Track the work where
you do the work.
Paca is a project manager, a stopwatch and an invoice writer that live in the terminal. Press t when you start, s when you stop, and i when it is time to get paid.
$npm install -g pacatuiMIT · free · needs Bun
1 dash 2 tasks 3 sheets 4 invoices 5 reports 6 settings ? help ● Helio Patient Portal 57:32 $158.26 [s] Stop ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ ● Done 1 ● In Progress 5 ● To Do 15 37 32 33 31 28 27 ███ ▁▁▁ ▃▃▃ 27 26 28 30 ▁▁▁ 28 23 19 ▄▄▄ ▃▃▃ 21 ███ ███ ███ ▃▃▃ 19 ▂▂▂ 20 23 24 24 ▅▅▅ ▇▇▇ 20 ███ ▅▅▅ 24 24 ▆▆▆ ▁▁▁ ███ ███ ▄▄▄ ███ ███ ███ ███ ▁▁▁ ███ 14 16 ▂▂▂ 15 ▆▆▆ ▇▇▇ ▇▇▇ ███ ███ ▂▂▂ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ 12 ███ ███ ▂▂▂ ▅▅▅ ███ ▄▄▄ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ▇▇▇ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 3/8 3/22 4/5 4/19 5/3 5/17 5/31 6/7 6/21 7/5 7/19 8/2 8/9 8/23 ● Helio Patient ● Northwind Stor ● Turnstile CMS ● Rio Grande Boo ● Paca Total: 648h ┌─Recent Activity──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ ◐ ! Send August invoices in Admin & Ops Aug 11 │ │ ◐ ! Scheduler: block double-booking in Helio Patient Portal Aug 3 │ │ ◐ ! Ship the new cart drawer in Northwind Storefront Jun 18 │ │ ◐ ! Redirect map QA — top 500 URLs in Turnstile CMS Jun 4 │ │ ◐ ! Magic-link expiry is too aggressive in Helio Patient Portal May 29 │ │ ○ ! Menu bar drift after sleep in Paca Aug 26 │ │ ○ ! Cut over production DNS in Turnstile CMS Aug 25 │ │ ○ ! Earnings tab: YoY comparison in Paca Aug 25 │ │ ○ Publish 0.2.0 to npm in Paca Aug 23 │ │ ○ Editor training session in Turnstile CMS Aug 20 │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ s Stop Timer n New e Edit Tab Panel q Quit Welcome to Paca!
Every screen on this page is a real frame: Paca was run inside a pseudo-terminal against a seeded demo database and each cell it painted was recorded, colour and all. The clients and the invoices are invented. The rendering is not.
No tab to go and find.
Every timer you forget to start is a timer you had to leave the editor to start. Paca is one terminal split away, so the cost of logging the hour is a keystroke.
No account.
There is no sign-up, no server and nothing to log into. Your data is a SQLite file at ~/.paca/paca.db that you can copy, back up, or open with any tool that reads SQLite.
No subscription.
It is MIT-licensed and on npm. The only thing it ever talks to over the network is your own Stripe account, and only when you ask it to write an invoice.
Six screens
One number gets you anywhere.
The whole app is six views on one row of number keys, and it never nests. There is no menu to walk, no breadcrumb and no back button — the way back is the number of the place you came from.
- 1Dashboard
- Task mix, a stacked six-month chart of hours by project, and what you touched last.
- 2Tasks
- Projects on the left, that project's tasks on the right. Tab moves between them.
- 3Timesheets
- Uninvoiced time grouped by project, with the money each line is worth.
- 4Invoices
- Every Stripe invoice on the account, newest first, openable in the dashboard.
- 5Reports
- Seven tabs of analytics over everything you have ever tracked.
- 6Settings
- Business name, Stripe key, database, theme, timezone, menu bar, export and import.
