For a long time I’ve wanted a bug tracking system that didn’t feel like a chore to use. Something fast and effortless where I could create a bug report and get back to what I was doing without destroying my flow.

There are plenty of bug tracking systems out there. Conventional wisdom says it’s better to use one of those than build one. I’ve tried a lot of them. But they’re all too complex, too cumbersome, too expensive, or too ugly. (And, yes, aesthetics count.)

So I created Caravela.

Caravela is a simple and powerful bug tracking system designed from the ground up to be fast and to stay out of your way.

For example, Caravela doesn’t require you to register. Caravela creates an account for you the instant you land on the home page. You can create a new bug tracker for your project in exactly one click. No joke. It is fully configured and ready to be used in one click. And like magic, when you close your browser and return, it remembers you.

Creating bugs is just as easy. There is exactly one required field: the bug description. There’s not even a field for bug title or summary. Caravela automatically generates a title for you based on the description.

There are exactly four statuses and four priorities. And you can change them from the listing on the search results page rather than having to click into each bug.

Everything that can be updated can be done inline without a page refresh. Comments, status changes, administering users, attachment uploads, you name it. Want to update the status? One click, done. Upload an attachment? Click to open the file browser, click to select the file, done. Add a tag? Type it, press enter, done.

But all of that ease of use doesn’t mean Caravela isn’t powerful. You can have public or private bug trackers (as many as you like); multiple team members with different roles; comments, attachments, and tags; full-text search with sorting and filtering controls; tag subscriptions; email notifications; and there’s a lot more still on the way.

If you think it’s something you could use, I’d love it if you gave Caravela a try. And if you like it, I hope you’ll tell your friends (and me!).