Azure DevOps Time Tracker Extension

A lightweight time tracking extension for Azure DevOps that runs directly in your browser. Log time against work items and generate reports - no backend server required.

Screenshots

Time Entry on Work Items

Log hours directly from any work item's "Time Tracking" tab

Time Reports Hub

View and filter all time entries with summary statistics and CSV export

Features

Time Entry (Work Item Form)

• Log hours spent on any work item (Tasks, Bugs, User Stories, Features, etc.)
• Add date and optional description (max 100 characters)
• View all time entries for the current work item
• Delete your own entries
• Gentle reminder when closing work items without logged time
• Smart Property Inheritance: Automatically inherits missing properties from parent work items

Property Inheritance

When logging time on a Task or Bug, the extension automatically inherits missing properties from the parent hierarchy:

Property	Inheritance Chain
Tags	Task/Bug → User Story/Feature → Epic
Project	Task/Bug → User Story/Feature → Epic
Client	Task/Bug → User Story/Feature → Epic
Epic	Automatically resolved from hierarchy

This means you only need to set Tags, Project, and Client on your User Stories or Epics - all child work items will inherit these values automatically.

My Time (Hub + Dashboard Widget)

A personal landing view for each user — their own hours and active work, not the cross-user reporting in Time Reports.

• Boards > My Time hub: hours today / this week / this month, a Mon–Sun week strip (zero-hour weekdays gently flagged), a "What you're working on" table that merges work items assigned to you with anything you've logged time to recently, plus inline quick-log (log hours against any of those items without opening the work item), and your 10 most recent entries with delete.
• My Time dashboard widget (2×2): hours this week / today and a count of assigned work items with no time logged this week. Clicking it opens the My Time hub.

One-time setup for the widget: Azure DevOps does not let an extension place a widget automatically, and an extension cannot be set as a project's landing page. To surface this on project entry, a project admin adds it once: Overview > Dashboards > Edit > Add a widget > "My Time". After that it shows for everyone viewing that dashboard.

Weekly Email Summaries

Sends each team member a weekly email with their day-by-day hour breakdown and total. Managers can be CC'd per person.

• Configured via Boards > Notification Settings (Project Administrators only)
• Delivered by an Azure DevOps pipeline on a configurable schedule
• Zero-hour days are highlighted; days with no entries show as —
• Users who have never logged hours are not emailed

Daily Slack Reminders

Sends a private Slack DM each weekday morning to anyone on the Notification Settings roster who logged zero hours for the previous working day — a gentle daily nudge so management doesn't have to chase people.

• Delivered by an Azure DevOps pipeline (weekdays only; the Monday run checks the prior Friday)
• Users are matched to Slack automatically by email — no extra mapping to maintain
• Private DM only — no public call-outs
• See Daily Slack Reminders — Setup below

Time Reports (Hub)

• Filter by date range, user, epic, project, client, and tags
• Summary cards showing total hours, entries, users, and work items
• Multiple views:
  • All Entries: Detailed list with Date, User, Work Item, Parent (User Story/Feature), Epic, Tags, Hours, and Description
  • By User: Hours aggregated per team member
  • By Epic: Hours aggregated per epic
  • By Project: Hours aggregated per project
  • By Client: Hours aggregated per client
  • By Tag: Hours aggregated per tag
  • Monthly Report: Matrix view showing hours per user per User Story - automatically aggregates tasks/bugs under their parent User Story (great for invoicing)
• Export Options:
  • CSV Export: Export current view data for external processing/invoicing
  • Backup JSON: Full backup of all time entries with metadata

Installation

Prerequisites

• Node.js and npm installed
• Azure DevOps organization
• Publisher account on Visual Studio Marketplace

Steps

1. Install the TFX CLI

   npm install -g tfx-cli

2. Update the manifest

   Edit vss-extension.json and replace YOUR_PUBLISHER_ID with your actual publisher ID.

3. Add an icon

   Place a 128x128 PNG icon at static/icon.png

4. Package the extension

   tfx extension create --manifest-globs vss-extension.json

5. Upload to your organization

   • Go to your Azure DevOps organization settings
   • Navigate to Extensions > Browse marketplace > Manage extensions
   • Upload the generated .vsix file
   • Or publish to the marketplace: tfx extension publish --manifest-globs vss-extension.json

Usage

Logging Time

1. Open any work item (User Story, Bug, Task, etc.)
2. Click on the "Time Tracking" tab
3. Enter hours, select date, add optional description
4. Click "Log Time"

Viewing Reports

1. Go to Boards > Time Reports
2. Set your date range and filters
3. Switch between different views (All Entries, By User, By Epic, By Tag)
4. Click "Export CSV" to download the data

Weekly Email Summaries — Setup

The email feature runs as a scheduled Azure DevOps pipeline. It reads time data and notification config directly from the Extension Data service — no extra backend required.

