PackIt User Guide & Visual Walkthrough

PackIt is a native macOS trip planning, modular packing checklist, meal provisioning, and step-by-step procedure workbench. Built around reusable Templates, Composite Kits, 6-Tier Prep Timelines, and Shared Folders, PackIt eliminates pre-trip guesswork while keeping your packing lists 100% local and human-readable on disk.

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Core Concepts

PackIt separates reusable packing knowledge from individual trip checklists:

Creating & Organizing Templates

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Select All Templates in the sidebar (Cmd+Shift+N to create a new template) to manage your reusable gear blueprints:

1. Template Header & Context Tags: Assign context tags at the top of the template to describe the trip profile.
2. Composite Linked Templates: Use the Includes Templates bar (+ Link Template) to attach modular sub-kits. When you create a trip from a composite template, PackIt automatically traverses all linked templates and deduplicates overlapping items.
3. Categorized Template Items:
   • Click Add Item to define an item’s Name, Category (Documents, Outerwear, Electronics, Camera Gear), Default Owner (Alex, Sam, Shared), Quantity, Priority (Low, Medium, High, Critical), Context Tags, and Notes.
   • Items are displayed in responsive multi-column category cards. Drag items between categories to recategorize or reorder them.
4. Template Prep Tasks & Procedures: Attach recurring countdown tasks and multi-step phase checklists directly to a template so every future trip inherits them automatically.

Creating a Trip & Filtering by Context

Press Cmd+N from anywhere in PackIt to launch the New Trip sheet:

1. Name & Icon: Give the trip a name and choose from 40+ categorized icons (mountain, camping, international, beach, skiing, sailing, rv, etc.).
2. Destination & Weather: Search for your destination city or region. PackIt geocodes the coordinates and displays a live 16-day weather forecast widget directly in the trip header once your dates fall within the forecast window.
3. Travel Mode: Choose Plane, Car, Train, Bus, RV, Boat, Bicycle, or Walking. The travel mode dynamically updates timeline icons for Day Of departure and On Return steps.
4. Departure & Return Dates: Navigate date fields with arrow keys (Up/Down to increment/decrement, Left/Right to move between month/day/year) or click the calendar popover button.
5. Select Templates & Context Tags:
   • Check one or more templates. Linked sub-templates are automatically included.
   • Toggle Filter by context tags to include only items matching the tags you select for this specific trip (plus untagged universal items).
6. Pinning Trips: Right-click any trip in the list and choose Pin to Top to keep active expeditions anchored in the Pinned sidebar section.

The Trip Packing Workbench

Each trip opens in a three-zone workbench designed for rapid keyboard and mouse triage:

1. Trip Header, Weather & Progress Ring

• Completion Ring: Displays real-time packing percentage (packed / total).
• Batch Pack / Unpack: Click Pack All to mark every visible item packed, or Unpack All when preparing for your return leg.
• Mode Switcher: Switch the center canvas between Packing, Meals, and Procedures.

2. 6-Tier Prep Tasks Timeline

Above your gear categories, PackIt organizes pre-trip preparation into six chronological tiers anchored to your departure and return dates:

3. Multi-Column Packing Checklist & Bulk Actions

• Priority Indicators: Colored dots indicate urgency — Blue (Low), Amber (Medium), Orange (High), and Red (Critical).
• Owner Filtering: Filter the checklist by traveler (All, Alex, Sam, Shared, Unassigned) using the member bar.
• Multi-Select & Bulk Operations: Cmd+Click multiple items across categories to reveal the floating bulk action bar — reassign Owner, Duplicate For… another family member, or Remove in one click.
• Ad-Hoc Items (new Badge): Items added directly to a trip display a teal new badge. Right-click any ad-hoc item (or use Merge to Template) to promote it back into a master template for future trips.

