#hledger — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #hledger, aggregated by home.social.
-
Wow. From hledger's AI policy:
Can engaging with the AI phenomenon be ethical ?
Great question. Let's carefully avoid answering it!
- Choosing to avoid AI use entirely will become increasingly hard if not impossible. [...]
- It is here and will continue to unfold and impact us all for at least the next N years. It shouldn't be left only to the boosters and zealots.
"Can punching babies be ethical? Well, baby punching is here and will continue to unfold, and we can't leave baby punching to the baby punchers. It's called ethics."
-
Wow. From hledger's AI policy:
Can engaging with the AI phenomenon be ethical ?
Great question. Let's carefully avoid answering it!
- Choosing to avoid AI use entirely will become increasingly hard if not impossible. [...]
- It is here and will continue to unfold and impact us all for at least the next N years. It shouldn't be left only to the boosters and zealots.
"Can punching babies be ethical? Well, baby punching is here and will continue to unfold, and we can't leave baby punching to the baby punchers. It's called ethics."
-
I'm pleased to announce hledger 2.0 preview release 3!
Highlights:
- conventional file layout for rules/data/prices
- get command
- commodity aliases
- print aligns by decimal mark
- more intuitive precision behaviour
- more robust lot detection
- average cost basis methods
- customisable report titles
- prices --summary report
- a more robust roi report
- and many other improvements and fixes.https://hledger.org/relnotes.html#2026-06-24-hledger-1993
https://hledger.org/install -
I'm pleased to announce hledger 2.0 preview release 3!
Highlights:
- conventional file layout for rules/data/prices
- get command
- commodity aliases
- print aligns by decimal mark
- more intuitive precision behaviour
- more robust lot detection
- average cost basis methods
- customisable report titles
- prices --summary report
- a more robust roi report
- and many other improvements and fixes.https://hledger.org/relnotes.html#2026-06-24-hledger-1993
https://hledger.org/install -
`hledger bal -t --drop=1 -D -T -A -N --pretty-tables Expenses`
hledger is pretty cool and the more i dig into the built in help and the flags and switches, it just keeps me surprising me in the most joyful way.
what do the switches here do?
1. -t for tree style display of accounts and subaccounts
2. --drop=1 since my top level is Expenses, it will just show the overall totals anyways.
3. -D for day by day multi column report of account balances in the current month by default
4. -T print the row wise totals. this means the total spent in a particular account across all the days from start of month till date by default
5. -A same as -T but for row wise averages.
6. -N this is optional and to remove the final total row. try with on or off. in this case, i could have also instead removed --drop=1 and that row would have shown the day wise Expenses totals as well.
7. --pretty-tables uses unicode characters for a better looking tabular output.
lots more flags to go through, but this itself was so useful to see trends at a glance.
Thank you @simonmic for letting me feel cool using the terminal. Love the project
#pta #plaintextaccounting #hledger #tips -
`hledger bal -t --drop=1 -D -T -A -N --pretty-tables Expenses`
hledger is pretty cool and the more i dig into the built in help and the flags and switches, it just keeps me surprising me in the most joyful way.
what do the switches here do?
1. -t for tree style display of accounts and subaccounts
2. --drop=1 since my top level is Expenses, it will just show the overall totals anyways.
3. -D for day by day multi column report of account balances in the current month by default
4. -T print the row wise totals. this means the total spent in a particular account across all the days from start of month till date by default
5. -A same as -T but for row wise averages.
6. -N this is optional and to remove the final total row. try with on or off. in this case, i could have also instead removed --drop=1 and that row would have shown the day wise Expenses totals as well.
7. --pretty-tables uses unicode characters for a better looking tabular output.
lots more flags to go through, but this itself was so useful to see trends at a glance.
#pta #plaintextaccounting #hledger #tips -
Hi @simonmic,
thanks for clarifying, so cleaned up, without header and simpler names.Just the + sign with liabilities:vat looks odd:
; I am renting out for a monthly fee, receive payments and owe the VAT to the tax authorities.
