Water Tracker

Tracks daily water intake from casual mentions and sets hydration targets from weight, exercise, heat, and health context. Use when the user logs a drink ("had a glass", "finished my bottle"), asks how much water they should drink or whether they drink enough, reports thirst, dark urine, dry mouth, cramps, or a headache that could be dehydration, plans fluid or electrolyte replacement for workouts, races, sauna, hiking, flights, or hot weather, or needs rehydration guidance during fever, vomiting, diarrhea, or a hangover, or asks whether tap, bottled, filtered, mineral, or sparkling water is safe or better. Not for meal or calorie logging.

Hydration tracking and advice from conversational mentions. All persistent data lives in ~/Clawic/data/water/ — log.md (daily entries), memory.md (learned containers, baseline, patterns), config.yaml (declared preferences); this skill reads and writes only that folder. Health context stays local: nothing is uploaded, shared, or sent anywhere, and no credentials or identifiers are stored. If you have data at an old location (~/water/ or ~/clawic/water/), move it to ~/Clawic/data/water/. First use: read setup.md; file formats in memory-template.md.

When To Use

• User mentions drinking anything ("had water with lunch", "finished my bottle") and wants intake tracked
• User asks how much water they should drink, or whether they drink enough
• User reports thirst, dark urine, headache, cramps, or fatigue and hydration is a plausible factor
• User plans or logs exercise, sauna, a flight, altitude, or hot weather — or is sick (fever, vomiting, diarrhea, hangover) — and asks what or how much to drink
• Mode: act-as tracker (log without commentary) plus advise (targets and adjustments) when asked
• Not for meal or calorie logging (route to calories) and not for diagnosing illness (see Red Flags)

Quick Reference

Situation	Play
Drink mentioned, no size given	Log the default size for that container (Logging Defaults), flag as estimated; parsing edge cases → logging.md
First mention of a personal container ("my bottle")	Ask its size once, store in memory.md, never ask again
"How much should I drink?"	30-35 ml x body weight in kg per day (Rule 1); weight unknown → 1600 ml (women) / 2000 ml (men)
Exercise or sports session mentioned	Add 500-1000 ml per sweaty hour to today's target; regular trainers → sweat-rate test in exercise.md
Session over 90 min, or heavy sweating	Sodium matters as much as volume → electrolytes.md
Hot day (above 30 C), sauna, sun labor	Raise today's target 250-500 ml without announcing it; heat, cold, acclimatization → environment.md
Flight or altitude above 2500 m	Dry-air losses the user won't feel → environment.md
Headache or fatigue mentioned	Check today's log first; only if intake is below half of target by mid-afternoon, suggest water once
Fever, vomiting, or diarrhea	Oral rehydration solution, not plain water → illness.md; run Red Flags first
Hangover mentioned	Real but modest deficit; rebound protocol → illness.md
Pregnancy, kidney stones, heart or kidney disease, diuretics	Target changes or formulas suspend → conditions.md
Active fasting window	Water, black coffee, and plain tea do not break a fast; fasts over 24 h need electrolytes (→ fasting skill)
Tap vs bottled, filter choice, travel water safety	Taste and context, not fear; certifications, boil rules, lead → quality.md
User asks for trends or opted into summaries	Weekly summary format → habits.md
Any other hydration mention (default)	Log without comment with timestamp and estimated ml; no comment, no reminder, no target talk

Depth on demand: logging.md mention→ml parsing, calibration, day boundaries · exercise.md sweat rate, endurance, hyponatremia · environment.md heat, cold, altitude, flights · illness.md fever, GI losses, hangover, kids and elderly · electrolytes.md sodium, ORS, sports drinks · conditions.md stones, pregnancy, fluid restriction, medications · habits.md pattern detection, summaries, habit design · quality.md tap, bottled, filters, travel safety · setup.md first run · memory-template.md file formats.

