Dev Metrics in Readme

WakaTime coding metrics on your profile readme.

💬 Forum | GitHub discussions

New to WakaTime?

Nope? Skip to #Prep work.

WakaTime gives you an idea of the time you spent on coding. This helps you boost your productivity and competitive edge (aka flex 💪).

1. Head over to https://wakatime.com/ and create an account.
2. After logging in get your WakaTime API Key from https://wakatime.com/api-key/.
3. Install WakaTime plugin in your favorite editor / IDE.
4. Paste in your API key to start telemetry.

ℹ️ Info | You can read WakaTime help to know more about configurations. Alternatively, you can fetch data from WakaTime compatible services such as Wakapi or Hakatime.

Prep Work

A GitHub repository and a README.md file is required. We'll be making use of readme in the profile repository.

• Save the README.md file after copy-pasting the following special comments. Your dev-metics will show up in between.

  <!--START_SECTION:waka-->
  <!--END_SECTION:waka-->

  <!--START_SECTION: --> and <!--END_SECTION: --> are placeholders and must be retained as is. Whereas "waka" can be replaced by any alphanumeric string. See #Tweaks section for more.

• Navigate to your repo's Settings:

  • Go to Secrets (at https://github.com/USERNAME/USERNAME/settings/secrets/actions/new by replacing the USERNAME with your own username) and add a new secret "Named" WAKATIME_API_KEY with your API key as it's "Secret".

    

    If you're not using profile repository, add another secret "Named" GH_TOKEN and in place of "Secret" insert your GitHub token.

  • Go to Workflow permissions under Actions (at https://github.com/USERNAME/USERNAME/settings/actions by replacing the USERNAME with your own username) and set Read and write permissions.

    

• Create a new workflow file named waka-readme.yml inside .github/workflows/ folder of your repository.

• Clear all existing contents, add following lines and save the file.

  name: Waka Readme
  
  on:
    # for manual workflow trigger
    workflow_dispatch:
    schedule:
      # runs at 12 AM UTC (5:30 AM IST)
      - cron: "0 0 * * *"
  
  jobs:
    update-readme:
      name: WakaReadme DevMetrics
      runs-on: ubuntu-latest
      steps:
        - uses: athul/waka-readme@master # this action name
          with:
            WAKATIME_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.WAKATIME_API_KEY }}

  Refer #Example section for a full blown workflow file.

Tweaks

There are many flags that you can modify as you see fit.

Meta Tweaks

Environment flag	Options (Default, Other, ...)	Description
API_BASE_URL	https://wakatime.com/api, https://wakapi.dev/api, https://hakatime.mtx-dev.xyz/api	Use WakaTime compatible services like Wakapi & Hakatime
REPOSITORY	<gh_username>/<gh_username>, <gh_username>/<repo_name>	Waka-readme stats will appear on the provided repository

Content Tweaks

Environment flag	Options (Default, Other, ...)	Description
SHOW_TITLE	false, true	Add title to waka-readme stats blob
SECTION_NAME	waka, any alphanumeric string	The generator will look for section name to fill up the readme.
BLOCKS	░▒▓█, ⣀⣄⣤⣦⣶⣷⣿, -#, =>, you can be creative	Ascii art used to build stats graph
CODE_LANG	txt, python ruby json , you can use other languages also	Language syntax based highlighted text
TIME_RANGE	last_7_days, last_30_days, last_6_months, last_year, all_time	String representing a dispensation from which stats are aggregated
LANG_COUNT	5, any plausible number	Number of languages to be displayed
SHOW_TIME	true, false	Displays the amount of time spent for each language
SHOW_TOTAL	false, true	Show total coding time
SHOW_MASKED_TIME	false, true	Adds total coding time including unclassified languages (overrides: SHOW_TOTAL)
STOP_AT_OTHER	false, true	Stop when language marked as Other is retrieved (overrides: LANG_COUNT)
IGNORED_LANGUAGES	, Binary YAML JSON TOML	Hide languages from your stats

