The eternal struggle of getting kids to help out around the house! It feels like pulling teeth, doesn't it? But today, that changed when I found a new self hosted app. I sat down with my wife and our kids, and we introduced them to a new system that's all about making chores feel more like fun. Introducing HabitTrove. Essentially, they earn points for completing things (we're calling them "habits"), which they can then trade in for rewards. My wife was super excited about it, and the kids were over the moon with enthusiasm ("Yes!"). From this moment on, I'm hopeful that our little ones will start taking ownership of their responsibilities and maybe even develop a growth mindset along the way.

What is HabitTrove?

HabitTrove is a gamified habit tracking application that helps you build and maintain positive habits by rewarding you with coins, which you can use to exchange for rewards.

HabitTrove Core Features

  • Create and track daily habits
  • Earn rewards for completing habits
  • Create a wish list of rewards to redeem with earned coins
  • View your progress through habit completion streaks and statistics
  • Visualize your progress on the calendar heatmap
  • Support for dark mode settings
  • Available as a progressive web app (PWA) for seamless mobile access

Install HabitTrove using Docker Compose

Installing HabitTrove is simple. Drop the following Docker Compose config into Portainer.

services:
  habittrove:
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    volumes:
      - "./data:/app/data" # Use a relative path instead of $(pwd)
    image: dohsimpson/habittrove
    environment:
      - AUTH_SECRET=SfsSzodbyIsuwIZ4D3eOtjy6u3kLnzY8

Chang the AUTH_SECRET by generating a new one using openssl rand -base64 32 in your terminal.

Visit the HabitTrove web ui by visiting the server IP on port 3000.

Using HabitTrove

Using the HabitTrove web interface, you can add habits, tasks and customize them with rewards and give them a coin value.

Building Positive Routines : Launch a new habit by clicking "Add Habit" and give it a name, description, and personalized reward.

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When adding a new Habit, you need to use one of the following in the "When" field: every day, every week, every month or every year.

Tracking Progress : Update your dashboard to reflect completed habits, earning you rewards with every milestone achieved.
Reward Redemption : Browse your curated wishlist of available rewards that can be redeemed with earned coins.


Monitoring Momentum : Visualize your journey through the interactive progress heatmap and streak counters, providing valuable insights into your growth.

Final Notes and Thoughts

If there's one self-hosted app that has won over my wife, it's this one! She was eager to dive in and start exploring its features, asking me how she could get access to start adding more rewards and building more habits. I couldn't help but feel a sense of pride knowing it had already resonated with her, and even my kids have caught on and are enjoying it too.

Please visit the HabitTrove Github repo and give it a star!

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