Personal_Tracker_CLI

"A lightweight command-line interface (CLI) tool to maintain a personal list of habits, tasks, or expenses. This tool supports adding, listing, and updating items persistently in a simple text file format."

Features

• Add new entries with automatic unique IDs.
• List all current tracked items.
• Update existing items by their ID.
• Persistent storage using a simple custom text file format.
• User-friendly menu with clear prompts and error handling.
• Entirely built with Python standard library for easy portability.

Motivation & Development

This project was developed to experiment with building a practical yet simple CLI tool that runs on any machine with Python 3 installed. The tool aims to be intuitive for everyday personal tracking needs without complex dependencies. The development was assisted by Perplexity AI, specifically an intelligent assistant leveraging advanced language models to help generate and improve the code. This helped speed up writing clean, maintainable, and robust Python code following best practices. This is a project for the VibeCoding Challenge organised by BM Institute of Engineering & Technology. This is a part of the Second Round - Online Build Round. I had selected the Python (Beginner) Track. This CLI was one of the Open Ended Problem that was enlisted under the Track.

Technology Stack

• Python 3 with standard library only no external dependencies.
• Developed and tested in VSCode editor for efficient code management.
• Assisted by Anaconda Python distribution to manage environments and packages easily.
• Designed to run smoothly in standard lab machines or any system with Python 3.

Setup & Usage

Prerequisites

• Python 3 installed (recommended via Anaconda distribution).
• VSCode editor or any preferred code editor.
• Basic familiarity with running Python scripts in a terminal or command prompt.

Running the CLI tool

• Clone or download the repository.
• Open the folder in VSCode or your terminal.

Run the script using: python personal_tracker.py

• Follow the interactive menu to add, list, and update your tracked items.
• Data is saved persistently in personal_tracker.txt in the script's directory.

Notes

• The tool carefully handles invalid inputs by providing helpful prompts and avoids crashes.
• Data is saved after every change, ensuring no loss occurs between sessions.
• This project is a good demonstration of building user-friendly CLI tools with Python’s built-in libraries.

Author Developed by Subhasis Das. AI-assisted coding