Guides

The Pet Care board

Two people, one dog, one cat, and the daily question: has anyone actually done this yet? This guide builds a shared board you update by talking to Siri and read from your home screen without unlocking your phone. It fits the free plan, needs no server, and takes about twenty minutes.

What you end up with

Three walk slots and two feeding timers. You say "Hey Siri, walked the dog" on the way back in; your partner glances at the widget and sees it already happened. Nobody double-feeds the cat, nobody texts "did you walk her?" from the office.

What you'll need

• An EasyBoard account — the free plan allows exactly five tiles, which is what this uses
• An iPhone with the built-in Shortcuts app
• Scriptable — free on the App Store, for the home-screen widget
• Your dashboard ID and write token (Dashboards → ⋯ → Write token)

Step 1 — Build the board

Create a dashboard called Pet Care and add the five tiles from the table above. For each one, open the tile's edit modal and set the Alternate ID to the value in the first column. That handle is what every shortcut below targets, so it has to match exactly — the tile titles can say whatever you like.

Give each walk toggle two options, Not yet and Done, and colour the second one green. For the two elapsed tiles, set the start time to now — you'll overwrite it the first time you feed anyone.

Step 2 — "Hey Siri, walked the dog"

A shortcut's name is its Siri phrase, so name them the way you'd say them out loud. Build one shortcut with a single Get Contents of URL action:

{
  "updates": [
    {
      "target": { "alternateId": "walk_morning" },
      "patch": { "value": "Done" }
    }
  ]
}

Duplicate it twice, changing walk_morning to walk_afternoon and walk_evening. Name them "Walked the dog this morning", "…this afternoon", "…this evening". Sending the value directly rather than cycling the toggle matters: saying it twice by accident still leaves the slot on Done, instead of flipping it back to Not yet.

Step 3 — "Hey Siri, fed the dog"

Same shape, except the value is a timestamp rather than a word. Add two actions before the URL action:

1. Date — leave it on Current Date
2. Format Date — set Date Format to ISO 8601, with time included

Then in the raw JSON body, tap the timestamp and replace it with the Formatted Date variable:

{
  "updates": [
    {
      "target": { "alternateId": "dog_fed" },
      "patch": { "value": "2026-08-22T07:14:00Z" }
    }
  ]
}

Duplicate for cat_fed. The tile immediately starts counting up from that moment, in every browser and widget, for both of you.

Step 4 — Clear the walks at midnight

Build a fourth shortcut called Reset pet board — one request, all three walk slots in a single batch:

{
  "updates": [
    { "target": { "alternateId": "walk_morning" },   "patch": { "value": "Not yet" } },
    { "target": { "alternateId": "walk_afternoon" }, "patch": { "value": "Not yet" } },
    { "target": { "alternateId": "walk_evening" },   "patch": { "value": "Not yet" } }
  ]
}

Then open the Automation tab → new Personal Automation → Time of Day → 12:00 AM, Daily → Run Shortcut → Reset pet board. Turn Ask Before Running off so it fires while you sleep.

Step 5 — The home-screen widget

Open Scriptable, tap +, name the script Pet Care, and paste this in. Replace PASTE_YOUR_DASHBOARD_ID_HERE with your dashboard ID — there is no write token in the widget, because reading needs none.

// -- Configuration -------------------------------------------
const DASHBOARD_ID = "PASTE_YOUR_DASHBOARD_ID_HERE";
// -- End Configuration ----------------------------------------

const BASE = "https://easyboard.live";
const WALKS = [["walk_morning", "M"], ["walk_afternoon", "A"], ["walk_evening", "E"]];
const MEALS = [["dog_fed", "Dog"], ["cat_fed", "Cat"]];

const DONE = new Color("#22c55e");   // green — this slot is handled
const TODO = new Color("#334155");   // slate — still outstanding
const MUTED = new Color("#94a3b8");

async function fetchTiles() {
  const req = new Request(BASE + "/api/d/" + DASHBOARD_ID + "/tiles");
  const json = await req.loadJSON();
  if (json && json.error) throw new Error("API error: " + json.error);
  return Array.isArray(json) ? json : [];
}

function byId(tiles, id) {
  return tiles.find(function (t) { return t.alternateId === id; });
}

// Elapsed tiles store a MOMENT, so the widget does the counting. That is why
// a stale widget still reads correctly: "7h ago" grows on its own.
function ago(tile) {
  if (!tile) return "—";
  const t = Date.parse(tile.value);
  if (isNaN(t)) return "—";
  const mins = Math.max(0, Math.round((Date.now() - t) / 60000));
  if (mins < 60) return mins + "m ago";
  const hours = Math.floor(mins / 60);
  if (hours < 24) return hours + "h " + (mins % 60) + "m ago";
  return Math.floor(hours / 24) + "d " + (hours % 24) + "h ago";
}

function addChip(row, label, done) {
  const chip = row.addStack();
  chip.backgroundColor = done ? DONE : TODO;
  chip.cornerRadius = 7;
  chip.setPadding(4, 10, 4, 10);
  const el = chip.addText(label);
  el.font = Font.boldSystemFont(13);
  el.textColor = done ? new Color("#052e16") : MUTED;
  row.addSpacer(6);
}

async function buildWidget() {
  const w = new ListWidget();
  w.backgroundColor = new Color("#0f172a");
  w.url = BASE + "/d/" + DASHBOARD_ID;
  w.refreshAfterDate = new Date(Date.now() + 15 * 60 * 1000);

  let tiles = [];
  try {
    tiles = await fetchTiles();
  } catch (e) {
    const err = w.addText(e.message || String(e));
    err.textColor = Color.red();
    err.font = Font.systemFont(11);
    err.minimumScaleFactor = 0.4;
    return w;
  }

  const heading = w.addText("Walks");
  heading.font = Font.mediumSystemFont(11);
  heading.textColor = MUTED;
  w.addSpacer(6);

  const row = w.addStack();
  row.layoutHorizontally();
  for (const [id, label] of WALKS) {
    const tile = byId(tiles, id);
    addChip(row, label, !!tile && tile.value === "Done");
  }
  row.addSpacer();

  w.addSpacer(10);
  for (const [id, label] of MEALS) {
    const line = w.addStack();
    line.layoutHorizontally();
    const nameEl = line.addText(label);
    nameEl.font = Font.mediumSystemFont(12);
    nameEl.textColor = MUTED;
    line.addSpacer();
    const valueEl = line.addText(ago(byId(tiles, id)));
    valueEl.font = Font.boldSystemFont(12);
    valueEl.textColor = Color.white();
    w.addSpacer(4);
  }

  return w;
}

const widget = await buildWidget();
if (config.runsInWidget) {
  Script.setWidget(widget);
} else {
  await widget.presentSmall();
}
Script.complete();

Tap Run to preview it, then long-press your home screen → + → Scriptable → small widget → Edit Widget → Script: Pet Care. Three chips show the walk slots, green once done; underneath, how long since each animal was fed. Tapping the widget opens the live board.

Sharing it with the household

The board is the shared state; everyone just needs their own way in. Send your partner the shortcuts (share sheet → Copy iCloud Link) and the widget script, and they run on their phone against the same board. Both phones can say "fed the cat"; whoever gets there first wins, and the other one sees it.

Troubleshooting

Make it yours

Nothing here is about pets. Three toggles and two timers is the shape of most household coordination: bins out, plants watered, medication taken, the boiler serviced. Swap the titles, keep the pattern — anything with a deadline becomes a toggle you reset, and anything you want to know the age of becomes an elapsed tile you never reset at all.