Core Rules

1. Daily fluid target = 30-35 ml x body weight in kg. Worked example: 70 kg → 2100-2450 ml. Weight unknown → default 1600 ml (women) / 2000 ml (men), the ~80% drinking-fluid share of EFSA adequate total-water intake (2.0 L women / 2.5 L men, food water included). Never quote 3.7 L or 2.7 L as a drinking target: those NAM figures are total water including the 20-30% that comes from food.
2. Count all non-alcoholic drinks at 100%: coffee, tea, milk, soup, sparkling water. Up to 400 mg caffeine per day produces no net fluid loss in habitual drinkers (Armstrong). Alcohol counts as 0 ml.
3. Estimate first, ask later. Use the Logging Defaults table, flag the entry as estimated, and only ask when the ambiguity changes the day total by more than 20% ("bottle" could be 500 or 1000 ml → ask; "a glass" → just log 250).
4. Judge status by urine, not by totals hit. Pale straw = on target regardless of ml logged; dark (5 or above on the 8-level Armstrong chart) at midday = deficit, drink 500 ml now; completely colorless at every void = overshooting, ease off. First morning urine is always dark and proves nothing.
5. Thirst is a lagging signal: it appears at roughly 1-2% body mass already lost, and measurable performance drop starts near 2% (ACSM). For planned long efforts, schedule intake instead of waiting for thirst. Adults over 65 have blunted thirst: schedule for them by default.
6. Cap intake rate at about 1 L per hour sustained; the gut absorbs little more, and plain water beyond sweat losses dilutes sodium. Body weight GAIN during exercise = overdrinking, stop fluids (exercise hyponatremia hit 13% of Boston Marathon finishers in the Almond study).
7. History of kidney stones changes the target: drink enough to produce at least 2.5 L urine per day (AUA), which means roughly 3 L intake. This overrides Rule 1 upward.

Logging Defaults

Default sizes when the user does not specify (store personal overrides in memory.md after one calibration; parsing rules in logging.md):

Container	Default
Glass, cup of water	250 ml
Large glass, tumbler	400 ml
Mug (tea, coffee)	300 ml
Can	330 ml
Small bottle	500 ml
Sports bottle	750 ml
Large bottle	1000 ml
Bowl of soup, glass of milk or juice	250 ml
"Some water", "a sip"	100 ml
Restaurant glass with refills	250 ml per mention; count refills only if stated

Reporting default: silent logging, summary only when asked or per the reporting variable. Never send missed-glass reminders; nagging is the main reason users abandon hydration tracking (habits.md for what works instead).

Target Adjustments

Stack on top of the Rule 1 baseline; conditions.md restrictions override everything.

Context	Adjustment	Depth
Exercise	+500-1000 ml per sweaty hour, during and after	exercise.md
Heat above 30 C or direct sun	+250-500 ml per day of exposure	environment.md
Hard labor in heat	Sweat runs 1-2 L per hour — treat as exercise, not weather	exercise.md
Flight	+250 ml per hour in the air (estimate; 10-20% cabin humidity)	environment.md
Altitude above 2500 m	Losses rise; drink for losses, urine color governs	environment.md
Pregnancy	+300 ml per day (EFSA)	conditions.md
Breastfeeding	+700 ml per day (EFSA)	conditions.md
Fever, vomiting, diarrhea	Volume alone is wrong — losses include electrolytes	illness.md
Kidney stone history	At least 2.5 L urine per day (AUA), roughly 3 L intake (Rule 7)	conditions.md

Red Flags

Signal (observable)	Suspicion	Action
No urination for 8+ h despite drinking, dizziness on standing, very dry mouth	Severe dehydration	Same-day clinician; emergency care if confusion or fainting
Headache, nausea, bloating, or confusion during or after a long endurance event with heavy drinking	Exercise-associated hyponatremia	Emergency care; do NOT give more water
Confusion or collapse in heat, skin hot with sweating stopped	Heat stroke	Emergency care; active cooling; sips only if fully alert
Extreme thirst plus urinating far more than usual, persisting over a week	Diabetes (mellitus or insipidus)	Clinician within days, mention both symptoms
Dark urine with yellowed skin or eyes, or flank pain	Liver or kidney problem, not simple dehydration	Clinician; urgent if pain is severe
Vomiting or diarrhea beyond 24 h in a child or elderly person, or fluids not staying down	Dehydration risk in a vulnerable person	Same-day care; oral rehydration solution meanwhile
User has heart failure, kidney disease, cirrhosis, or takes lithium or diuretics, and asks to raise intake	Fluid restriction may apply; formulas here are unsafe	Clinician sets the target; suspend Rules 1-7

Anything in this table suspends the protocols above: route to a clinician.

Output Gates

Before replying to any hydration-related message, verify:

• Drink mention → entry appended to log.md before anything else; reply is a one-line acknowledgment at most, no unsolicited advice?
• Any target quoted → computed from stored weight or the sex defaults (Rule 1), never a flat 2 L or "8 glasses"?
• About to suggest drinking more → today's log checked AND no Red Flags row matches?
• About to ask a question → answer not already in memory.md, and it is either the one-time container calibration or a decision the defaults cannot resolve?
• Any number given → traceable to a rule or table in this skill, not improvised?

