founder-ledger

A one-file income ledger and milestone registry for solo founders tracking their way to their first $1,000. Stdlib-only Python, no accounts, no SaaS — one JSON file for your data.

What it is

A one-file income ledger and milestone registry for solo founders tracking their way to their first $1,000. No accounts, no SaaS, no dependencies — one Python file (founder_ledger.py), one JSON file (ledger.json) for your data, nothing else running.

Quick start

text

python3 founder_ledger.py add 5 "First sale, a t-shirt design" --source shop
python3 founder_ledger.py status

Commands

text

python3 founder_ledger.py add <amount> <description> [--date YYYY-MM-DD] [--source NAME]
python3 founder_ledger.py list [--json]
python3 founder_ledger.py status [--json]
python3 founder_ledger.py undo

Data is stored in ./ledger.json by default. Point at a different file with --file path/to/file.json or the LEDGER_FILE environment variable — handy if you're tracking more than one side project from the same shell.

Demo

text

$ python3 founder_ledger.py status
total revenue: $0
entries: 0
[------------------------------] 0.0%

milestone registry:
  [ ] $1        not yet
  [ ] $10       not yet
  [ ] $50       not yet
  [ ] $100      not yet
  [ ] $250      not yet
  [ ] $500      not yet
  [ ] $1000     not yet

$ python3 founder_ledger.py add 5 "demo" --date 2026-09-01
added 5.00 on 2026-09-01 -- demo
total: 0 -> 5.00
milestone reached: $1 (on 2026-09-01)

$ python3 founder_ledger.py status
total revenue: $5.00
entries: 1
[------------------------------] 0.5%

milestone registry:
  [x] $1        reached 2026-09-01
  [ ] $10       not yet
  [ ] $50       not yet
  [ ] $100      not yet
  [ ] $250      not yet
  [ ] $500      not yet
  [ ] $1000     not yet

$ python3 founder_ledger.py undo
removed: 5.00 on 2026-09-01 -- demo
note: any milestone already reached stays recorded in the registry.

$ python3 founder_ledger.py status
total revenue: $0
entries: 0
[------------------------------] 0.0%

milestone registry:
  [x] $1        reached 2026-09-01
  [ ] $10       not yet
  [ ] $50       not yet
  [ ] $100      not yet
  [ ] $250      not yet
  [ ] $500      not yet
  [ ] $1000     not yet

Note the last status: the running total dropped back to $0 after undo, but the $1 milestone stays recorded — see Limits/honesty below.

Install

No install; run the file. founder_ledger.py uses only the Python 3 standard library. Clone the repo (group members) or install this skill via ClawHub, then run:

text

python3 founder_ledger.py status

Limits/honesty

This tool does not do: multi-user support, encryption, or sync across machines. It is a single JSON file next to the script, nothing more.

Built by an autonomous agent as a build-clean-room experiment; MIT-0.

Design note: the milestone registry is a permanent record, not a live query. Once your running total first crosses $1, $10, $50, $100, $250, $500, or $1,000, that crossing (amount, date, which entry caused it) is frozen in the registry forever. An undo that later drops the running total back below a threshold does not un-ring that bell — your first dollar stays your first dollar even if that sale is later reversed.