1 dash 2 tasks 3 sheets 4 invoices 5 reports 6 settings ? help ● Helio Patient Portal 1:15:14 $206.91 [s] Stop ┌─Projects──────────────────────────────────────────┐┌─Tasks - Helio Patient Portal────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ [*] Admin & Ops 0/3 ││ ◐ ! Magic-link expiry is too aggressive Tomorrow │ │ [*] Helio Patient Portal $165/hr 0/5 ││ ◐ ! Scheduler: block double-booking 3d │ │ [*] Northwind Storefront $145/hr 1/5 ││ ○ ! WCAG 2.2 AA pass on intake 7d │ │ [*] Paca 0/3 ││ ○ ! FHIR lab result mapping Sep 25 │ │ [*] Rio Grande Booking $135/hr 0/2 ││ ○ ! Insurance card OCR fallback Sep 15 │ │ [*] Turnstile CMS $140/hr 0/3 ││ │ │ ││ │ │ ││ │ │ ││ │ │ ││ │ │ ││ │ └───────────────────────────────────────────────────┘└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ s Stop Timer n New e Edit Tab Panel q Quit Welcome to Paca!
Projects left, that project's tasks right. Space cycles a task's status, p cycles its priority, and neither one moves the row you are standing on.
The timer
It counts money, not just minutes.
The header carries the running timer everywhere you go — project, elapsed time, and what that time is worth at the project's rate, ticking upward while you work. Which turns out to be the most persuasive argument there is for remembering to stop it.
- 01
Start it from anywhere
t opens the picker on whichever screen you are on. Pick a project, type what you are about to do, and it starts.
- 02
It survives everything
The running entry is a row in SQLite with no end time. Quit the app, close the terminal, reboot — it is still running when you come back.
- 03
Fix it afterwards
Forgot to start it at nine? e on a time entry edits the start, the end and the description, so the timesheet ends up honest.
- 04
Or stay out of the app
On macOS an optional menu-bar helper shows the live timer and starts and stops it, so you never open the TUI just to punch in.
1 dash 2 tasks 3 sheets 4 invoices 5 reports 6 settings ? help ● Helio Patient Portal 1:16:14 $209.69 [s] Stop All Timers (press 'a' to show billable only) [ ← Week → Aug 30 - Sep 5 Total: 24h 8m Sep 4 11:00 AM - 11:45 AM 45m Northwind St… $108.75 Order confirmation emails █ Sep 4 8:00 AM - 10:30 AM 2h 30m Paca - Reports — earnings tab █ Sep 3 12:20 PM - 1:35 PM 1h 15m Northwind St… $181.25 Stripe webhook retry handling █ Sep 3 11:35 AM - 12:00 PM 25m Turnstile CMS $58.33 Editorial preview environment █ Sep 3 10:15 AM - 11:15 AM 1h 0m Helio Patien… $165.00 Care team assignment rules █ Sep 3 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM 1h 30m Helio Patien… $247.50 Appointment scheduler calendar █ Sep 2 2:30 PM - 3:55 PM 1h 25m Helio Patien… $233.75 Magic-link auth — token expiry █ Sep 2 1:10 PM - 2:25 PM 1h 15m Helio Patien… $206.25 Message threads — read receipts █ Sep 2 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM 4h 0m Turnstile CMS $560.00 Author permissions matrix █ Sep 1 2:35 PM - 3:20 PM 45m Helio Patien… $123.75 Appointment scheduler calendar █ Sep 1 12:15 PM - 2:30 PM 2h 15m Turnstile CMS $315.00 Draft autosave conflicts ▀ Sep 1 9:50 AM - 11:15 AM 1h 25m Helio Patien… $233.75 FHIR mapping for lab results Sep 1 8:45 AM - 9:45 AM 1h 0m Turnstile CMS $140.00 Redirect map for 4,100 URLs Aug 31 10:45 AM - 10:53 AM 8m Helio Patien… $22.00 Accessibility sweep on intake Aug 31 8:15 AM - 10:15 AM 2h 0m Rio Grande B… $270.00 Guide roster scheduling Aug 30 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM 1h 15m Northwind St… $181.25 Gift card redemption edge cases s Stop Timer a billable only ⇅ navigate [] page weeks e edit d delete Aug 30 - Sep 5
a swaps the timesheet for every timer in the week, billable or not, with [ ] paging back through the weeks. The dash in the money column is a project with no rate on it.
