Daily Workflow Tracer is designed to help you track work efficiently and maintain context across sessions. Here’s how to use it day-to-day.
Check for ready work
Start every session by seeing what’s ready to work on: This shows all issues with no blockers that are available to start. Use tracer ready --json for programmatic parsing when integrating with AI agents.
Create a new issue
When you discover new work, file it immediately: tracer create "Implement user authentication" -p 1 -t feature
Priority levels:
0 = Highest (critical bugs, blockers)1 = High (important features)2 = Medium (default)3 = Low4 = Lowest Issue types:
feature - New functionalitybug - Something brokentask - General work itemepic - Large feature with subtasks
Start work on an issue
Update the status to mark work as in progress: tracer update bd-1 --status in_progress
When you set status to in_progress, Tracer automatically assigns you as the owner if no assignee is set.
View issue details
Check full details of any issue: Use --full to see the complete event history:
Close completed work
When you finish an issue, close it: tracer close bd-1 --reason "Implemented and tested"
You can close multiple issues at once: tracer close bd-1 bd-2 bd-3 --reason "Sprint complete"
Working with Status Updates Tracer tracks four main statuses for issues:
open - Issue is ready to be worked on (default for new issues)in_progress - Someone is actively working on itblocked - Work cannot proceed due to dependencies or external factorsclosed - Work is complete Changing Status # Start work tracer update bd-5 --status in_progress # Mark as blocked if you hit a dependency tracer update bd-5 --status blocked # Resume work tracer update bd-5 --status in_progress # Or close directly tracer close bd-5
Leave notes for yourself or other agents working on the same project:
tracer comment bd-1 "Working on the auth API endpoint"
Comments show up when you view the issue:
# Leave breadcrumbs for your future self tracer comment bd-1 "Found edge case in validation - needs tests"
Checking Progress See overall statistics anytime:
This shows:
Total issues by status
How many issues are ready to work on
Average lead time for completing work
Example output:
Issue Statistics Total Issues: 12 Open: 8 In Progress: 1 Blocked: 0 Closed: 3 Ready to Work: 7 Avg Lead Time: 2.3 hours
Best Practices Start every session with tracer ready to orient yourself and see what needs attention.
File issues liberally - it’s better to track too much than lose important work.
Update status regularly so you can maintain an accurate view of progress.
Don’t forget to close issues when done! Closed issues help Tracer calculate accurate lead time statistics.
JSON Output for Automation Every command supports --json for programmatic use:
# Get ready work as JSON tracer ready --json # Create issue and capture ID tracer create "New feature" --json | jq -r '.id' # Get issue details tracer show bd-1 --json
This makes Tracer perfect for AI agent integration and automated workflows. 
