It fills itself in
Tasks move from what actually happens: a commit, a ticked checkbox in your docs, a sentence you type, or an update from your AI assistant.
git: “closes T-004”☑ ticked in PLAN.md“finished the logo”→T-004 · Done
Free · open source · runs on your computer
A tracker that fills itself in.
You do the work. Footnote keeps your plan, your progress, your numbers and “who did what” up to date, in the tools you already use. No more Friday-afternoon status updates.
$ npx footnote-app
Needs Python 3.9+. No account. No server of ours. Nothing leaves your computer unless you connect a tool.
Latest release: v0.1.0Apache-2.00 runtime dependencies
You said: “I finished the logo and started on the landing page.”
Not started
Write the launch emailPriya
Order business cardsdue Fri
In progress
Landing pageSam · just now
Done
Design the logoSam · just now
Pick a domain namelast week
62% done · 1 blocked · weekly report goes out Monday
ObsidianNotionGoogle SheetsExcel / CSVSQLiteGitHub IssuesTrelloClaudeCursorCodexGeminiCopilotWindsurfStripeShopifyWooCommerceSlackEmailPowerPoint
Why Footnote
Seven things no spreadsheet will do for you.
Most trackers are only as good as the last time someone remembered to update them. Footnote is built around the opposite idea.
Private by design
It runs on your computer. We can’t see your data because we never receive it.
0accounts
0servers
0dependencies
It lives where you work
Edit in any of them and the others follow, in both directions.
ObsidianNotionSheetsExcelSQLiteGitHubTrello
It remembers the project
Not just tasks: the story of the work.
- Architecture, re-scanned from the code
- Decisions, risks and why
- The numbers behind the business
- Who built what, and when
You can trust it
Built so a wrong guess is cheap to fix.
- Every change can be undone
- It asks when it isn’t sure
- Your hand-made changes stay put
- It never invents numbers
Reports people read
The status update writes itself.
- Manager report, or a shareable page
- A PowerPoint deck in one command
- Daily, weekly or monthly email
For everyone, not just developers
A founder can type a sentence. A developer can lean on git. A team lead can see who’s doing what without a stand-up. Your AI assistant can plan the work and report progress through it.
FoundersDevelopersDesignersTeam leadsFreelancersSmall businesses
The difference
The same Monday, with and without it.
Without Footnote
- The tracker is two weeks out of date, so nobody trusts it.
- “What did we build, and why?” is answered from memory.
- Progress is in one tool, sales in another, invoices in a third.
- The status update is a chore someone does on Friday afternoon.
- When someone leaves, the knowledge leaves with them.
With Footnote
- Tasks moved when the work happened. The board is current.
- Decisions, architecture and history are written down as you go.
- Plan, numbers and “who did what” sit in one report.
- An email arrives on Monday with the status and the slides.
- A handover report says what’s built, decided and missing.
How it works
It watches the work, so you don’t have to report it.
Footnote sits next to your project and notices what happens. You can also just tell it, in plain English.
1
It learns your project
It reads your checklists and documents, your commit history, your AI assistant’s updates, and your sales exports. Starting from nothing? Tell it what you’re building and it suggests a plan.
2
It keeps everything current
Tasks move when work starts and finishes. It records who did what, why decisions were made, what the system looks like, and what the numbers are doing.
3
It shows up where you work
Obsidian, Notion, Google Sheets, Excel, GitHub Issues, Trello, a simple web page, or a PowerPoint for your next review. Edit in any of them and it stays in sync.
4
It tells you what matters
A short “what changed since you last looked”, alerts for blocked or overdue work, and a daily, weekly or monthly report by email.
See it
The real thing, not a mock-up.
These are screenshots of Footnote running on a small bakery’s online launch.
Features
Everything a project needs to remember.
Tasks are only the start. Footnote also keeps the story of the project.
Plain-English updates
Say “finished the logo, started the landing page”. It finds the tasks and asks when unsure.
Reads your git history
Mention T-004 in a commit and it moves. “Closes T-004” or a merge finishes it.
Two-way sync
Obsidian, Notion, Google Sheets, Excel or CSV, SQLite, GitHub Issues and Trello. Edit anywhere; changes merge.
Works with your AI assistant
Claude, Cursor, Codex, Gemini, Copilot and Windsurf can plan work and report progress through it.
Architecture map
It re-reads your project and draws how pages, APIs, data and services connect, and logs every change.
