Ember - Coding Time Tracker
Tracks your coding time in VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf and VSCodium and turns
it into a yearly heatmap, language and project stats, and a developer
leaderboard on Ember. Your code, file contents
and file paths are never sent.
Setup
- Sign in at ember-dev.vercel.app with GitHub or
Google and create an API key in Settings.
- Connect the key, one of two ways:
- Everything at once (recommended): run
npm install -g embertime and then embertime setup --key ember_....
This also connects Claude Code, Codex and Cursor Agent, and the
extension picks the key up automatically.
- Just this editor: run Ember: Set API Key from the Command Palette
and paste the key.
- Restart the editor and start coding. Your time shows up in the status bar
and on your dashboard within a couple of minutes.
The key is stored in the editor's SecretStorage and in ~/.ember/config.json
(readable only by you), so every editor and agent on the machine shares it.
Self-hosting? Set ember.apiUrl in your user settings.
The status bar shows a flame icon with today's total (e.g. 2h 14m). Click it to open the
dashboard. The tooltip shows the last sync result.
Commands
| Command |
What it does |
Ember: Set API Key |
Validate and store the key (SecretStorage + ~/.ember/config.json) |
Ember: Open Dashboard |
Open <apiUrl>/dashboard |
Ember: Show Status |
Editor, server, key source, queue size, last sync. Includes a Sync Now button |
What is sent
A heartbeat goes out when you switch files, when you keep working in the same
file for 2 minutes or more, or when you save (is_write: true). It contains the
time, the project (git root folder name), the branch, the language, the editor,
the detected tech stack (e.g. Next.js, React, Tailwind CSS, TypeScript) and
sha1(absolute file path). File contents and file paths are never sent. Only
file: documents are tracked. Output panels, untitled buffers and diff views
are ignored.
Heartbeats are batched every 30 seconds. If the server can't be reached they are
stored in the extension's global state (up to 5,000) and retried with backoff
from 30s up to 10 minutes. If the key is rejected (401), sending pauses until
you set a new key.
Development
npm install
npm run build # esbuild -> dist/extension.js
npm run watch
npm test # node:test unit tests (stack detection, git, queue, config)
npm run package # builds ember-<version>.vsix via @vscode/vsce