Configuration

User-dependent variables. Defaults apply until the user states a preference; store them in ~/Clawic/data/water/config.yaml.

Variable	Type	Default	Effect
units	metric | imperial	metric	Displays logs and targets in ml or fl oz (conversion in logging.md); storage stays in ml
weight_kg	number (30-200 kg)	none	Enables the Rule 1 target; absent → 1600 ml (women) / 2000 ml (men) defaults
daily_target_ml	number (ml)	computed from Rule 1	User- or clinician-set override; Target Adjustments still stack unless conditions.md suspends them
reporting	silent | daily | weekly	silent	When intake summaries are volunteered (format in habits.md)
climate	temperate | hot	temperate	hot applies the +250-500 ml heat adjustment as standing baseline instead of per-day judgment

Preference areas — customizable dimensions; a stated preference gets recorded in config.yaml and applied:

• Beverages — drinks the user wants excluded or counted differently ("don't count soda") — modifies Rule 2 at log time
• Containers — personal container sizes; learned once via calibration, stored in memory.md, never re-asked
• Schedule — fasting windows, pre-bed cutoff, front-loading — shapes when suggestions land (habits.md)
• Activity — training days and sport — pre-applies the exercise adjustment on those days (exercise.md)
• Medical context — declared conditions or clinician-set numbers — override Rule 1 per conditions.md; never inferred from symptoms
• Tone — summary verbosity, encouragement vs bare numbers — affects habits.md summaries only

Traps

Trap	Why it fails	Do instead
Pushing "8 glasses" or a flat 2 L on everyone	The famous figures are total-water averages that include food water; a 55 kg and a 95 kg user differ by over a liter	Weight formula (Rule 1) plus Target Adjustments
Counting only plain water	Coffee, tea, milk, and soup hydrate at effectively 100%; excluding them undercounts by 30-50% for many users	Log all non-alcoholic fluids (Rule 2)
Asking container size on every log	Each question adds friction; users stop reporting within days	Calibrate once, store in memory, reuse forever
Double-logging a re-mentioned drink	"Finished my bottle" after earlier sips from the same fill inflates the day	Check log.md for an open partial first; log the remainder (logging.md)
Answering every headache with "drink more water"	Post-race headache with heavy drinking can be hyponatremia; more water is the wrong direction	Check the day's log and context first (Quick Reference row)
Reading dark first-morning urine as dehydration	Overnight concentration is normal physiology	Judge from a midday sample (Rule 4)
Reading sauna or hot-yoga scale loss as fat loss	The loss is water; it returns with rehydration	Say so, then apply the replacement rule (exercise.md)
Letting the user chug the day's deficit at night	Exceeds the 1 L per hour absorption cap (Rule 6) and wrecks sleep with nocturia	Close the day as-is; front-load tomorrow (habits.md)
Sending reminder pings for missed intake	Nagging converts a passive habit into a chore; abandonment follows	Silent logging; surface trends per reporting or on request
Applying the standard formula to users with heart or kidney conditions	These conditions can require fluid restriction; the formula can cause harm	Red Flags last row: clinician sets the number (conditions.md)

Where Experts Disagree

• Drink to thirst vs programmed drinking. The exercise-hyponatremia consensus (Hew-Butler) pushes drink-to-thirst for endurance events because overdrinking kills and underdrinking rarely does; ACSM programs intake for hard efforts in heat where thirst lags real losses. Boundary: fast, hot, or over-4-h efforts and adults over 65 → schedule it; recreational sessions → thirst plus the sweat-rate test (exercise.md).
• Water as a weight-loss or skin tool. Pre-meal water (about 500 ml) showed a modest weight-loss effect in one dieting RCT (Dennis); skin-appearance claims lack evidence. Offer the pre-meal trick when asked; never promise skin or metabolism effects.
• Is plain water the best rehydrator? For everyday life, yes. After heavy one-shot losses, drinks with sodium and nutrients are retained measurably longer (Maughan's beverage hydration index — details in electrolytes.md); the boundary is losses, not preference.

Related Skills

More Clawic skills, get them at https://clawic.com/skills/water (install if the user confirms):

• fasting — eating-window rules and electrolyte protocol for fasts over 24 h
• calories — meal and drink logging when the user tracks food, not just fluids
• running — race-day fueling and pacing where fluid plans meet training plans
• gym — workout logging that feeds the exercise adjustment automatically

Feedback

• If useful, star it: https://clawic.com/skills/water
• Latest version: https://clawic.com/skills/water

Part of Clawic, the verified skill library. Get this skill: https://clawic.com/skills/water.