---
title: "Cadence"
description: "Cadence is an open-source behavior tracker where you decide every occurrence and export your full history as a portable BehaviorLog bundle."
canonical_url: https://cadence-me.com/
last_updated: 2026-09-17
status: stable
source: src/pages/index.astro
---

# Cadence

Cadence is an open-source personal behavior tracker. You define Behaviors with Schedules, and Cadence generates Occurrences on a today-first timeline. Completed means the user declared the occurrence completed. Not Completed means the user declared the occurrence not completed. Unresolved means the user has not made a decision. Prior-day Unresolved Occurrences surface in Needs decision. The full history exports as JSONL, JSON, CSV, Markdown, BehaviorLog bundle.

Google Calendar context is optional and currently limited to Google OAuth test users. Where enabled, choose which calendars appear in Timeline. Cadence requests read-only access and cannot create, change, or delete Google Calendar events. Disconnect Google Calendar in Settings at any time.

## How Cadence Works

1. Define a behavior with a title and a schedule: daily, every N days, weekly, or monthly, at exact times or time ranges. Categories, descriptions, and reminders are optional.
2. Each Schedule produces Occurrences on a today-first timeline. Prior-day Unresolved Occurrences collect in Needs decision.
3. Make a Decision for each Occurrence, with an optional note. Every Decision writes an append-only status event.
4. Review adherence across 7, 30, or 90 days on a calendar heatmap, then export the full history anytime.

## Philosophy

Cadence deliberately has no streaks, badges, points, or guilt mechanics. Streaks collapse effort into one number that resets on one bad day. Cadence shows Adherence across 7, 30, or 90 days instead. Unresolved means the user has not made a decision. Silence is never converted into failure. The product records facts about behavioral Adherence and leaves motivation to the user.

Interfaces are no longer fixed: in the agentic era, an AI tool can read a personal history and build whatever View or coaching layer its owner prefers. Cadence therefore invests in the data backbone, a factual and portable Record, rather than a prescribed interface.

Cadence provides prepared prompts, but it does not send behavior data to an AI provider. The user exports data and chooses any external AI service.

## Time Tracking

Any current-day Occurrence, or one visible in Needs decision, can carry an elapsed-time timer with start, stop, and reset. Reviews show per-Occurrence totals and range averages alongside Adherence. Exports omit time-tracking data unless the user explicitly opts in because exact session timestamps can reveal activity patterns.

## Read First

- Use Cadence to track recurring behaviors one account at a time.
- Use BehaviorLog when a behavior history needs to move between tools without losing local dates, timezones, or explicit status history.
- Status values are unresolved, completed, and not_completed.
- Needs decision is a derived Cadence UI group, not a stored BehaviorLog status.