Habits & Streaks

How it works

The mechanics of this kit, plainly — what runs and when, where the data lands, and what you look at.

• Evening nudge runs every evening · 9pm and keeps the Streaks dashboard fresh. One card in the evening, only about what you have not mentioned.
• Weekly review runs sundays · 7pm and keeps the Streaks dashboard fresh. Sundays — marks what you are keeping, and draws the weeks.
• What is captured lands in the Habit register dataset, which lives at Data/Habit Register in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• What is captured lands in the Habit log dataset, which lives at Data/Habit Log in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• The Streaks dashboard reads from the dataset and shows, at a glance: check-ins · keeping vs slipping · still open today · how the weeks have gone · how this board works.

The wiring, in one breath: Habit capture writes to Habit log · Habit tune writes to Habit register · Habit design writes to Habit register · Habit log shown by Streaks · Habit register shown by Streaks · Streaks kept fresh by Weekly review · Habit capture given to Tally · Habit tune given to Tally · Habit design given to Tally · Tally runs Evening nudge.

Getting the most from it

A kit earns its place when it changes what you look at and what you say, not when it is installed. This is the rhythm that makes it pay.

• Keep the register to three to five habits and name them the way you would say them in passing — capture matches your own words.
• Say it when it happens, in any conversation — "went for the run" — and nothing else. There is nothing to open.
• Let the evening nudge ask about what you have not mentioned; answer in a line or ignore it. There is no second ask.
• Read Streaks on Sunday after the review. Keeping versus slipping is the honest signal, not the length of any one chain.
• Retire a habit with Habit tune when it stops mattering. A paused habit keeps its history and stops being asked about.
• Tell Tally what counts as done for a habit, in your own words, "any run, and I say how far", and it is kept on the habit. It is only used to match a mention to the right habit; it never decides whether what you did was enough. If you said you did it, it counts.
• Say how much when you feel like it, "ran 5k" or "20 pages", and Habit capture keeps it beside that day exactly as you said it. Most days there is nothing to add and nothing asks. Ask "how far have I run this month?" and Tally adds up what you said, names any day that had no amount, and leaves it there.
• When a habit will not stick, say so, "I keep skipping the evening stretches", and Habit design asks what is going on around that time and what the least is that you would still do on a bad day, one question at a time, and says your words back. Only the cue and the smaller version you agree to are kept, on that habit. If you ask what is known about cues or starting small, it looks for a named source and says so plainly when it cannot find one. It will not choose a cue for you or say why a habit slipped.
• Say which goal a habit is for, "the running is for the half marathon", and Habit tune writes it on the habit. If you keep goals with Goals & Coaching, it uses that goal's own name; it only ever reads that Kit and never adds a goal to it.

Make it yours

Nothing here is fixed. The pieces are ordinary agents, routines, datasets and dashboards, so anything you know about shaping those applies. Retire whatever earns nothing.

Things people usually change first

Say any of these in chat, or edit them on the kit’s page in the app.

• Which habits are on the register, how often each is meant to happen, and which are paused.
• What time the evening card arrives, or turning it off and just mentioning things as they happen.
• Whether Sunday marks habits keeping or slipping at all.
• How much it says back when you log something — a word, or nothing.
• What counts as done for each habit, in your words, which is what a mention is matched against.
• The cue and the smaller version you chose for a habit, and the goal it is for.

Your first run

Installing starts a short setup conversation — not a form. Answer roughly, correct later.

1. Adding it opens a conversation with Tally, who keeps the count: it offers the usual territory first — movement, reading, sleep, alcohol-free days and the rest — then takes your handful one at a time: what counts as done, roughly how often. It will push back once if you head past about five, because a register of fifteen is one nobody keeps.
2. After that there is nothing to open. Say "went for the run" in the middle of any conversation and it lands against the right habit.
3. The evening card asks once about anything you have not mentioned, all in one line. Ignore it and nothing happens — there is no second ask. And until you have named any habits at all, the evening stays entirely quiet: nothing runs, nothing nags — the kit's page and board just carry a one-line offer to set the first few up whenever you are ready.
4. Retiring a habit is a normal thing to do here. Say so and it is marked paused, stops being asked about, and keeps its history.

Watch the first pass, then tell it what you would have done differently — that correction teaches it more than any setup could.

The essentials

Learning, preferences and run costs work the same in every kit — so they are covered once, in the Kits guide.

Living with a Kit — the Kits guide →

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