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UseHourly

Freelancer time tracking for AI assistants: log time, timers, timesheets, sign-off links, invoices.

Automation & WorkflowTypeScriptv1.1.0

UseHourly

A simple timesheet for freelancers. Log your day in seconds: type 1.5, 1:30 or 90m, press Enter, done.

Live: https://usehourly.app · Free to use, no paywall, no ads.

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The weekly timesheet

What it does

  • Quick entry. Pick a project, type the time the way you would say it, add a note. Or press Start and let the timer count.
  • Weekly timesheet. Every project and every day in one editable grid. Fill several days at once, add more entries to a day, move an entry to another date.
  • Month calendar with per-project totals.
  • Invoices. Turn billable hours into a PDF invoice, track paid and unpaid, re-download any time.
  • Annual report. Hours, earnings, invoiced and received by quarter and month, ready for your accountant.
  • Export. Excel for any week, month or custom date range (for example March 3 to April 20), and one zip with everything: every client, all time.
  • Try it first. "Try it with sample data" on the home page opens a throwaway account filled with a month of work. No sign-up; keep it with one click if you like it.
  • Switching from Toggl or Clockify? Import their CSV export from the Account page. Clients and projects are created for you, and importing the same file twice adds nothing.
  • Works with AI assistants (MCP). Any MCP client (Claude, Cursor, VS Code, ChatGPT, your own agent) can log time, start timers and create invoices for you. See below.
  • Free calculator. Hours calculator: add up times and get decimal hours, no account needed.
  • Your data is yours. Per-user isolation; everything you log can be exported at any time.

Use it from any AI assistant (MCP server)

UseHourly runs a remote Model Context Protocol server at https://usehourly.app/api/mcp (Streamable HTTP). It has 30 tools for projects, clients, time entries, timers, invoices and reports; each one runs as you, so it only sees your own data. Create a token on Account > AI assistants (read-only or read and write, with an expiry), then:

claude mcp add --transport http usehourly https://usehourly.app/api/mcp --header "Authorization: Bearer <your token>"

That example is for Claude Code. Other clients just need the URL and an Authorization: Bearer <token> header in their MCP settings.

Cursor (~/.cursor/mcp.json):

{ "mcpServers": { "usehourly": { "url": "https://usehourly.app/api/mcp", "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer <your token>" } } } }

VS Code (.vscode/mcp.json):

{ "servers": { "usehourly": { "type": "http", "url": "https://usehourly.app/api/mcp", "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer <your token>" } } } }

Then ask: "Log 2 hours on the Acme website for yesterday" or "Make an invoice for Acme for September."

Stack

Next.js 16 (App Router) · React 19 · Tailwind CSS v4 · shadcn/ui · NextAuth v5 (credentials) · tRPC v11 · Prisma 7 with Cloudflare D1 · Vitest · Biome · deployed to Cloudflare Workers with OpenNext.

Run it locally

You need Node 22+.

npm install                 # also runs `prisma generate`

cp wrangler.example.jsonc wrangler.jsonc   # then set account_id and database_id (see Deploy)

# .env.local and .dev.vars (keep the two in sync):
#   AUTH_SECRET=<a long random string, e.g. `openssl rand -base64 32`>
#   AUTH_URL=http://localhost:3028

npm run d1:migrate:local    # create the local D1 database
npm run dev                 # http://localhost:3028

Register an account on the sign-up page and you are in.

npm test                    # scenario tests (Vitest)
npx biome check             # lint and format
npx tsc --noEmit            # type check

Deploy

It runs on Cloudflare Workers with a D1 database:

  1. cp wrangler.example.jsonc wrangler.jsonc and fill in your Cloudflare account id and a D1 database (npx wrangler d1 create usehourly-db). wrangler.jsonc is git-ignored, so your ids stay out of the repo.
  2. Put your public address in .env.production.local: NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL=https://app.example.com (it is baked into the build) and set the same value as AUTH_URL in wrangler.jsonc.
  3. npm run d1:migrate:remote
  4. npx wrangler secret put AUTH_SECRET
  5. npm run deploy

Email (optional)

Password reset and email confirmation need an email service. UseHourly sends through Resend: verify your sending domain there, then set two values on the Worker:

npx wrangler secret put RESEND_API_KEY
npx wrangler secret put EMAIL_FROM        # for example: UseHourly <noreply@your-domain.com>

Without them the app works as before, and the forgot-password page says email isn't set up.

Deploy from CircleCI

.circleci/config.yml runs the checks on every push and, on main, applies the D1 migrations and deploys. In the CircleCI project settings add these environment variables:

VariableValue
CLOUDFLARE_API_TOKENa token with Workers Scripts: Edit and D1: Edit
CLOUDFLARE_ACCOUNT_IDyour Cloudflare account id
D1_DATABASE_IDthe id of your D1 database
APP_URLyour public address, for example https://app.example.com

Optional: WORKER_NAME, D1_DATABASE_NAME, CUSTOM_DOMAIN. AUTH_SECRET stays a Worker secret (npx wrangler secret put AUTH_SECRET, once); CI never sees it. scripts/ci-wrangler-config.mjs writes wrangler.jsonc from these variables, so no account ids live in the repository.

Support

UseHourly is free. If it saves you time you can sponsor it on GitHub.

Supporters

Thank you to everyone who helps keep UseHourly free:

Be the first: sponsor UseHourly on GitHub.

Credits and license

Built on the excellent next-shadcn-admin-dashboard template by Mohammed Arham Khan.

Released under the MIT License. The code is open; the name "UseHourly" and its logo are not part of the license.

Installation

Source-derived launch command. Check the maintainer’s required arguments and credentials before running:

bash
npx -y usehourly-mcp

Set up in your AI client

Merge this template into ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json. Keep existing servers. Add any arguments, credentials, and permissions required by the maintainer; this template has not been install-tested.

json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "app-usehourly-usehourly": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "usehourly-mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Restart Claude Desktop completely for changes to take effect. Confirm the server appears connected in the client’s tool list, then try a read-only example from its documentation.

Claude Desktop setup reference

Package

usehourly-mcpnpm

Compatible MCP Clients

UseHourly works with any MCP-compatible client. Copy the config snippet from the Configuration section above and add it to the file shown for your client, then restart the application.

  • Claude Desktop~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.jsonRestart Claude Desktop completely for changes to take effect.
  • Cursor~/.cursor/mcp.jsonRestart Cursor for changes to take effect.
  • VS Code.vscode/mcp.jsonReload VS Code window for changes to take effect.
  • Windsurf~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.jsonRestart Windsurf for changes to take effect.
  • Claude Code.mcp.jsonSave at the project root, then start Claude Code in that project and review the MCP server approval prompt. Keep real credentials out of shared files.

Learn More