2026-04-01 rent april per contract
assets:receivable:customer 20 €
equity:customer2026-04-03 rent april payment
assets:bank:customer 20 €
assets:receivable:customer2026-04-08 rent april billing/tax
assets:bank:customer -20 €
liabilities:vat:customer 3,19 €
revenues:customer 18,81 € -
Hi @simonmic,
thanks for clarifying, so cleaned up, without header and simpler names.Just the + sign with liabilities:vat looks odd:
; I am renting out for a monthly fee, receive payments and owe the VAT to the tax authorities.
2026-04-01 rent april per contract
assets:receivable:customer 20 €
equity:customer2026-04-03 rent april payment
assets:bank:customer 20 €
assets:receivable:customer2026-04-08 rent april billing/tax
assets:bank:customer -20 €
liabilities:vat:customer 3,19 €
revenues:customer 18,81 € -
Five years ago, I received a 100$ regression bounty pretty much by accident for reporting a regression in #hledger [1] (what an amazing concept and stability commitment!). I decided to spread that back as issue bounties to feed into the community [2]. Those often sat there for years, humans take time.
That was before the slop era.
Now, AI bountyhunters want it, so I changed my terms to 100% human work [3].
[1] https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/issues/1638#issuecomment-892386220
[2] https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/issues?q=bounty%20author%3Anobodyinperson
[3] https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/issues?q=bounty%20human%20author%3Anobodyinperson -
Five years ago, I received a 100$ regression bounty pretty much by accident for reporting a regression in #hledger [1] (what an amazing concept and stability commitment!). I decided to spread that back as issue bounties to feed into the community [2]. Those often sat there for years, humans take time.
That was before the slop era.
Now, AI bountyhunters want it, so I changed my terms to 100% human work [3].
[1] https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/issues/1638#issuecomment-892386220
[2] https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/issues?q=bounty%20author%3Anobodyinperson
[3] https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/issues?q=bounty%20human%20author%3Anobodyinperson -
#fedihelp wanted for #hledger #plaintextaccounting: when I sell a product to a customer, does accountng like that make sense or would you do otherwise?
; https://hledger.org/5-minute-quick-start.html#:~:text=type
account assets:bank ; type:C
account assets:cash ; type:Caccount equity:conversion ; type:V
commodity 1.000,00 €
decimal-mark ,account tax:e25:eue:42 ; type:L ; VAT 19%
account tax:e25:eue:12 ; type:R ; buniness revenue net2026-05-10 rent may sale
liabilities:busi:prod_a:cust_23 23 €
equity:busi:prod_a:cust_232026-05-11 rent may payment
asset:bank:giro:busi:prod_a:cust_23 23 €
liabilities:busi:prod_a:cust_232026-05-12 rent may billing/tax
asset:bank:giro:busi:prod_a:cust_23 -23 €
tax:e25:eue:42:busi:prod_a:cust_23 3,67 €
tax:e25:eue:12:busi:prod_a:cust_23 -
#fedihelp wanted for #hledger #plaintextaccounting: when I sell a product to a customer, does accountng like that make sense or would you do otherwise?
; https://hledger.org/5-minute-quick-start.html#:~:text=type
account assets:bank ; type:C
account assets:cash ; type:Caccount equity:conversion ; type:V
commodity 1.000,00 €
decimal-mark ,account tax:e25:eue:42 ; type:L ; VAT 19%
account tax:e25:eue:12 ; type:R ; buniness revenue net2026-05-10 rent may sale
liabilities:busi:prod_a:cust_23 23 €
equity:busi:prod_a:cust_232026-05-11 rent may payment
asset:bank:giro:busi:prod_a:cust_23 23 €
liabilities:busi:prod_a:cust_232026-05-12 rent may billing/tax
asset:bank:giro:busi:prod_a:cust_23 -23 €
tax:e25:eue:42:busi:prod_a:cust_23 3,67 €
tax:e25:eue:12:busi:prod_a:cust_23 -
G'day all. I'm pleased to announce hledger 2.0 preview release 2, with many refinements to lot tracking, based on user testing.