Getting paid
From tracked hours to a Stripe draft, without a spreadsheet.
The timesheet is every hour you have tracked and not yet billed, grouped by project, each line already multiplied by that project's rate. Tick the ones you mean to charge for, press i, and Paca builds the invoice in your Stripe account — one line item per entry, dated and described exactly as you logged it.
1 dash 2 tasks 3 sheets 4 invoices 5 reports 6 settings ? help ● Helio Patient Portal 57:56 $159.36 [s] Stop Timesheets (press 'a' to show all timers) Helio Patient Portal (Helio Health) 38h 35m $6366.25 ▀ [x] Sep 3 10:15 AM - 11:15 AM 1h 0m $165.00 Care team assignment rules [x] Sep 3 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM 1h 30m $247.50 Appointment scheduler calendar [x] Sep 2 2:30 PM - 3:55 PM 1h 25m $233.75 Magic-link auth — token expiry [x] Sep 2 1:10 PM - 2:25 PM 1h 15m $206.25 Message threads — read receipts [ ] Sep 1 2:35 PM - 3:20 PM 45m $123.75 Appointment scheduler calendar [ ] Sep 1 9:50 AM - 11:15 AM 1h 25m $233.75 FHIR mapping for lab results [ ] Aug 31 10:45 AM - 10:53 AM 8m $22.00 Accessibility sweep on intake [ ] Aug 28 2:35 PM - 4:50 PM 2h 15m $371.25 Appointment scheduler calendar [ ] Aug 26 12:20 PM - 1:05 PM 45m $123.75 Magic-link auth — token expiry [ ] Aug 24 9:14 AM - 9:26 AM 12m $33.00 Care team assignment rules [ ] Aug 24 8:15 AM - 8:40 AM 25m $68.75 Provider directory search [ ] Aug 21 12:14 PM - 2:29 PM 2h 15m $371.25 FHIR mapping for lab results [ ] Aug 21 8:15 AM - 10:30 AM 2h 15m $371.25 FHIR mapping for lab results [ ] Aug 20 8:45 AM - 11:15 AM 2h 30m $412.50 FHIR mapping for lab results [ ] Aug 19 12:50 PM - 1:30 PM 40m $110.00 HIPAA audit log middleware [ ] Aug 18 12:14 PM - 2:44 PM 2h 30m $412.50 Session timeout warning modal [ ] Aug 17 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM 1h 0m $165.00 Session timeout warning modal [ ] Aug 14 2:45 PM - 4:30 PM 1h 45m $288.75 FHIR mapping for lab results [ ] Aug 14 8:00 AM - 8:40 AM 40m $110.00 Appointment scheduler calendar [ ] Aug 13 12:30 PM - 1:10 PM 40m $110.00 Accessibility sweep on intake [ ] Aug 12 12:20 PM - 4:35 PM 4h 15m $701.25 Message threads — read receipts [ ] Aug 11 8:15 AM - 10:30 AM 2h 15m $371.25 Provider directory search [ ] Aug 7 1:10 PM - 2:25 PM 1h 15m $206.25 Push notification preferences [ ] Aug 6 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM 1h 15m $206.25 FHIR mapping for lab results [ ] Aug 6 9:40 AM - 11:40 AM 2h 0m $330.00 Provider directory search [ ] Aug 5 8:15 AM - 10:30 AM 2h 15m $371.25 FHIR mapping for lab results Northwind Storefront (Northwind Coffee) 33h 59m $4927.58 [ ] Sep 4 11:00 AM - 11:45 AM 45m $108.75 Order confirmation emails [ ] Sep 3 12:20 PM - 1:35 PM 1h 15m $181.25 Stripe webhook retry handling [ ] Aug 30 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM 1h 15m $181.25 Gift card redemption edge cases [ ] Aug 28 12:45 PM - 2:15 PM 1h 30m $217.50 Mobile nav rewrite [ ] Aug 28 10:15 AM - 11:45 AM 1h 30m $217.50 Lighthouse pass on PDP [ ] Aug 28 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM 1h 30m $217.50 Inventory sync with Square s Stop Timer a all timers ⇅ navigate e edit d delete _ select i create invoice Welcome to Paca!