Commit Tweaks

Environment flag	Options (Default, Other, ...)
COMMIT_MESSAGE	Updated waka-readme graph with new metrics, any reasonable message
TARGET_BRANCH	NOT_SET, target branch name
TARGET_PATH	NOT_SET, /path/to/target/file
COMMITTER_NAME	NOT_SET, committer name
COMMITTER_EMAIL	NOT_SET, committer email
AUTHOR_NAME	NOT_SET, author name
AUTHOR_EMAIL	NOT_SET, author email

The first option is the default value of the flag, subsequent options are valid values available for the flag.

Example

waka-readme.yml

name: Waka Readme

on:
  # for manual workflow trigger
  workflow_dispatch:
  schedule:
    # runs at 12 AM UTC (5:30 AM IST)
    - cron: "0 0 * * *"

jobs:
  update-readme:
    name: WakaReadme DevMetrics
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
        # this action name
      - uses: athul/waka-readme@master # do NOT replace with anything else
        with:
          GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GH_TOKEN }} # optional if on profile readme
          WAKATIME_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.WAKATIME_API_KEY }} # required
          ### meta
          API_BASE_URL: https://wakatime.com/api # optional
          REPOSITORY: YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME/YOUR_REPOSITORY_NAME # optional
          ### content
          SHOW_TITLE: true # optional
          SECTION_NAME: waka # optional
          BLOCKS: -> # optional
          CODE_LANG: rust # optional
          TIME_RANGE: all_time # optional
          LANG_COUNT: 10 # optional
          SHOW_TIME: true # optional
          SHOW_TOTAL: true # optional
          SHOW_MASKED_TIME: false # optional
          STOP_AT_OTHER: true # optional
          IGNORED_LANGUAGES: YAML JSON TOML # optional
          ### commit
          COMMIT_MESSAGE: Updated waka-readme graph with new metrics # optional
          TARGET_BRANCH: master # optional
          TARGET_PATH: README.md # optional
          COMMITTER_NAME: GitHubActionBot # optional
          COMMITTER_EMAIL: action-bot@github.com # optional
          AUTHOR_NAME: YOUR_NAME # optional
          AUTHOR_EMAIL: YOUR@EMAIL.com # optional
          # you can populate email-id with secrets instead

Rendered markdown:

From: 10 July 2020 - To: 06 August 2022

Total Time: 1,464 hrs 54 mins

Python             859 hrs 29 mins >>>>>>>>>>>>>>-----------   54.68 %
Markdown           132 hrs 33 mins >>-----------------------   08.43 %
TeX                103 hrs 52 mins >>-----------------------   06.61 %
HTML               94 hrs 48 mins  >>-----------------------   06.03 %
Nim                64 hrs 31 mins  >------------------------   04.11 %
Other              47 hrs 58 mins  >------------------------   03.05 %

Notes

• Flags REPOSITORY and GH_TOKEN are required ONLY if, you are NOT using profile readme.
• If you are using GH_TOKEN, make sure set the fine grained token scope to repository contents with read-and-write access. See #141 (comment).
• WAKATIME_API_KEY is a required secret. All other environment variables are optional.
• The above example does NOT show proper default values, refer #Tweaks for the same.
• IGNORED_LANGUAGES is suggested for .NET users, as WakaTime assumes you're working with Binary, while debugging.

Why only the language stats (and not other data) from the API?

I am a fan of minimal designs and the profile readme is a great way to show off your skills and interests. The WakaTime API, gets us a lot of data about a person's coding activity including the editors and Operating Systems you used and the projects you worked on. Some of these projects maybe secretive and should not be shown out to the public. Using up more data via the Wakatime API will clutter the profile readme and hinder your chances on displaying what you provide value to the community like the pinned Repositories. I believe that Coding Stats is nerdiest of all since you can tell the community that you are exercising these languages or learning a new language, this will also show that you spend some amount of time to learn and exercise your development skills. That's what matters in the end ❤️