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Water Tracker
Track drinks from everyday language and calculate context-aware daily hydration targets.
What it does
Log daily fluid intake from casual mentions, estimating standard containers and remembering personal bottle sizes after one calibration. Calculate targets from body weight, then adjust for exercise, heat, flights, altitude, pregnancy, breastfeeding, and kidney-stone history. Hydration logs, preferences, and health context stay in a dedicated local folder.
When to use it
- Logging glasses, mugs, and personal bottles
- Planning fluids for workouts, heat, flights, or altitude
- Checking hydration when thirst, dark urine, headache, or cramps occur
- Choosing fluids during fever, vomiting, diarrhea, or a hangover
The skill document
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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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).
- 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.
- 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.
- 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).
- 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 hcalories— meal and drink logging when the user tracks food, not just fluidsrunning— race-day fueling and pacing where fluid plans meet training plansgym— 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.
Questions people ask
- What drinks count toward daily fluid intake?
- All non-alcoholic drinks count at 100%, including coffee, tea, milk, soup, and sparkling water. Alcohol counts as 0 ml, and user preferences can exclude or change how specific beverages are counted.
- How are daily hydration targets calculated?
- The baseline is 30–35 ml per kilogram of body weight, with sex-based defaults when weight is unknown. Exercise, heat, flights, pregnancy, breastfeeding, and kidney-stone history can change the target, while certain medical conditions suspend the standard formulas.
- What happens when I mention a drink without giving its size?
- A standard container size is logged as an estimate, such as 250 ml for a glass or 300 ml for a mug. Ambiguous amounts that could change the daily total by more than 20% trigger a question, while personal container sizes are learned once and reused.
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