1. Configure recipients (Notification Settings)

1. Go to Boards > Notification Settings (only visible to Project Administrators)
2. For each user, toggle Send Email on or off
3. Add manager email(s) in the CC field (comma-separated for multiple)
4. Set the Send on day and At time (informational — see step 2 for the actual schedule)
5. Click Save

2. Create the pipeline

The pipeline needs to live in a repository that is hosted in your Azure DevOps instance. Two options depending on where this extension repo is hosted:

Option A — Extension repo is in your Azure DevOps (simplest)

1. Go to Pipelines → New pipeline
2. Choose Azure Repos Git → select this repository
3. Choose Existing Azure Pipelines YAML file → /pipelines/weekly-summary.yml
4. Click Save (do not run yet)

Option B — Extension repo is hosted elsewhere (GitHub, different server, etc.) Use the self-contained single-file version that embeds the script inside the YAML:

1. Create a new empty repository in your Azure DevOps (e.g. timetracker-pipeline)
2. Copy only pipelines/weekly-summary-standalone.yml into it as pipeline.yml
3. Go to Pipelines → New pipeline → select that new repo → choose the file
4. Click Save (do not run yet)

When the script logic changes in a future extension update, copy the new weekly-summary-standalone.yml over and commit. The schedule, variables, and parameters stay the same — only the embedded script changes.

3. Set pipeline variables

In the pipeline Variables tab, add the following. Mark secrets as Secret.

Variable	Example	Secret
AZDO_SERVER_URL	http://devops.company.com/DefaultCollection
AZDO_PAT	(Personal Access Token — vso.extension.data scope)	✓
SMTP_HOST	mail-relay.company.com
SMTP_FROM	timetracker@company.com
SMTP_PORT	25 (optional, default 25)
SMTP_SECURE	false (optional, true for TLS)
SMTP_USER	(optional, only if SMTP requires auth)
SMTP_PASS	(optional)	✓

Creating the PAT:

1. Go to User settings → Personal Access Tokens → New Token
2. Click Show all scopes, then find Extensions and tick Extension Data → Read — "Extension Data" is the storage service; "Extensions" (without Data) is for marketplace management and is not needed
3. If you cannot find it, select Full access as a fallback
4. Make sure the selected organization/collection matches your AZDO_SERVER_URL
5. Copy the generated token into the AZDO_PAT pipeline variable and mark it as Secret

4. Configure the schedule

The send day and time are configured entirely from the Notification Settings page — no YAML edits needed. The pipeline runs hourly; the script checks the configured day + time and exits immediately if it is not the right moment.

The settings page shows the time in your local browser timezone and displays the equivalent UTC value for reference.

Testing

Run the pipeline manually (Run pipeline → Advanced) with these parameters:

Parameter	Value
override_week_start	Any past Monday, e.g. 2026-05-06
dry_run	true — logs output without sending any emails

Daily Slack Reminders — Setup

Like the weekly email, this runs as a scheduled Azure DevOps pipeline that reads time data and the Notification Settings roster directly from the Extension Data service — no extra backend required. It DMs anyone with zero hours for the previous working day.

Prerequisite: the user must exist on the Boards > Notification Settings roster, and their Azure DevOps email must match their Slack account email (auto-lookup uses users.lookupByEmail). The "Send Email" toggle does not affect Slack — the daily reminder considers the whole roster (use EXCLUDE_EMAILS to opt someone out).

1. Create a Slack app

1. Go to https://api.slack.com/apps → Create New App → From scratch
2. Name it (e.g. Time Tracker Reminder) and pick your workspace
3. Open OAuth & Permissions → under Bot Token Scopes add: chat:write, users:read, users:read.email, im:write
4. Click Install to Workspace and authorize
5. Copy the Bot User OAuth Token (xoxb-…) — this is SLACK_BOT_TOKEN

2. Create the pipeline

Same as the weekly summary, but choose Existing Azure Pipelines YAML file → /pipelines/daily-nag.yml. Click Save (do not run yet).

3. Set pipeline variables

In the pipeline Variables tab, add the following. Mark secrets as Secret. (AZDO_SERVER_URL / AZDO_PAT are the same as the weekly summary — the PAT needs the vso.extension.data scope.)