1 dash 2 tasks 3 sheets 4 invoices 5 reports 6 settings ? help ● Helio Patient Portal 58:02 $159.64 [s] Stop Timesheets (press 'a' to show all timers) Helio Patient Portal (Helio Health) 38h 35m $6366.25 ▀ [x] Sep 3 10:15 AM - 11:15 AM 1h 0m $165.00 Care team assignment rules [x] Sep 3 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM 1h 30m $247.50 Appointment scheduler calendar [x] Sep 2 2:30 PM - 3:55 PM 1h 25m $233.75 Magic-link auth — token expiry [x] Sep 2 1:10 PM - 2:25 PM 1h 15m $206.25 Message threads — read receipts [ ] Sep 1 2:35 PM - 3:20 PM 45m $123.75 Appointment scheduler calendar [ ] Sep 1 9:50 AM - 11:15 AM 1h 25m $233.75 FHIR mapping for lab results [ ] Aug 31 10:45 AM - 10:53 AM 8m $22.00 Accessibility sweep on intake [ ] Aug 28 2:35 PM - 4:50 PM ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ [ ] Aug 26 12:20 PM - 1:05 PM │ │ [ ] Aug 24 9:14 AM - 9:26 AM │ Create Stripe Invoice │ [ ] Aug 24 8:15 AM - 8:40 AM │ │ [ ] Aug 21 12:14 PM - 2:29 PM │ Helio Health ap@heliohealth.example │ [ ] Aug 21 8:15 AM - 10:30 AM │ ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────── │ [ ] Aug 20 8:45 AM - 11:15 AM │ Date Description Hours Amount │ [ ] Aug 19 12:50 PM - 1:30 PM │ Sep 3 Care team assignment rules 1.00 $165.00 │ [ ] Aug 18 12:14 PM - 2:44 PM │ Sep 3 Appointment scheduler 1.50 $247.50 │ [ ] Aug 17 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM │ calendar │ [ ] Aug 14 2:45 PM - 4:30 PM │ Sep 2 Magic-link auth — token 1.42 $233.75 │ [ ] Aug 14 8:00 AM - 8:40 AM │ expiry │ [ ] Aug 13 12:30 PM - 1:10 PM │ Sep 2 Message threads — read 1.25 $206.25 │ [ ] Aug 12 12:20 PM - 4:35 PM │ ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────── │ [ ] Aug 11 8:15 AM - 10:30 AM │ │ [ ] Aug 7 1:10 PM - 2:25 PM │ Total 4 entries 5.17 $852.50 │ [ ] Aug 6 12:00 PM - 1:15 PM │ Rate: $165.00/hr │ [ ] Aug 6 9:40 AM - 11:40 AM │ Enter to create draft invoice, Esc to cancel │ [ ] Aug 5 8:15 AM - 10:30 AM │ │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Northwind Storefront (Northwind Coffee) 33h 59m $4927.58 [ ] Sep 4 11:00 AM - 11:45 AM 45m $108.75 Order confirmation emails [ ] Sep 3 12:20 PM - 1:35 PM 1h 15m $181.25 Stripe webhook retry handling [ ] Aug 30 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM 1h 15m $181.25 Gift card redemption edge cases [ ] Aug 28 12:45 PM - 2:15 PM 1h 30m $217.50 Mobile nav rewrite [ ] Aug 28 10:15 AM - 11:45 AM 1h 30m $217.50 Lighthouse pass on PDP [ ] Aug 28 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM 1h 30m $217.50 Inventory sync with Square CREATE INVOICE s Stop Timer a all timers ⇅ navigate e edit d delete _ select i create invoice Welcome to Paca!