Decisions and risks
A journal of what was decided and why, so the answer isn’t lost when someone leaves.
Numbers that don’t lie
Sales, visitors and spend from Shopify, WooCommerce, Stripe or CSV. If a number isn’t connected, it says so.
Money and invoices
Sort income and spending, see profit by month and runway, and get alerted once when an invoice is overdue.
Team view
Who did what, who owns which area, who to ask, and a heads-up when two people touch the same files.
Reports and slides
A manager report, a shareable HTML page, or a PowerPoint deck in one command.
Email and Slack digests
A daily, weekly or monthly catch-up, with alerts for blocked or overdue work.
Undo for everything
Every change is saved first, so undo reverses yours and the automatic ones.
How it compares
Footnote doesn’t replace your tools. It feeds them.
Keep Notion, Sheets or Trello if you like them. Here is how the approach differs. “Typically” describes common setups, not any one product.
| Footnote | A spreadsheet | A typical project tool | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Updates itself from your work | Yes: git, docs, plain English, AI assistants | By hand | Mostly by hand |
| Works inside the tools you already use | Yes: seven, with two-way sync | It is the tool | Its own app |
| Remembers architecture, decisions and numbers | Yes, built in | If someone writes them | Usually a separate wiki |
| Your data stays on your computer | Yes: no account, no server | Depends where you keep it | Typically hosted by the vendor |
| Undo for automatic changes | Yes: undo | Version history, if enabled | Varies |
| Cost and licence | Free, Apache-2.0 | Varies | Typically per seat |
In your day-to-day
Pick the one that sounds like you.
The same tool, used five different ways. Each of these works today.
Monday, 8 a.m.
An email tells you how the business is doing.
- “62% of the launch plan is done, 1 task is blocked, revenue is down 18% on last week.”
- Sales come from your Shopify, WooCommerce or Stripe, or a CSV export. It never makes numbers up; if a number isn’t connected, it says so.
- Need to show an investor or partner? One command makes a PowerPoint.
# get the report by email every Monday, with slides attached $ footnote add-notify --email-to you@example.com \ --smtp-host smtp.gmail.com --digest weekly \ --content report --attach deck
While you code
It keeps the board and the documentation honest.
- Mention
T-012in a commit and the task moves. “Closes T-012” finishes it. - It re-reads your code and draws how pages, APIs, data and services connect, and logs every change.
- Your AI assistant (Claude, Cursor, Codex, Gemini, Copilot…) plans the work, reports progress and records decisions through it.
- See who else is working in the folder you’re about to change.
# one-time: let your AI assistant use it $ footnote connect claude # who knows about checkout? $ footnote whois checkout/ Dev Raj: 14 changes, last active yesterday
No code, no git
Just tell it what you finished.
- “Finished the brochure and started the packaging design.” It matches your words to your tasks, and asks if it isn’t sure.
- Name a file
T-004-brochure-v2.pdfand the task is marked in progress. - Wrong guess?
footnote undoreverses it. - Client review tomorrow? Make the slides in one click.
$ footnote say "finished the brochure and started packaging" ✓ T-004 “Brochure”: In progress → Done ✓ T-005 “Packaging design”: Not started → In progress $ footnote deck client-review.pptx --for everyone
Leading a team
Know what happened without a stand-up.
- “What changed since I last looked?” gives tasks finished and started, what each person did, decisions made and new risks.
- Heads-up when two people are changing the same files, when something has stalled, or when only one person knows an area.
- A shared Notion, Sheet or board stays in sync for everyone. Due dates and estimates give you a roadmap and a rough finish date.
- There’s no leaderboard on purpose: it’s for visibility, not ranking people.
$ footnote catchup ## Finished T-014 “Payments” (Dev Raj) ## Heads-up app/checkout touched by Maya and Dev ## Stalled T-017 “Admin tables” (9 days)
Running yourself
Plan, money and handover in one place.
- Drop in a bank export: it sorts income and spending into categories, and shows profit by month and how many months of cash you have.
- Track invoices; you’re alerted once when one is overdue.
- At the end, a handover report says what was built, what decisions were made, and what’s missing (tests, deployment, open risks).
$ footnote metrics-import bank.csv $ footnote invoice add --client Acme --amount 1200 --due "in 30 days" $ footnote report --for manager --html handover.html
Get started
Two minutes, no installation headaches.
