Gitpod and hledger

TL;DR

Add the following to .gitpod.yml

  
  tasks:
    - before: brew install hledger
      command: |
        hledger-web \
          --file 2022.journal \
          --server \
          --base-url=$(gp url 5000)        
  ports:
    - port: 5000
      onOpen: open-preview
  

Background

During the last few years I have been using hledger to categorise and analyse my spending habits for the year. Usually this has been an intense project done at the end of the year consuming a few evenings. This year I intend to try and spread the load, updating as I go.

The Goal

In order to make this as friction free as possible I want to update my hledger data from my chromebook when planted in front of the TV in the evenings. Therefore I decided to spend a little time to make it nice and easy to interact with hledger in the browser on my Chromebook.

Status

Now when I open my hledger repository in Gitpod, thanks to the configuration above, I’m presented with the hledger-web ui in the preview panel of Gitpod ready for me to start entering data.