How to Add WakaTime Coding Stats to Your GitHub Profile README

WakaTime is a time-tracking service for developers that integrates with most popular editors including VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, Vim, Emacs, and Sublime Text. Once installed, it silently records your coding activity in the background. The waka-readme-stats GitHub Action queries your WakaTime API daily and writes a formatted stats block into your README — showing your top languages, editors, operating systems, and total hours coded in the past week.

The stats block is injected between comment markers (start and end) that you place in your README, so the rest of your file stays exactly as you wrote it. The Action commits the updated README automatically, keeping your profile fresh without any manual intervention.

Follow these steps to configure the widget:

1. Sign up at wakatime.com and install the WakaTime plugin for your editor. Code for a few days to accumulate data.
2. In your WakaTime account settings, copy your Secret API Key.
3. In your GitHub profile repository settings, go to Secrets → Actions and add a new secret: WAKATIME_API_KEY with your WakaTime key.
4. Also add a GH_TOKEN secret set to a GitHub personal access token with repo scope.
5. Create .github/workflows/waka-readme.yml with:

name: Waka Readme
on:
  schedule:
    - cron: '0 0 * * *'
  workflow_dispatch:
jobs:
  update-readme:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: anmol098/waka-readme-stats@master
        with:
          WAKATIME_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.WAKATIME_API_KEY }}
          GH_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GH_TOKEN }}

6. In your README, add the comment markers where you want the stats to appear:

<!--START_SECTION:waka-->
<!--END_SECTION:waka-->

The waka-readme-stats Action accepts many configuration parameters to control what data appears and how it is formatted. To show only your top 5 languages, add SHOW_LINES_OF_CODE: false and SHOW_PROFILE_VIEWS: false. To hide the header and show only the stats table, set SHOW_TITLE: false.

For compact output that fits tighter layouts, set COMPACT_MESSAGE: true. The Action also supports SHOW_COMMIT: true to display a breakdown of commit activity by time of day and day of week — useful for demonstrating a consistent work schedule. All configuration options are documented in the repository's README at github.com/anmol098/waka-readme-stats.

If the stats block stays empty after the first workflow run, check that your WakaTime profile is set to public and that your Secret API Key is correct. WakaTime has two types of API keys — use the Secret API Key from account settings, not the share URL.

If the Action fails with a permissions error, verify that your GH_TOKEN has repo scope and that it was added as a repository secret (not an environment variable). If the workflow doesn't trigger on schedule, manually trigger it from Actions → Waka Readme → Run workflow. GitHub sometimes delays scheduled workflows by up to one hour during high load periods.