You need Python 3.9 or newer (most computers have it; if not, python.org). That’s all: there’s nothing else to install.
- Get it. Pick whichever is easiest for you:
- With Node: run
npx footnote-app. There’s nothing to download (Python 3.9+ must be on your computer). - One file: download
footnote.pyzfrom the latest release and put it in your project folder. A checksum is published next to it. - From source: clone the repository, then
pip install .inside it.
- With Node: run
- Run it. It asks a few plain questions: where would you like your tracker (Obsidian, Notion, Sheets, Excel…), and which AI tool you use, if any.
$ python footnote.pyz - Open it. A page opens in your browser. Type what happened, or add a task. That’s it.
$ python footnote.pyz ui
Prefer not to use a terminal? Double-click Start Tracker.command (Mac, Linux) or start-tracker.bat (Windows). If something seems off, doctor explains it in plain words.
Works with the tools you already use
ObsidianNotionGoogle SheetsExcel / CSVSQLiteGitHub IssuesTrello
ClaudeCursorCodexGeminiCopilotWindsurfAny tool via command or webhook
GitHubStripeShopifyWooCommerceSlackEmailPowerPoint
Linear: not yetJira: not yet
Your data stays yours
Built to be safe to run on your work.
It runs on your computer. We have no servers, no accounts and no way to see your data.
- Nothing else to trust. It uses only Python’s own libraries: no third-party packages that could be hijacked.
- Local by default. The web page only answers your own computer, needs a secret token, and can run in a view-only mode for screen sharing.
- Hostile text is handled. A task title, a shared-tracker row or a commit message can’t run code, escape its folder, or give orders to your AI assistant.
- Secrets stay private. Tokens are kept in files only you can read, and are scrubbed from logs.
- Mistakes are reversible. Every change is saved first, so
undoworks on yours and on automatic ones. - Releases you can check. The installer is built identically every time, with a published checksum and signed provenance.
Honest limits
What it can’t do (yet).
No software is perfectly secure or finished. Here is where we stand.
- Connections to Notion, Sheets, Stripe, GitHub, Shopify and others have been tested against realistic stand-ins, not every real account.
doctor --livechecks yours, read-only. - Linear and Jira aren’t supported yet.
- Sales and visitor numbers can’t be read from your files, so they come from a connection or an export. Footnote never invents them.
- There’s no hosted version, by design: your data stays on your device. Team sharing happens through tools you already use.
- Windows and macOS are newer targets than Linux. Tell us what you hit.
Read the full threat model and security policy.
Latest release
Footnote v0.1.0 is out.
The first public release: board, git and AI-assistant updates, seven trackers, reports, slides, email digests and a team view. The installer is built identically every time and comes with a checksum.
Questions
Things people ask.
Do I need to know how to code?
No. You can use it by typing sentences, or just using the web page. Developers get extra features, but nothing requires them.
What does it cost?
Nothing. It’s free and open source (Apache-2.0 licence).
Does it send my data anywhere?
Only to the services you connect, such as your Notion or your Slack. We run no servers and receive nothing. The optional AI help uses a command you choose and sees task titles and report figures, never your files.
Does it work without git, or without an AI assistant?
Yes to both. Without git it notices changed files and the words you tell it. Without an AI assistant you just talk to it yourself.
What if it gets something wrong?
It asks rather than guesses when unsure, and every change can be undone with footnote undo. Tasks you move by hand are never pushed back by automation.
Can my whole team use it?
Yes, by sharing one Notion database, Google Sheet, GitHub Issues list or Trello board. Everyone’s changes merge, and tasks a teammate adds appear for you with the same ID.
Why not just use a normal project tool?
You still can: Footnote feeds them. The difference is that it fills them in from what actually happened, adds the architecture, decisions, numbers and “who did what”, and keeps the whole story in one report.
Contribute
Help us make it work for everyone.
You don’t have to write code. Confusing wording is a bug, and “I got stuck here” is one of the most valuable things you can send us.
- Share how you use it day to day: a bakery, a podcast, a research project.
- Improve the words, or translate them.
- Try it on Windows, macOS or Linux and tell us what happens.
- Add a connection to a tool you use. It’s a small, well-marked part of the code.
- Found a security problem? Please report it privately, not in public.
Stop updating the tracker. Start working.
Free, open source, and on your computer in about two minutes.