The customer is created once
Link a customer to a project with c. The first invoice creates them in Stripe; every one after that reuses the same customer record.
Entries get marked billed
Anything that goes onto an invoice leaves the timesheet, so the list is always only what you still have to charge for.
Nothing leaves without a key
No Stripe key, no network. Settings holds it, and the settings screen only ever shows you the first and last four characters of it.
Reports
Seven tabs of it, drawn in text.
Bar charts out of block characters, sparklines out of eighth-blocks, tables that line up because everything is one cell wide. It is the part of the app that most wanted to be a web page and most stubbornly refused to become one.
Eight tiles, a 26-week stacked bar of hours by project, and the same five periods compared against the ones before them.
1 dash 2 tasks 3 sheets 4 invoices 5 reports 6 settings ? help ● Helio Patient Portal 58:47 $161.67 [s] Stop Overview Averages Trends Projects Clients Patterns Earnings ←/→ switch ⇅ scroll ┌─────────────────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────────────────┐█ │ THIS WEEK │ │ THIS MONTH │ │ MONTH EARNINGS │ │ UNBILLED │█ │ 24.1h │ │ 19.5h │ │ $2,573 │ │ $17,052 │█ │ 0% vs last week │ │ -82% vs last month │ │ proj. $19,300 │ │ 114h not invoiced │ └─────────────────────────────┘ └─────────────────────────────┘ └─────────────────────────────┘ └─────────────────────────────┘ ┌─────────────────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────────────────┐ │ AVG / WEEK (3MO) │ │ AVG / MONTH (3MO) │ │ EFFECTIVE RATE │ │ STREAK │ │ 23.9h │ │ 104h │ │ $149/h │ │ 6 days │ │ $3,018 / wk │ │ $13,124 / mo │ │ 84% billable │ │ best 7 · 71% of days │ └─────────────────────────────┘ └─────────────────────────────┘ └─────────────────────────────┘ └─────────────────────────────┘ Weekly hours last 26 weeks │ 37 33 │ ███ 32 ▂▂▂ 28 30 31 28 │ 28 27 ███ ▇▇▇ ███ 27 26 24 24 ▁▁▁ ▄▄▄ ▆▆▆ ▁▁▁ 24 24 │ 23 19 ███ ▇▇▇ 21 ███ ███ ███ ▆▆▆ 19 ▆▆▆ 20 23 ▂▂▂ ▁▁▁ ███ ███ 20 ███ ███ ▂▂▂ ▂▂▂ │ ███ ▂▂▂ ███ ███ ▅▅▅ ███ ███ ███ ███ ▂▂▂ ███ 16 ▃▃▃ 15 ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ▃▃▃ ███ ███ ███ ███ │ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ 12 ███ ███ 14 ▄▄▄ ███ ▃▃▃ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ │ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ▄▄▄ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ │ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ │ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ │ ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── │ 3/8 3/22 4/5 4/19 5/3 5/17 5/31 6/7 6/21 7/5 7/19 8/2 8/9 8/23 │ │ ● Helio Patient ● Northwind Stor ● Turnstile CMS ● Rio Grande Boo ● Paca Total: 625h Period comparison │ PERIOD HOURS Δ EARNED Δ DAYS SESSIONS │ Today 3.3h -22% $109 -83% 1 2 │ This week 24.1h 0% $3,222 -1% 6 17 │ This month 19.5h -82% $2,573 -82% 4 13 │ Last 30 days 120h +6% $16,170 +14% 26 79 │ This year 853h +351% $108k +368% 176 554 Weekly workload by client average hours per week over rolling windows ending today │ CLIENT / PROJECT 30 DAYS 90 DAYS 365 DAYS TREND │ Helio Health 9.0h/wk 6.4h/wk 5.8h/wk +40% │ Northwind Coffee 7.2h/wk 5.1h/wk 4.9h/wk +43% s Stop Timer ←/→ report ⇅ scroll r refresh Welcome to Paca!
