beeminder
v1.0.0Beeminder API for goal tracking and commitment devices. Use when checking Beeminder goals, adding datapoints, viewing due goals, managing commitments, or tracking habits. Triggers on "beeminder", "goals due", "add datapoint", "track habit", "goal status", "derail".
Installation
Beeminder API
Direct REST API access to Beeminder. No CLI dependencies.
Setup
Set two env vars:
- BEEMINDER_USERNAME - Beeminder username
- BEEMINDER_AUTH_TOKEN - personal auth token from https://www.beeminder.com/api/v1/auth_token.json (requires login)
All examples use:
BASE="https://www.beeminder.com/api/v1/users/$BEEMINDER_USERNAME"
Goals
List all goals
curl -s "$BASE/goals.json?auth_token=$BEEMINDER_AUTH_TOKEN" | jq '[.[] | {slug, safebuf, baremin, limsum}]'
Get single goal
curl -s "$BASE/goals/GOAL.json?auth_token=$BEEMINDER_AUTH_TOKEN"
Key fields:
- slug - goal identifier
- safebuf - days of safety buffer (0 = due today, negative = in the red)
- baremin - minimum needed today to stay on track
- limsum - human-readable summary (e.g. "+1 due in 2 days")
- losedate - unix timestamp of derail date
- rate - commitment rate
- runits - rate units (d/w/m/y)
- headsum - summary of current status
- goalval - end goal value (null if no end goal)
- gunits - goal units (e.g. "hours", "pages")
Goals due today
curl -s "$BASE/goals.json?auth_token=$BEEMINDER_AUTH_TOKEN"
| jq '[.[] | select(.safebuf <= 0)] | sort_by(.losedate) | .[] | {slug, baremin, limsum}'
Goals due within N days
curl -s "$BASE/goals.json?auth_token=$BEEMINDER_AUTH_TOKEN"
| jq --arg cutoff "$(date -d '+2 days' +%s)"
'[.[] | select(.losedate <= ($cutoff | tonumber))] | sort_by(.losedate) | .[] | {slug, baremin, limsum}'
Datapoints
Add datapoint
curl -s -X POST "$BASE/goals/GOAL/datapoints.json"
-d "auth_token=$BEEMINDER_AUTH_TOKEN"
-d "value=N"
-d "comment=TEXT"
Optional: -d "requestid=UNIQUE_ID" for idempotent retries (safe to repeat without duplicating).
Get recent datapoints
curl -s "$BASE/goals/GOAL/datapoints.json?auth_token=$BEEMINDER_AUTH_TOKEN&count=5&sort=daystamp"
Update datapoint
curl -s -X PUT "$BASE/goals/GOAL/datapoints/DATAPOINT_ID.json"
-d "auth_token=$BEEMINDER_AUTH_TOKEN"
-d "value=N"
-d "comment=TEXT"
Delete datapoint
curl -s -X DELETE "$BASE/goals/GOAL/datapoints/DATAPOINT_ID.json?auth_token=$BEEMINDER_AUTH_TOKEN"
Common Patterns
Check and report what's due
curl -s "$BASE/goals.json?auth_token=$BEEMINDER_AUTH_TOKEN"
| jq '[.[] | select(.safebuf <= 1)] | sort_by(.safebuf) | .[] | {slug, baremin, limsum, safebuf}'
Add with idempotent retry
curl -s -X POST "$BASE/goals/GOAL/datapoints.json"
-d "auth_token=$BEEMINDER_AUTH_TOKEN"
-d "value=1"
-d "comment=done"
-d "requestid=GOAL-$(date +%Y%m%d)"
Notes
- Base URL must be exactly
https://www.beeminder.com/api/v1/(https, www required) - All responses are JSON
- Use
jqto parse responses - Daystamps use
YYYYMMDDformat - Timestamps are unix epoch seconds