(And also hledger 1.52.1, which adds hledger 2-compatible G and U account types to hledger 1.)
- https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/releases/tag/1.99.2
- https://hledger.org/relnotes.html#2026-04-28-hledger-1992
- https://hledger.org/installRelease contributors: Simon Michael, Joshua Chapman.
-
G'day all. I'm pleased to announce hledger 2.0 preview release 2, with many refinements to lot tracking, based on user testing.
(And also hledger 1.52.1, which adds hledger 2-compatible G and U account types to hledger 1.)
- https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/releases/tag/1.99.2
- https://hledger.org/relnotes.html#2026-04-28-hledger-1992
- https://hledger.org/installRelease contributors: Simon Michael, Joshua Chapman.
-
G'day all. A poll:
Should hledger 2 always infer market prices from @/@@ transacted prices, like Ledger ? (and drop the --infer-market-prices flag)
- Yes, having this always on would be harmless and more useful
- No, having it always on, or changing it, would be harmful
- Other, see my replyOr vote in the matrix poll: https://matrix.to/#/!6BCfAOV-btRKuqChph9Z_ppkIj8KttMoIL_rB4eU0Os/$JveSoLuLOWS_Mg10JDUJKnu33RAclZML03JQ4Lp46qY?via=asgard.chat&via=matrix.org&via=tchncs.de
-
G'day all. A poll:
Should hledger 2 always infer market prices from @/@@ transacted prices, like Ledger ? (and drop the --infer-market-prices flag)
- Yes, having this always on would be harmless and more useful
- No, having it always on, or changing it, would be harmful
- Other, see my replyOr vote in the matrix poll: https://matrix.to/#/!6BCfAOV-btRKuqChph9Z_ppkIj8KttMoIL_rB4eU0Os/$JveSoLuLOWS_Mg10JDUJKnu33RAclZML03JQ4Lp46qY?via=asgard.chat&via=matrix.org&via=tchncs.de
-
Glad it has helped you! A few things that might help:
- other rust projects linked at plaintextaccounting.org
- https://hledger.org/SPEC-journal.html
- https://hledger.org/hledger.html#amounts (manual is a kind of spec)
- amountp and friends in Hledger.Read.Common -
Glad it has helped you! A few things that might help:
- other rust projects linked at plaintextaccounting.org
- https://hledger.org/SPEC-journal.html
- https://hledger.org/hledger.html#amounts (manual is a kind of spec)
- amountp and friends in Hledger.Read.Common -
https://youtu.be/hshDr2Af2RU
Getting off another locked in platform
#hledger #plaintextaccounting -
@happyborg Sure, here's a few examples of people leveraging #hledger in their AI use:
https://forum.plaintextaccounting.org/tag/ai/12
https://x.com/CookResearcher/status/2032247670903828596
https://x.com/sudo_goreng/status/2036789525616414970
https://x.com/motdotla/status/2029247616828276838
-
@happyborg Sure, here's a few examples of people leveraging #hledger in their AI use:
https://forum.plaintextaccounting.org/tag/ai/12
https://x.com/CookResearcher/status/2032247670903828596
https://x.com/sudo_goreng/status/2036789525616414970
https://x.com/motdotla/status/2029247616828276838
-
I'm pleased to announce a #hledger double release! First, hledger 1.52, with
more robust paging,
faster valuation,
commodity tags,
and cost basis annotations which are preserved and can be exported (examples provided).- https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/releases/1.52
- https://hledger.org/relnotes.html#2026-03-20-hledger-152
- https://hledger.org/install -
I'm pleased to announce a #hledger double release! First, hledger 1.52, with
more robust paging,
faster valuation,
commodity tags,
and cost basis annotations which are preserved and can be exported (examples provided).- https://github.com/simonmichael/hledger/releases/1.52
- https://hledger.org/relnotes.html#2026-03-20-hledger-152
- https://hledger.org/install -
@Bebef ahso - ich verwende client-seitig kein Excel oder ähnliches.