4. Tokenized Search (Cmd+F)

Press Cmd+F inside a trip to open the Find in List bar with Stash-model token auto-suggest (Tab to cycle suggestions, Enter to commit):

• category: — Filter by category name (e.g., category:Electronics)
• owner: — Filter by assigned person (owner:Alex, owner:unassigned)
• priority: — Filter by urgency (priority:critical, priority:high)
• packed: — Filter by state (packed:yes, packed:no)
• name: / notes: — Match specific substrings in item names or notes

5. TODOs & Markdown Scratch Notes Inspector

Click the sidebar toggle (sidebar.right) in the top-right of the trip view to open the TODOs & Notes inspector:

• TODOs: Quick errands with optional due dates and priorities.
• Scratch Notes: Full Markdown notes editor supporting headings (#), bold/italic, checkboxes (- [ ]), bulleted/numbered lists with Smart Enter continuation, and clickable links.

Meal Planning & Phase Procedures

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Day-by-Day Meal Planning Grid

Switch to the Meals tab on any trip to plan camp or travel provisioning across every day of your itinerary:

• Prep Notes: Record high-level kitchen notes, dietary restrictions, or ration counts at the top.
• 5 Meal Slots per Day: Plan Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snacks, and Beverages for each calendar day from departure through return.
• Food Icons & Grocery Aggregation: Attach visual icons to meal slots and inspect allFoodItems for consolidated provisioning. Changing trip dates automatically preserves and shifts your existing meal days.

4-Phase Step-by-Step Procedures

Switch to the Procedures tab for ordered operational checklists that must be executed in sequence:

1. Before Departure — Home lockup, water shutoff, thermostat hold, vehicle hitch check.
2. On Arrival / Setup — Campsite leveling, trailhead altimeter calibration, satellite check-in.
3. Before Leaving Site — Room/hut outlet sweep, hydration refill, trash pack-out.
4. On Return Home — Gear washdown, battery storage charge, photo ingest.

Packing Statistics Dashboard

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Select Statistics in the sidebar to audit your historical packing habits across all active, completed, and archived trips:

• Overview KPI Cards: Track Total Trips, Items Packed, overall Completion Rate, Templates, Avg Items/Trip, and Ad-Hoc Items.
• Most Packed Items & Top Categories: See which gear items and categories travel with you most frequently.
• Ad-Hoc Insights: Identify items you repeatedly add at the last minute so you can permanently merge them into your templates.
• Packing Efficiency & Trip Timeline: Review completion rates per trip and chronological travel history.

Printing, Exporting & Selective Sharing

Custom Watermarked Printing (Cmd+P)

PackIt generates clean, multi-column printable checklists with three independent watermark layers configurable in Settings (Cmd+,):

1. Repeating Pattern: Tile the trip’s icon across the background with adjustable opacity.
2. Full-Page Art: Render a large centered watermark or custom image behind the checklist.
3. Decorative Border: Frame the page with a themed icon border.

Export Formats

Right-click any trip or template and choose Export…:

• PackIt Archive (.packitlist / .packittemplate): Lossless JSON bundle for sharing with other PackIt users or importing via Cmd+Shift+I.
• HTML Checklist: Self-contained, print-ready web page with interactive checkboxes.
• CSV Spreadsheet: Flat table of categories, items, quantities, owners, priorities, and packed states.

Selective Sharing via Shared Folders

Configure a Shared Folder (iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Syncthing, or NAS mount) in Settings (Cmd+,):

• Right-click specific trips or templates and toggle Share to Folder.
• Shared items display a Sharing or Shared by [Name] badge.
• If two collaborators edit the same shared trip simultaneously, PackIt surfaces a non-destructive Conflict Banner allowing you to compare versions and choose Keep Mine or Accept Theirs.

Automated Backups & packit-backup CLI

PackIt stores all data as human-readable JSON files in ~/Library/Application Support/PackIt/ (or a custom directory) and ships with the packit-backup companion CLI:

# Create a timestamped .tar.gz backup archive
packit-backup backup

# List available backups with trip/template counts
packit-backup list

# Restore from a backup (automatically creates a pre-restore safety snapshot)
packit-backup restore <backup-file.tar.gz>

# Prune old backups while keeping the 10 most recent archives
packit-backup prune --keep 10

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