🧹 Roommate Chore Scheduler

A lightweight Python automation script that rotates weekly chores among five roommates and emails each person their assignment. Designed to run locally on a schedule using a cron job, with minimal maintenance required.

📋 Features

Rotates five unique chores across five roommates Sends personalized emails via Gmail SMTP Prevents duplicate runs using timestamp tracking Toggle system to enable/disable execution Dynamically formats the week range (e.g., 04-22 - 04-28) Compatible with cron jobs for scheduled automation

🛠️ Technologies Used

Python 3 smtplib + email.message for email automation File I/O for rotation and state persistence datetime for week handling and timing logic

🗂️ File Overview

roommate_chores.py — main script ChoresIndex.txt — tracks current rotation index last_run_time.txt — stores the timestamp of the last execution Enabled.txt — acts as a manual toggle (Y to run, N to skip)

🕒 Running with a Cron Job (macOS/Linux)

Use bash run the script every Sunday at 12 PM: 0 12 * * 0 /usr/bin/python3 /path/to/roommate_chores.py You can edit your crontab with: crontab -e

Make sure the file paths in the script match your machine’s directory structure.

⚠️ Security Note

This script uses email credentials. Do not hardcode real passwords in plaintext. Instead, use a .env file and load credentials via environment variables like this:

import os password = os.getenv('EMAIL_PASSWORD') Then run your script like this: EMAIL_PASSWORD=your-password python3 roommate_chores.py

📦 Setup Instructions

git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/roommate-chores.git cd roommate-chores

Edit the names, chores, email list, and file paths as needed for your setup.