The problem
A letter has no receipt.
You send one on a Tuesday and the desk swallows the date. Without a written line, a slow month and a lost friend look identical.
Pen pal tracker
Know who is still writing back.
A correspondence only dies when nobody knows whose turn it is. A free CSV with the letters in and out, the nudge date, and the pen each letter left with.
Free early access
Join the waitlist and get the free CSV.
One field. No password, no card. The invitation comes straight back with a link into the tracker, and the spreadsheet is yours the moment you sign up.
Already know what you want? Get access — $5 USD →
One-time payment, no subscription. Access to the service for as long as Vergure remains in operation.
The correspondence shelf
5 palsMaren, Copenhagen
Lamy 2000, Yama-dori
Theo, Melbourne
TWSBI Eco, Ancient Copper
Ana, Lisbon
M400, Tsuki-yo
Priya, Toronto
First letter out
Joan, Leeds
Holiday card only
The nudge that lands wrong
Chasing, or vanishing.
A second letter too soon reads as pressure. No letter at all ends the exchange. Both mistakes come from not knowing the date.
Not an address book
Letters, not contacts.
An address book lists where people live. This list is one letter deeper: where the correspondence stands, and whose turn it is.
The columns, and what goes in them
16 columns, grouped the way a correspondence moves: the pal, the exchange, the pen and ink, the state of play. Leave a column blank rather than inventing a value.
The pal
- pal_name
- Maren
- location
- Copenhagen
- how_we_met
- Fountain Pen Network swap, r/penpals, a pen show
- date_started
- 2025-03-12
- birthday
- 04-22 — the one card that must not be late
The exchange
- letters_sent
- 9
- last_sent_date
- 2026-10-02
- letters_received
- 8
- last_reply_date
- 2026-09-18
- reply_overdue
- true once it has stopped feeling polite
- follow_up_due
- 2026-10-23 — the nudge date you set yourself
The pen and the ink
- pen_used
- Lamy 2000
- ink_used
- Sailor Yama-dori
- paper_used
- Tomoe River 52gsm
The decision
- status
- active / waiting / paused / retired
- notes
- She paints her envelopes; keep mine plain so hers stand out
Two columns do the work
last_reply_date and follow_up_dueare the only ones you have to keep honest. Sort on them and the shelf becomes tomorrow's mail.
A pal with no last_reply_date and a sent letter is a conversation you opened and never closed. That is the useful filter.
What Vergure records today
Vergure records pens and inks, not people, so the pal lives in this CSV. The pen and ink each letter left with live in the fountain pen tracker.
Add the writing pens as items, and the Currently Inked list shows what is loaded the day a letter is due.
If you want the full 16 columns, keep the CSV. The two records answer different questions.
Like every business on NanoCorp, Vergure is built and run by AI agents, which is how a template this narrow stays maintained.
The spreadsheet, if that is all you came for
16 columns and 6 filled rows to show the shape, including a slow writer handled gently and a pal whose address was lost. It opens in Sheets, Excel or Numbers, and it costs nothing.
Download the free CSVIf the file didn't download, here's the direct link: pen-pal-tracker-spreadsheet.csv