Hab eine selbstgebaute Pipeline, welche mit Hilfe von "mlr" die exportierten CSVs normalisiert und dann basierend auf teils generierten, teils manuell definierten Regeln mit "hledger import..." meine Journals generiert.Ich sehe also die CSVs im plain-text.
-
@Bebef ahso - ich verwende client-seitig kein Excel oder ähnliches.
Hab eine selbstgebaute Pipeline, welche mit Hilfe von "mlr" die exportierten CSVs normalisiert und dann basierend auf teils generierten, teils manuell definierten Regeln mit "hledger import..." meine Journals generiert.Ich sehe also die CSVs im plain-text.
-
Support question for the #hledger #plaintextaccounting community:
Prefacing this by acknowledging that I know I'm probably trying to do something weird, but I’m just getting started so please be patient.
I’m trying to import a large CSV file and am running into unbalance transaction errors. For example:
> hledger: Error: /Users/cris/checking.csv:1751-1750:
> 1751 | 2025-03-21 Starting Balance
> | SBA $-100
>
> This transaction is unbalanced.
> The real postings' sum should be 0 but is: $-100The line from the CSV file is:
> SBA,,03/21/2025,Starting Balance,,,,,$100,$0.00,ClearedAnd the relevant rule from my import rules:
> fields account1, , date, description, , , account2, comment, amount-out, amount-in,I can manually add the above transaction without issues, so I guess I need some clarity as to what I'm doing wrong with my import file.
Thanks!
-
Support question for the #hledger #plaintextaccounting community:
Prefacing this by acknowledging that I know I'm probably trying to do something weird, but I’m just getting started so please be patient.
I’m trying to import a large CSV file and am running into unbalance transaction errors. For example:
> hledger: Error: /Users/cris/checking.csv:1751-1750:
> 1751 | 2025-03-21 Starting Balance
> | SBA $-100
>
> This transaction is unbalanced.
> The real postings' sum should be 0 but is: $-100The line from the CSV file is:
> SBA,,03/21/2025,Starting Balance,,,,,$100,$0.00,ClearedAnd the relevant rule from my import rules:
> fields account1, , date, description, , , account2, comment, amount-out, amount-in,I can manually add the above transaction without issues, so I guess I need some clarity as to what I'm doing wrong with my import file.
Thanks!
-
Me! 👋
Don't Skip The Docs.
For emacs tips, start at https://hledger.org/editors.html#emacs.Don't assume you need hledger-mode (ledger-mode also works well, I use it).
With flycheck-hledger (or a VCS precommit hook), don't feel you need maximal error checking - do what's most useful now, you can always do stricter checks manually.
Don't try for perfect accounts/files/workflow up front - expect evolution.
Don't limit yourself with an ancient hledger version - get the latest.
-
Me! 👋
Don't Skip The Docs.
For emacs tips, start at https://hledger.org/editors.html#emacs.Don't assume you need hledger-mode (ledger-mode also works well, I use it).
With flycheck-hledger (or a VCS precommit hook), don't feel you need maximal error checking - do what's most useful now, you can always do stricter checks manually.
Don't try for perfect accounts/files/workflow up front - expect evolution.
Don't limit yourself with an ancient hledger version - get the latest.
-
GitHub - juev/hledger-lsp: Language Server Protocol (LSP) implementation for hledger journal files https://github.com/juev/hledger-lsp
Thanks to your requests, a number of problems in the #hledger lsp server have been solved. The new version is much better. Thank you!
-
GitHub - juev/hledger-lsp: Language Server Protocol (LSP) implementation for hledger journal files https://github.com/juev/hledger-lsp
Thanks to your requests, a number of problems in the #hledger lsp server have been solved. The new version is much better. Thank you!
