Anchorline Documentation

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Events ​

Every log is made up of individual moments where something happened. These are the building blocks of your record.

In balanced logs, these moments are called entries. In collection logs, they are items.

Understanding how these moments work helps you see why Anchorline keeps such clear, trustworthy records.

What entries and items represent ​

Each moment in your log captures something specific that happened at a particular time.

For balanced logs:

  • An entry might be adding money to savings
  • Transferring money between accounts
  • Spending money on groceries
  • Adjusting a balance to match your bank statement

For collection logs:

  • An item might be a book you added to your reading list
  • A piece of equipment in your home inventory
  • A task you are tracking
  • A photo you want to catalog

Every entry or item has a date, and often includes notes, amounts, or other details that give context.

Why order matters ​

Entries and items are stored in the order they happened.

This order is not arbitrary. For balanced logs, the order determines your balance. Money added on Monday and spent on Tuesday gives a different result than if you reverse those dates.

For collection logs, order shows you when things were added, updated, or removed. You can see what your collection looked like at any point in time.

By preserving order, Anchorline ensures your records always tell the same story.

How your balance and lists are built ​

For balanced logs, the balance you see at the top is calculated from all the entries below it.

Anchorline adds up every transaction from the beginning to show you the current total. This is why the balance and entries always match—there is no way for them to get out of sync.

For collection logs, the items you see are built from the record of what was added, linked, and unlinked over time.

This means you can trust what you see. If you want to know where a number came from, you can scroll through the entries and see exactly which transactions contributed to it.

What happens when you record something new ​

When you add a new entry or item, it gets added to your log with a timestamp.

If you made a mistake and need to fix it, you record what actually happened. The earlier entry stays in your record, and your correction becomes the next moment.

For example, if you recorded spending $50 on groceries but it was actually $60, you might add an entry explaining the correction and record the additional $10. Both entries stay visible in your log.

This approach is different from just editing the $50 to $60. It keeps the history honest and makes it clear when and why things changed.

Why this matters ​

Most tools let you change numbers directly. Anchorline makes you record what happened instead.

This feels less convenient at first. But it gives you something valuable: confidence that your data tells the truth.

You can look at your entries and understand exactly what happened. You can see corrections. You can trust that your balance matches your history because there is no other way to change it.

If someone asks "how much do we have?" or "when did we add that?", you have a clear answer backed by records you can show them.

What you can do with entries and items ​

For balanced log entries:

  • View the amount, date, and any notes
  • See where money came from or went to
  • Check which entries contributed to your current balance
  • Filter by date range to understand specific periods

For collection log items:

  • View all the details you have recorded
  • See when an item was added or updated
  • Track links between items in different logs
  • Search and filter to find specific items

Both types let you see context: what else was happening at the same time, what came before, what came after.

When things need correction ​

If you spot a mistake, you have options:

For balanced logs, you can add a new entry that corrects the error. If you accidentally recorded $100 instead of $10, add an entry with a note explaining why.

For collection logs, you can update item details directly. Changes to an item show up in your log's history, but the item itself stays continuous.

Both approaches keep your records intact while letting you fix errors. The history shows that a correction was made, which is often more useful than pretending the mistake never happened.

Where to go next ​

Now that you understand how entries and items work:

The rest of Anchorline builds on these simple ideas: record what happened, keep it in order, and calculate your current state from that record.

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