Trip auto-trigger

Trips automatically start when their start date arrives and stop when their end date passes. You don't need to remember to flip a switch — set the dates once and walk.

What it does

Every minute, a background loop iterates active organizations and checks each trip's start/end dates against the current time in the org's timezone:

  1. Auto-start. Trip start_date arrives → tracking turns on for that trip. Any other tracking trip in the same org pauses (we keep one active trip at a time so the live map is unambiguous).
  2. Auto-stop. Trip end_date passes → tracking turns off, trip becomes a static archive. The route runs through the Mapbox map matching snap-to-roads pass for any driving / cycling segments.

What you set

In the trip's admin form:

  • Start date + start time (in your org's timezone).
  • End date + end time (optional — leave blank for an open-ended trip you'll close manually).
  • Default transport mode (optional override, see Transport modes).

That's it. Save the trip. The auto-trigger handles the rest.

Edge cases

  • Time zones. Each org has a configured timezone (set in Settings). Start / end times are stored as naïve local times and compared against now in org timezone. Travel across timezones during a trip doesn't break this — only the org's timezone setting matters.
  • Manual overrides. You can hit "Start now" or "Stop now" in the trip detail at any time. Manual stops set a flag so the background loop won't auto-start the trip again on the next minute.
  • Past trips. Creating a trip with a past start date and past end date is fine — the trip becomes immediately archived with the route history matching that date range.
  • Future end with no GPS. If the trip ends but you stopped publishing GPS days ago, the route still finishes correctly (the last known position is the trip's end).

What runs in the background

  • The auto-tracking loop fires every 60 seconds.
  • On auto-stop, the route is also fed through Mapbox map matching for driving / cycling / public-transport segments. If your plan doesn't include map-match credits this month, the snap is skipped silently (the raw GPS still draws fine).
  • The loop is per-org and concurrent — one slow org doesn't delay another's trip from starting.

Why this matters

The friction of remembering to "press start" before a long walk is the difference between recording your Camino and only remembering to start tracking on day 4. Set the dates once, forget them, the system does the rest.

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