Themes
Five of them, and they colour the whole grid.
A theme is not a syntax palette bolted onto a fixed layout — it sets the background, the borders, the status colours and the colours projects get assigned from. Which is why the terminal window itself changes colour below.
1 dash 2 tasks 3 sheets 4 invoices 5 reports 6 settings ? help ● Helio Patient Portal 1:00:37 $166.73 [s] Stop ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ ● Done 1 ● In Progress 5 ● To Do 15 37 32 33 31 28 27 ███ ▁▁▁ ▃▃▃ 27 26 28 30 ▁▁▁ 28 23 19 ▄▄▄ ▃▃▃ 21 ███ ███ ███ ▃▃▃ 19 ▂▂▂ 20 23 24 24 ▅▅▅ ▇▇▇ 20 ███ ▅▅▅ 24 24 ▆▆▆ ▁▁▁ ███ ███ ▄▄▄ ███ ███ ███ ███ ▁▁▁ ███ 14 16 ▂▂▂ 15 ▆▆▆ ▇▇▇ ▇▇▇ ███ ███ ▂▂▂ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ 12 ███ ███ ▂▂▂ ▅▅▅ ███ ▄▄▄ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ▇▇▇ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ███ ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 3/8 3/22 4/5 4/19 5/3 5/17 5/31 6/7 6/21 7/5 7/19 8/2 8/9 8/23 ● Helio Patient ● Northwind Stor ● Turnstile CMS ● Rio Grande Boo ● Paca Total: 648h ┌─Recent Activity──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ ◐ ! Send August invoices in Admin & Ops Aug 11 █│ │ ◐ ! Scheduler: block double-booking in Helio Patient Portal Aug 3 ▀│ │ ◐ ! Ship the new cart drawer in Northwind Storefront Jun 18 │ │ ◐ ! Redirect map QA — top 500 URLs in Turnstile CMS Jun 4 │ │ ◐ ! Magic-link expiry is too aggressive in Helio Patient Portal May 29 │ │ ○ ! Menu bar drift after sleep in Paca Aug 26 │ │ ○ ! Cut over production DNS in Turnstile CMS Aug 25 │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ s Stop Timer n New e Edit Tab Panel q Quit Welcome to Paca!
Keyboard
There is no mouse in here.
hjkl where you would expect it, and single letters for the verbs. Press ? in the app and it will tell you all of this itself.
