Tracks

Tracks is a self‑hosted, GTD™‑compatible task manager written in Ruby on Rails. It bundles a lightweight web server, enabling developers to run the application locally or in production without external dependencies beyond Ruby and a relational database. The codebase follows Rails conventions, making it approachable for developers familiar with MVC architecture and ActiveRecord. The application is released under the GNU GPL, encouraging modification and redistribution while ensuring that contributions remain open source.

Key Features

• Context‑aware views: Tasks can be filtered by contexts (e.g., “office”, “phone”) or projects, with the ability to reorder them via drag‑and‑drop.
• Metadata handling: Actions support free‑form tags, notes, and starring, providing flexible slicing of the task set.
• Visibility controls: Projects and contexts can be marked active, hidden, or completed, allowing fine‑grained control over what appears on the home page.
• Built‑in web server: For quick prototyping or desktop use, the Rails server can be launched directly from the repo.

Technical Stack

• Language: Ruby 3.x (current releases target 2.7+).
• Framework: Rails 6.x/7.x, leveraging ActionView for templating and ActiveRecord for ORM.
• Database: PostgreSQL is the default, but MySQL and SQLite are supported via standard Rails adapters.
• Asset pipeline: Sprockets for CSS/JS, with optional Webpacker support in newer releases.
• Testing: RSpec and Capybara are used for unit and integration tests, ensuring a robust test suite.

Architecture & Deployment

Tracks follows the classic Rails MVC pattern: controllers expose RESTful endpoints for actions, contexts, and projects; models encapsulate business rules (e.g., visibility logic); views render the UI with embedded Ruby. The application is stateless from a session perspective, relying on cookies for authentication and CSRF protection.

For deployment, the repo contains a Dockerfile and docker-compose.yml, enabling containerized runs with minimal configuration. The app can also be deployed to any platform supporting Ruby (Heroku, Docker Swarm, Kubernetes). Scalability is achieved by separating the web layer from a PostgreSQL backend; horizontal scaling can be done with multiple Rails workers behind a load balancer, while database replication handles read scalability.

Integration & Extensibility

• RESTful API: All CRUD operations are exposed via JSON endpoints, allowing developers to build custom clients or integrate with external services.
• Webhooks: The application can emit events on task creation, update, or completion, enabling real‑time integrations with chatops or CI/CD pipelines.
• Plugin hooks: The codebase defines a simple plugin architecture; developers can add new views or modify business logic by creating Rails engines that mount into the main app.
• Internationalization: Weblate integration supports dynamic translation, making it straightforward to add new locales.

Developer Experience

The project boasts comprehensive documentation in the GitHub wiki, including installation guides, contributing guidelines, and a detailed changelog. Continuous integration via GitHub Actions ensures that every pull request passes tests on multiple Ruby versions. Community support is active through a Google Groups mailing list and a dedicated IRC channel, while the maintainer offers paid consulting for enterprise deployments.

Use Cases

• Internal productivity dashboards: Companies can host Tracks to give employees a unified GTD interface that aligns with company projects and contexts.
• API‑driven task services: Developers can expose Tracks’ API to integrate task data into custom mobile or desktop applications.
• Educational tools: Instructors can deploy Tracks on campus servers to teach students about task management, Ruby on Rails, and RESTful design.

Advantages

Tracks’ open‑source GPL license removes licensing constraints common in commercial task managers. Its tight coupling with Rails provides a familiar development surface, while the built‑in web server eliminates extra deployment steps. Performance is competitive for typical task loads, and the ability to containerize or run on any Ruby‑capable platform gives developers flexibility in choosing infrastructure. The rich API, webhook support, and plugin system make Tracks a compelling choice for teams that need a customizable, self‑hosted task management solution.