Variable	Example	Secret
AZDO_SERVER_URL	http://devops.company.com/DefaultCollection
AZDO_PAT	(Personal Access Token — vso.extension.data scope)	✓
SLACK_BOT_TOKEN	xoxb-…	✓
TIMETRACKER_URL	https://devops.company.com/.../_apis/.../My Time (optional link in the message)
HOLIDAYS	2026-12-25,2026-12-26 (optional, CSV of non-working days)
EXCLUDE_EMAILS	contractor@company.com (optional, CSV — never nag these)

4. Configure the schedule

The schedule lives in pipelines/daily-nag.yml (cron: "0 7 * * 1-5" — 07:00 UTC, Mon–Fri). Edit the hour to your team's working morning expressed in UTC. No weekend runs; the Monday run automatically targets the previous Friday.

Testing

Run the pipeline manually (Run pipeline → Advanced) with these parameters:

Parameter	Value
override_target_date	Any past working day, e.g. 2026-05-15
dry_run	true — logs who would be DMed without sending anything

Optional: Custom Fields for Project/Client Tracking

The extension can optionally use custom fields to track Project and Client for each time entry. This is useful for agencies or teams working on multiple projects/clients.

Setting Up Custom Fields (Optional)

If you want project/client tracking:

1. Go to Organization Settings > Process
2. Select your process (e.g., Agile, Scrum)
3. Click on a work item type (e.g., User Story)
4. Add two new fields:
   • Name: Project | Type: Text | Reference name: Custom.Project
   • Name: Client | Type: Text | Reference name: Custom.Client

If these fields don't exist, the extension will still work - entries will simply show "(No Project)" and "(No Client)".

Data Storage

Time entries are stored using Azure DevOps Extension Data Service with collection-scoped storage. This means:

• All time entries are visible to all team members
• The Scrum Master (or anyone) can export all team data
• Data persists across sessions
• Data is tied to your Azure DevOps organization/collection
• Data is partitioned by month for performance

Limitations

• Hierarchy support works for standard Azure DevOps hierarchy (Epic → Feature → User Story → Task/Bug)
• Property inheritance only applies to new time entries (existing entries won't be retroactively updated)
• Users can only delete their own time entries
• Custom.Project and Custom.Client fields must use exact reference names if you want project/client tracking
• Maximum of 3 levels of hierarchy traversal (work item → parent → grandparent)

Development

To build the .vsix locally:

# Install dependencies (if adding any)
npm install

# Production package
npm run build

# Dev package
npm run build:dev

# Dev package, auto-incrementing the version
npm run build:dev:inc

Publishing to the Marketplace

Publishing (and sharing with private orgs) is automated through tfx extension publish. It is driven by two environment variables so nothing secret or org-specific is committed:

Variable	What it is
TFX_MARKETPLACE_TOKEN	A Personal Access Token from the miguelnicolas publisher's Azure DevOps org, scope Marketplace → Manage.
TFX_SHARE_WITH	Space-separated Azure DevOps org slug(s) to share the (private) extension with, e.g. "contoso fabrikam". Omit/unset to publish without sharing.

export TFX_MARKETPLACE_TOKEN="xxxxxxxxxxxx"
export TFX_SHARE_WITH="yourorg"            # space-separated for multiple

npm run publish          # production extension, publish + share
npm run publish:dev      # dev (Preview) extension
npm run publish:dev:inc  # dev extension, auto-incrementing the version

The --share-with flag is only added when TFX_SHARE_WITH is set, so the same scripts work for public extensions too (just leave it unset).

File Structure

azdo-timetracker/
├── vss-extension.json           # Extension manifest (production)
├── vss-extension.dev.json       # Extension manifest (development)
├── README.md
├── src/
│   ├── time-entry.html          # Work item form page
│   ├── time-core.js             # Shared storage + entry-inheritance logic
│   ├── my-time.html             # My Time hub — personal hours & quick-log
│   ├── my-time-widget.html      # My Time dashboard widget
│   ├── time-report.html         # Reports hub
│   └── notification-settings.html  # Admin page — email notification config
├── scripts/
│   ├── package.json             # Dependencies for the pipeline scripts
│   ├── send-weekly-summary.js  # Pipeline script — reads config, sends emails
│   └── send-daily-nag.js       # Pipeline script — DMs users missing yesterday's hours
├── pipelines/
│   ├── weekly-summary.yml           # Scheduled pipeline — use when repo is in your DevOps
│   ├── weekly-summary-standalone.yml  # Self-contained version — use when repo is elsewhere
│   └── daily-nag.yml                # Scheduled pipeline — daily Slack missing-hours reminder
└── static/
    └── icon.png                 # Extension icon

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

This software is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind. Use at your own risk.