Global
Moving around
Projects and tasks
Timesheets
Reports
1 dash 2 tasks 3 sheets 4 invoices 5 reports 6 settings ? help ● Helio Patient Portal 58:30 $160.92 [s] Stop A tui task management and timer ┌─Navigation─────────────────────────────┐ ┌─Projects───────────────────────────────┐ ┌─Tasks──────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 1 Go to Dashboard │ │ n Create new project │ │ n Create new task │ │ 2 Go to Tasks │ │ e Edit project │ │ e Edit selected task │ │ 3 Go to Timesheets │ │ a Archive/Unarchive │ │ Space Toggle status (cycle) │ │ 4 Go to Invoices │ │ d Delete project │ │ p Change priority │ │ 5 Go to Reports │ │ A Toggle show archived │ │ d Delete task │ │ 6 Go to Settings │ │ │ │ │ │ ? Show Help │ │ │ │ │ │ Tab Toggle panels │ │ │ │ │ │ h/l or ←/→ Switch panels │ │ │ │ │ │ j/k or ↑/↓ Move up/down in list │ │ │ │ │ │ Enter Select / Confirm │ │ │ │ │ │ Esc Cancel / Go back │ │ │ │ │ │ q Quit Paca │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └────────────────────────────────────────┘ └────────────────────────────────────────┘ └────────────────────────────────────────┘ ┌─Time Tracking────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ ┌─Reports──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ │ │ t Start timer │ │ ←/→ or h/l Switch report │ │ s Stop running timer │ │ [ / ] Switch report │ │ │ │ j/k or ↑/↓ Scroll report │ │ │ │ PgUp/PgDn Page through report │ │ │ │ r Recalculate reports │ │ │ │ │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Database location: ~/.paca/paca.db s Stop Timer n New e Edit Tab Panel q Quit Ready
Settings
Several databases, one command.
Every .db file in ~/.paca is a database Paca can switch to from Settings, which is how you keep the consultancy and the side project from ending up in the same set of reports. It backs the live one up once a day and keeps a month of those, and export and import are both a file on disk.
- Business name, for the top of your invoices
- Stripe key, kept out of the screen and out of the logs
- Timezone, auto-detected or pinned
- The macOS menu bar helper, on or off
- Export and import the whole database
1 dash 2 tasks 3 sheets 4 invoices 5 reports 6 settings ? help ● Helio Patient Portal 1:15:37 $207.96 [s] Stop ┌─Business───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ Business Name Joe Designs │ │ Stripe API Key sk_t**********************************0000 │ │ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ └──────────────────────────────────│ │──────────────────────────────────┘ │ Select Theme │ ┌─App──────────────────────────────│ │──────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ ▸ Catppuccin Mocha (current) ●●●● │ │ │ Database demo │ Dracula ●●●● │ │ │ Theme Catppuccin M│ Monokai ●●●● │ [Enter to select] │ │ Timezone Auto (Americ│ Neon ●●●● │ │ │ Menu Bar Enabled │ Light ●●●● │ │ │ Export Database Export to fi│ │ │ │ Import Database Import from │ │ │ │ │ ↑/↓ to navigate, Enter to select, Esc to cancel │ │ └──────────────────────────────────│ │──────────────────────────────────┘ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Use j/k or arrows to navigate, Enter to select, Esc to go back Database: ~/.paca/demo.db SELECT THEME s Stop Timer Welcome to Paca!
Underneath
React, but the DOM is a grid of characters.
Paca is written with @opentui/react, which runs a React reconciler against terminal cells instead of HTML elements. Components, props, hooks and state all behave the way you already expect — the renderer at the end of it just paints █ and │ instead of divs.
Fine print
What it will not do.
Better to read this now than to find out at the end of a billing cycle.
Bun is a hard requirement
The binary is a TypeScript file with a #!/usr/bin/env bun shebang, and install runs bunx prisma generate. npm install -g pacatui still works — it just needs Bun already on the machine.
Stripe is the only way to invoice
There is no PDF generator and no other payment provider. Without a Stripe key the timesheet is still a timesheet; it just cannot become a draft invoice.
One machine, one database
SQLite on your disk. Nothing syncs, so a second machine is a second set of numbers until you export from one and import into the other.
The menu bar is macOS only
It compiles a small Swift helper the first time you switch it on, which needs Xcode Command Line Tools. Everywhere else, the TUI is the whole app.
Invoices are drafts, on purpose
Paca creates the draft and stops. Reviewing it and pressing send happens in Stripe, where you can still fix a line before a client sees it.
No GitHub sync yet
Issues, projects and cloud sync are on the list and not in the app. Tags exist in the schema and have no UI on them.
One command, then paca.
It creates its own database on first run. Nothing to configure until the day you want to send an invoice.
$npm install -g pacatui