-
@platymew @msdropbear42 Oh I'd love to make videos about #hledger and #plaintextAccounting, has been on my TODO list for a long time, but I just have to prioritise other stuff. But I'll get there eventually 👍
-
@platymew @msdropbear42 Oh I'd love to make videos about #hledger and #plaintextAccounting, has been on my TODO list for a long time, but I just have to prioritise other stuff. But I'll get there eventually 👍
-
If you are a user of my HLedger Formatter VSCode extension, you might like my just-released `hledger-fmt` CLI tool! It allows you to do the same format/sort as you can with the VSCode extension, but in your CLI. I am using this a lot in my codex skills to keep the journals consistently formatted.
https://www.npmjs.com/package/@iiatlas/hledger-fmt
https://github.com/iiAtlas/hledger-formatter/blob/main/packages/cli/README.md
-
After bouncing around ideas and several experiments, I've decided to launch a new project with the goal of creating CLI tooling that facilitates receipt handling for #plaintextaccounting workflows. LLM based OCR and data extraction has improved to the point that I believe it will be possible to make bulk data extraction useful. If you have ideas, want to contribute, or just want to follow along jump in:
-
After bouncing around ideas and several experiments, I've decided to launch a new project with the goal of creating CLI tooling that facilitates receipt handling for #plaintextaccounting workflows. LLM based OCR and data extraction has improved to the point that I believe it will be possible to make bulk data extraction useful. If you have ideas, want to contribute, or just want to follow along jump in:
-
@nobodyinperson I'm asking you first because involving #gitannex would be high on my priority list. Really this wouldn't need to be #hledger specific as it could just as well be paired with #ledgercli or #beancount either directly or via CSV or whatever. I'm not a huge GitLab fan these days but can do it if you prefer. Codeberg seems more aligned or GitHub having the advantage of contributor pool. Thoughts?
-
@nobodyinperson I'm asking you first because involving #gitannex would be high on my priority list. Really this wouldn't need to be #hledger specific as it could just as well be paired with #ledgercli or #beancount either directly or via CSV or whatever. I'm not a huge GitLab fan these days but can do it if you prefer. Codeberg seems more aligned or GitHub having the advantage of contributor pool. Thoughts?
-
A quick video primer on the #hledger tool:
-
I apologize for not warning, but I released an update of the #hledger extension for vscode. Now I use my hledger-lsp server to work.
Release 0.5.0 · juev/hledger-vscode https://github.com/juev/hledger-vscode/releases/tag/v0.5.0
-
I apologize for not warning, but I released an update of the #hledger extension for vscode. Now I use my hledger-lsp server to work.
Release 0.5.0 · juev/hledger-vscode https://github.com/juev/hledger-vscode/releases/tag/v0.5.0
-
After a long session yesterday evening I finally managed to print custom QR code labels for #paperless onto sticker label A4 sheets. The QR code contains 'TAG:👛 Yann' and paperless can be configured to auto-detect that in scanned documents (such as receipts) and auto-attach a tag '👛 Yann' to know from whose purse that receipt was, which is very handy for #accounting (with #hledger) later, especially for cash purchases that you otherwise don't have any other trace of.
-
After a long session yesterday evening I finally managed to print custom QR code labels for #paperless onto sticker label A4 sheets. The QR code contains 'TAG:👛 Yann' and paperless can be configured to auto-detect that in scanned documents (such as receipts) and auto-attach a tag '👛 Yann' to know from whose purse that receipt was, which is very handy for #accounting (with #hledger) later, especially for cash purchases that you otherwise don't have any other trace of.
-
GitHub - juev/hledger-lsp: Language Server Protocol (LSP) implementation for #hledger journal files https://github.com/juev/hledger-lsp
-
GitHub - juev/hledger-lsp: Language Server Protocol (LSP) implementation for #hledger journal files https://github.com/juev/hledger-lsp
-
@driedmushroom @tea I have my own bespoke bash script, but it's basically a log of bought and drank. It's all stored in sqlite so i can do these queries.
My finances i track with #hledger. One could probably also track their tea using #plaintextaccounting.
