Building a daily journal command that sticks (using Claude Code)
My first project with Claude Code
Why though?
Through 2025 I tried to build out a journalling habit, even setting the bar low at one or two sentences a day. It wouldn’t stick for three reasons: 1) I’d stare at a blank page and not know what to write, 2) my handwriting sucks and 3) I can’t get insights or easily review lots of past entries (some apps try but I’ve found most interfaces annoying - semantic searching only goes so far and I want something I can interact with more freely).
I’ve used the 2025 Christmas holiday period to dive into Claude Code and the best way to learn is by building. My first mini-project was a daily journal command that runs within Claude Code where the user enters into a conversation with Claude to fill out a journal entry. There are two modes: a quick mode for a <2 minute entry and a full mode for a <10 minute more built out entry.
How I built this
I was inspired by a tutorial video on YouTube between Peter Yang and Alex Finn I started off with the prompt Alex shared, took it to Claude Code myself and made adjustments including; 1) added quick/full mode and used Claude Code’s AskUserQuestion tool to make it more interactive with the user, 2) accountability loops to check on what the user committed to previously, 3) tags and time tracking for trends, 4) flexible workflows for different days of the week with rotating questions, etc. 5) both Desktop and Mobile inputs allowed with automatic git syncing.
I also did this with a Claude Code Pro subscription (not Max) and took me <30 minutes to build end-to-end.
Example questions from command
How are you feeling today? (mood - rating scale)
What are three things you accomplished today?
What’s your number 1 priority tomorrow?
What are you grateful for today?
How to get set up
Ensure you have Claude Code setup
Your choice of CLI or IDE (I use Visual Studio Code) ready to use
An active Github account to pull the repository
Follow along with the “Initial setup - walkthrough video”
Initial setup - walkthrough video
You can find the commands to run in terminal at the github site (https://github.com/ajlowe1/daily-journal/tree/main) but I’ll copy the setup ones below. Make sure to create a local folder for the repository.
git clone https://github.com/ajlowe/daily-journal.git
cd daily-journal
bash setup.sh
claude
/daily-checkinNotes:
At the start of the /daily-checkin you’ll be asked if you want to choose Desktop or Mobile. Once you have cloned the Git repo to your own profile you can also run this command from within the Claude Mobile App interface (Claude Code within Claude).
This daily journalling system is generalized. For bonus points use Claude Code to refine the /daily-checkin command and process for your own needs.
Multi-day analysis on journal entries - walkthrough video
The real benefits of this command come from the multi-day trend tracking and analysis, see in the video below how this starts to take shape after a second entry. I’ve been using this now for two weeks personally and its really interesting to see how certain activities (e.g. gym) influence the mood and energy for the day.
What’s next?
Another core benefit of this command is that after multiple entries, you will have an easily accessible bank of journal entries and reflections. You can use Claude Code to dive further and ask questions like “in periods where I saw mood spikes, what are likely contributions?”, or “I remember doing XYZ, can you help me find the date for when that happened?”.
Given I’ve only been using the current command for 2 weeks, I’ll likely want to create weekly, monthly, quarterly reflections too and so will look to adjust the command (or build a separate one to do so for me).
More exploratory thinking —
Whilst it’s very difficult to replace the release of thoughts by putting pen to paper, I think a close rival could come in the form of voice-based conversations. If for example you paired a voice-text entry tool (like WisprFlow) with a visual agent interface (like Synthesia) then you could be taking off even more of the heavy-lifting and have something more human to interact with.
I am interested to hear your thoughts on what has helped with your own journalling process, or what you are currently building with Claude Code - feel free to share below!
Thanks for reading,
Alex