Start a timer

POSThttps://<your-url>/api/v2/timers

MCP id timers.storeAlso on this path: GET List running timers

Starts a stopwatch on a work item or a planning event for the authenticated user and returns it with a Location header.

Token scope: api:write:hours
Without it: 403 insufficient-token-scope.
Permission: None. The record's own rules still apply.
Rate cost: 1 unit, write bucket. A write costs the same whatever view you ask for.
Also: Accepts Idempotency-Key. Never cached: private, no-store. Unknown body keys are refused, never dropped.

Both are checked, scope first. A token never does more than its user. How access is checked

Request

Example: Start timing a work item now

curl -X POST \
  'https://<your-url>/api/v2/timers' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer <token>' \
  -H 'Accept: application/json' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'Idempotency-Key: <key>' \
  -d '{
    "timeable_type": "work_item",
    "timeable_id": 41
  }'

const response = await fetch('https://<your-url>/api/v2/timers', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Authorization': 'Bearer <token>',
    'Accept': 'application/json',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
    'Idempotency-Key': '<key>',
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    "timeable_type": "work_item",
    "timeable_id": 41
  }),
});

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Http;

$response = Http::withToken('<token>')
    ->acceptJson()
    ->withHeader('Idempotency-Key', '<key>')
    ->post('https://<your-url>/api/v2/timers', [
        'timeable_type' => 'work_item',
        'timeable_id' => 41,
    ]);

import requests
response = requests.request(
    'POST',
    'https://<your-url>/api/v2/timers',
    headers={'Authorization': 'Bearer <token>', 'Accept': 'application/json', 'Content-Type': 'application/json', 'Idempotency-Key': '<key>'},
    json={'timeable_type': 'work_item', 'timeable_id': 41},
)

Response

The shape of the response, with sample values.

{
  "data": {
    "id": 1,
    "user_id": 1,
    "user": {
      "id": 1
    },
    "timeable_type": "work_item",
    "timeable_id": 41,
    "timeable": {
      "id": 1
    },
    "started_at": "2026-03-04T09:15:00Z",
    "created_at": "2026-03-04T09:15:00Z",
    "updated_at": "2026-03-04T09:15:00Z",
    "links": {
      "self": "https://<your-url>/api/v2/work-items/1"
    }
  }
}

{
  "type": "https://developers.plnnrly.com/api/v2/problems/idempotency-key-in-flight",
  "title": "Idempotency key in flight",
  "status": 409,
  "detail": "The original request for this Idempotency-Key is still being processed. Retry shortly.",
  "instance": "/api/v2/worklogs",
  "request_id": "01K4B7Q9YV3PZ2N8T1E6M0XR4S"
}

{
  "type": "https://developers.plnnrly.com/api/v2/problems/validation-failed",
  "title": "Validation failed",
  "status": 422,
  "detail": "3 fields failed validation.",
  "instance": "/api/v2/worklogs",
  "request_id": "01K4B7Q9YV3PZ2N8T1E6M0XR4S",
  "errors": [
    {
      "pointer": "/date",
      "code": "date_format",
      "detail": "The date does not match the format Y-m-d."
    },
    {
      "pointer": "/minutes",
      "code": "min",
      "detail": "The minutes must be at least 1."
    },
    {
      "pointer": "/description",
      "code": "required",
      "detail": "The description field is required."
    }
  ]
}

user_id is not accepted: a timer always belongs to the caller, and there is no way to start one for another employee. Send timeable_type and timeable_id together; omit started_at to start now. A second timer on the same record for the same caller is a 422 with code unique (there is at most one timer per employee per record), so Idempotency-Key is optional here rather than required: a retry meets that rule anyway. There is no stop action: to book the elapsed minutes, read started_at, POST the hours to /api/v2/worklogs and then DELETE this timer. Those two calls are not atomic: a client that deletes first loses the minutes, and one that crashes between them leaves the timer running. This operation declares no permission of its own, and a caller can only ever create their own timer. plnnrly also hides its Start button on a record you may not log time on; the API does not check that when the timer starts. Nothing unbillable can be booked that way regardless: POST /api/v2/worklogs applies that gate when the hours are actually written.

Query parameters

Unknown parameters are refused with 400, naming the parameter.

viewstring

Which field set to render.

summarydetaildefault

Request headers

X-Request-Idstringpattern

A correlation id of your own. It is recorded in our logs next to the server's request id but never returned: the response header always carries the server's id. A value that does not match the pattern is discarded silently, never rejected.

Idempotency-Keystring≤ 255

A caller-chosen key that makes this POST safe to retry. Replaying it returns the original response with Idempotency-Replayed: true.

Request body

Unknown keys are refused with 422, naming the key.

timeable_typestringRequired

The record being timed. Expanding it with ?include=timeable additionally requires the read permission and token scope of the target's own prefix, per branch: project_management for a work item, events for a planning event.

work_itemevent

timeable_idinteger → WorkItem.idUnique

Required when timeable_type is present. Must be unique across Timer.

started_attimestamp (YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssZ)

When the stopwatch was started. Elapsed time is this value against the client's own clock; the API publishes no elapsed counter.

Response 201

Returns a Timer in the detail view.

Headers

ETag: A strong validator of exactly this representation.
Idempotency-Replayed: true when this response was replayed from a stored Idempotency-Key rather than produced by a new write.
Location: The absolute URL of the created or queued resource.
RateLimit: The IETF httpapi-ratelimit-headers form of your remaining allowance on the tightest bucket this request touched.
RateLimit-Policy: The ceiling and window of that bucket, as <limit>;w=<seconds>.
X-Request-Id: The server-generated ULID correlating this response with our logs.

Every response also carries Cache-Control, Vary, X-Content-Type-Options, X-Plnnrly-Api-Version, X-RateLimit-Limit, X-RateLimit-Remaining, X-RateLimit-Reset. Headers and versioning