Introducing TimeClout: A New, Open-Source Tool to End Shift Scheduling Headaches
Hey folks,
Pedro here. As most of you know, I spend my days as a software engineer, building tools and solving problems. Usually, I’m working on code for other people, but today, I’m incredibly excited to announce a personal project that I’m finally ready to share with the world: TimeClout.com.
And yes, we’re officially opening up the private beta today!
The Accidental Origin Story
TimeClout didn’t start as a business idea. It didn’t start with market research or a pitch deck.
It started with a few friends.
They work in a medical unit, and I was listening to them talk about the nightmare of managing their team’s shifts. They were drowning in a sea of spreadsheets, group chat messages, and handwritten notes. It was tedious, error-prone, and a massive time-sink for them every single week.
Being the engineer I am, I said those famous last words: “I can probably write a script for that.”
From Scripts to an AI-Powered Scheduler
Well, those “few scripts” quickly got more complex. I realized that tracking shifts wasn’t the hard part. The real headache was creating the schedule in the first place.
How do you manually balance everyone’s time-off requests, ensure fairness, make sure no one is working back-to-back, and follow all the specific rules of the unit?
You’re basically solving a massive optimization problem by hand.
That’s when this project became really interesting. I built a smart “autofill” feature to be the core of TimeClout. This isn’t just about filling boxes; it’s an AI-powered solver.
You define your rules—things like worker preferences, required time between shifts, and fairness in shift distribution. Then, you just hit a button, and the optimization algorithm searches for the best possible schedule for you. It’s designed to turn a multi-hour puzzle into a one-click job.
See the AI in Action: A Quick Demo
I can talk about it all day, but it’s probably easier to just show you. Here’s a quick demo I recorded that walks through the main features, especially that AI “autofill” solver that finds the best schedule for your team.
What’s This “Open-Source” Thing All About?
Here’s the part I’m most passionate about, especially for my fellow devs and a lot of business owners.
I’ve decided to make the entire TimeClout project open-source.
You can see every line of code, fork it, and poke around in the repository right here: https://github.com/djinilabs/timeclout
This wasn’t a casual decision. I did it for two very specific reasons:
- For Peace of Mind: We’ve all seen it. You find a cool, new SaaS tool, build your entire workflow around it, and then… it disappears. The company gets acquired, pivots, or just shuts down, leaving you high and dry. I don’t want that for TimeClout users. If, for whatever reason, the TimeClout.com service disappears, the tool itself won’t. You can always grab the code and the community can keep it alive.
- For Flexibility (and Control): Maybe you don’t want another cloud subscription. Maybe you have strict data privacy requirements and need to keep everything on your own servers. Go for it. You can host TimeClout yourself, lock it down, and modify it however you see fit.
My goal is to offer the best of both worlds: a ready-to-use, “it just works” SaaS for those who want convenience, and a powerful, free, open-source tool for those who want control.
Who is this for?
This is for my friends in the medical unit, for starters.
But it’s also for any business owner, team lead, or manager who is tired of fighting with spreadsheets. If you run a retail shop, a restaurant, a call center, a dev-ops team with on-call rotations, or any kind of team that works in shifts… I built this for you.
I’d Love Your Help: Join the Private Beta
Today, I’m opening the doors to the TimeClout.com private beta.
I’m looking for people to kick the tires, test the AI scheduler, and let me know what they think. I want to hear what you love, what you hate, and what’s missing.
If you’re ready to ditch the spreadsheet-sized headache, head over and sign up.
Sign up for the TimeClout private beta here!
I’m so excited to finally get this out into the world. I built this to solve a real problem for people I care about, and I truly hope it can help you, too.
Cheers,
– Pedro