App Router, TypeScript, Turbopack
Styling	Tailwind CSS v4, CSS custom properties
Auth	Firebase Authentication (Email/Password + Google OAuth)
Database	Cloud Firestore (asia-south1), 25+ collections
Server-side	Firebase Admin SDK (Node.js)
AI	OpenRouter API → DeepSeek V3 (deepseek/deepseek-chat)
Notifications	Telegram Bot API (two bots)
Deployment	Vercel serverless (bom1 / Mumbai)
Charting	Recharts
Export	xlsx, jszip

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System Architecture

flowchart TD
    subgraph Client["Browser / Mobile Web"]
        UI[Next.js App Router\nReact Client Components]
    end

    subgraph Server["Vercel Serverless"]
        API[Route Handlers\n/api/*]
        PROXY[proxy.ts\nAuth Middleware]
    end

    subgraph Firebase
        AUTH[Firebase Auth]
        DB[Firestore\nasia-south1]
        ADMIN[Firebase Admin SDK]
    end

    subgraph AI
        OR[OpenRouter API\nDeepSeek V3]
    end

    subgraph Telegram
        BOT1[Check-in Bot\nTime Ledger]
        BOT2[Food Logger Bot\nMacro Tracking]
        CRON[External Cron\n30-min trigger]
    end

    UI -->|Auth guard| PROXY
    UI -->|Firestore SDK| DB
    UI -->|Firebase Auth| AUTH
    UI -->|fetch| API
    API -->|Admin SDK| ADMIN
    ADMIN -->|Read/Write| DB
    API -->|AI requests| OR
    CRON -->|POST /api/telegram/cron| API
    API -->|sendMessage| BOT1
    API -->|sendMessage| BOT2
    BOT1 -->|Webhook POST| API
    BOT2 -->|Webhook POST| API

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Key decisions:

• Firebase initialised lazily via getter functions (prevents Next.js SSR failures)
• Firebase Admin authenticates via a single FIREBASE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT env var (JSON string, no file)
• Telegram cron triggered by external scheduler — works on Vercel Hobby plan
• All Firestore documents carry userId; security rules enforce per-user isolation

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Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20+
• Firebase project (Firestore + Auth enabled — free Spark plan works)
• OpenRouter API key (openrouter.ai/keys — free tier available)
• Telegram bots via @BotFather (optional)

1. Clone & Install

git clone https://github.com/ashishworkacc/life-tracker.git
cd life-tracker
npm install

2. Configure Environment

cp .env.example .env.local
# Fill in Firebase client keys + OPENROUTER_API_KEY at minimum

See .env.example for every variable with descriptions.

3. Firebase Setup

1. Create a project at console.firebase.google.com
2. Enable Authentication (Email/Password + Google)
3. Enable Firestore in asia-south1
4. Go to Project Settings → Service Accounts → Generate new private key
5. Minify the JSON (jq -c . key.json) and set it as FIREBASE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT
6. Deploy rules:

npx firebase-tools deploy --only firestore:rules,firestore:indexes

4. Run

npm run dev   # http://localhost:3000

Sign up — your account is automatically provisioned.

5. Deploy to Vercel

vercel env add OPENROUTER_API_KEY production
vercel env add FIREBASE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT production
# repeat for remaining keys
vercel --prod

6. Register Telegram Webhooks (optional)

# Check-in bot
curl "https://api.telegram.org/bot<TOKEN>/setWebhook" \
  -d "url=https://your-app.vercel.app/api/telegram/webhook&secret_token=<WEBHOOK_SECRET>"

# Food bot
curl "https://api.telegram.org/bot<FOOD_TOKEN>/setWebhook" \
  -d "url=https://your-app.vercel.app/api/telegram/food-webhook"

Set up a cron job (cron-job.org, EasyCron) to call /api/telegram/cron with Authorization: Bearer <CRON_SECRET> every 30 minutes.

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Repository Governance

Roadmap

• iOS PWA push notifications (replace Telegram check-ins with Web Push)
• Multi-user support with admin panel
• Guided weekly review workflow with AI coaching
• Pomodoro ↔ Todo automatic session linking

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md. Run npx tsc --noEmit before submitting a PR — zero type errors required.

Code of Conduct

Contributor Covenant

License

AGPL-3.0 — If you run a modified version as a web service, you must share the modified source with your users. See LICENSE.

⚖️ Legal & Ethics

Governed by TERMS_OF_USE.md. Personal non-commercial use. Attribution required for public forks. Security vulnerabilities → SECURITY.md, not public Issues.

Acknowledgments

• OpenRouter / DeepSeek — AI inference
• Firebase — Auth and database
• Recharts — Charts
• Next.js — Framework
• Atomic Habits by James Clear — Cravings module framework

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_{Personal project. Not affiliated with any referenced services.}