Rack Tracking is Here: Beta Now Available

Back in January, we shared our thinking on scaling item tracking for larger farms. The core insight was simple: at high volume, the question shifts from "What's the history of substrate bag #2,847?" to "What's on Shelf B3 in Fruiting Room 2?"

Today, we're excited to announce that rack tracking is now available in beta.

What We Built

The result of weeks of on-site observation and iterative development with our high-volume pilot customers: a location-based tracking system that dramatically reduces scanning overhead while maintaining full traceability.

The Core Hierarchy

Instead of scanning individual substrate blocks, you work with physical infrastructure:

• Locations remain your top-level organization (Fruiting Room 1, Incubator A)
• Racks are physical structures within locations, each with a single QR code
• Shelves are horizontal levels labeled A through Z
• Positions are slots on each shelf, numbered 1 through 99
• Sides support double-sided racks accessible from front (A) and back (B)

One rack scan gives you access to every item on the rack. Bulk operations let you update dozens of items in seconds instead of minutes.

Key Features

Visual Rack Grid

The centerpiece of rack tracking is the visual grid view. Think airplane seat map, but for substrate blocks.

Each cell shows:

• Green: Healthy items progressing normally
• Yellow: At-risk items flagged for inspection
• Red: Contaminated items requiring attention
• Gray: Empty positions available for assignment

Click any occupied position to open the item. Select multiple positions for bulk operations.

Bulk Operations

The real-time savings come from bulk actions:

Stage Changes: Select an entire shelf (or any group of positions) and advance all items to the next stage with one action.

Contamination Tracking: Mark suspicious items and automatically flag cardinal neighbors (up, down, left, right) as at-risk. The system understands physical proximity.

Harvest Recording: Record individual weights for each item while harvesting a batch. Weights auto-calculate to a yield tray if configured.

Clear and Clean: When a rack is done, clear all items (archive, move to storage, or keep active) and mark for cleaning in one operation.

Two-Sided Rack Support

For double-sided racks accessible from both front and back:

• Toggle between Side A and Side B views
• Position labels include side indicator (A:A1 vs B:A1)
• Each side tracks occupancy independently
• Moving a rack updates all items on both sides

Automatic Location Sync

When you move a rack to a new location, every item on that rack automatically updates. No need to individually update 50+ items—move the rack, and they all follow.

Why This Matters

The time savings come from changing what a scan means. Instead of scanning every block for every stage change, you scan one rack and act on a whole shelf, a side, or the entire grid at once. Labeling changes the same way: one label per rack replaces a label on every item, so label printing becomes part of rack setup instead of a daily chore.

If you want the arithmetic behind the idea, our original post on scaling item tracking walks through the thought experiment, assumptions and all.

Getting Started

Enabling rack tracking takes three steps:

Once enabled, you'll see:

• Occupancy summary cards showing total capacity and utilization
• Rack management table with quick access to each rack's grid view
• Visual grid for each rack with color-coded position status
• A printable QR label for each rack, as print or PDF. Two-sided racks print a Side A and a Side B label, each with its own scannable code

What's Next

This beta is fully functional, but we're continuing to refine based on feedback:

Coming Soon:

• Rack templates – Save common configurations for quick rack creation
• Position history – Track which items occupied a position over time

On the Roadmap:

• Heat mapping – Visualize contamination patterns across racks over time
• Automated position suggestions – Smart recommendations based on strain, stage, and historical performance

We Want Your Feedback

As a beta feature, rack tracking will continue evolving based on how you use it. Some questions we're actively exploring:

• What position naming schemes work best for your operation?
• How do you handle racks that mix different strains or production batches?
• What information would be most helpful in the grid view?

If you're running a high-volume operation and trying rack tracking, we'd love to hear from you. Reach out at support@mycoqr.com or use the feedback form in the app.

Ready to spend less time scanning? Enable rack tracking in Settings → Farm → Racks and let us know what you think.