For Scouts BSA families
The trail to Eagle, one clear next step at a time.
Your scout's progress lives in the back of a handbook. TrueTrail turns it into a map they'll actually keep up with, tracks every merit badge, and gives them a coach who knows the real requirements — so they always know what to work on this week.
A personal planning aid you and your scout share — not the official advancement record.
The problem
Right now, it lives in the back of a book.
Scouts BSA advancement is genuinely great — and genuinely hard to keep track of. The requirements are scattered across ranks, the record is a pencil line in a handbook, and the question that actually matters is the one nothing answers.
Not what's left. What's next.
It’s scattered.
Completions get written in the back of the book, half-remembered, or lost with the book. Nobody is quite sure what’s actually done.
There’s no sense of order.
More than a hundred requirements are open across the early ranks at once. Which one matters this week? The book doesn’t say.
Some requirements are clocks, not tasks.
A few take months of calendar time no matter how motivated your scout is. Start them late and everything behind them waits.
How it works
Three steps, about five minutes.
Tell us where they are.
Pick the rank they’ve already earned and everything below it fills in automatically — no Star Scout taps through two hundred old items. Then tick off anything else the Scoutmaster has already signed.
See the whole trail.
All seven ranks on one painted map: earned, in progress, and still ahead. Your scout taps their own figure to open whatever they’re working on.
Get the next step.
Every time they open the app, up to four specific things to do next — in plain language, with the reason each one matters right now. Stuck? They can ask the coach.
Setup takes about five minutes. $5/mo for your first scout.
Why it works
The part a checklist can't do.
Next up
It tells them what to do next — not just what’s left.
TrueTrail weighs every open requirement your scout has — how urgent it is, whether something else is blocked behind it, what they already have momentum on, and how much work it actually takes — and turns the top few into instructions a twelve-year-old can act on without decoding.
No guessing, and nothing invented: the ordering is a fixed rule set, the same for every scout, every time.
Next up
- Sign off 3 finished tasksAsk your Scoutmaster to check them off — that’s what actually counts toward your rank.
- Record your starting fitness testIt runs 30 days, so start now — the waiting is the slow part, not the work.
- Learn the whipping and fusing of rope endsAn easy one to knock out at your next meeting or at home.
Sign-off
Done isn’t done until it’s signed.
Every requirement has two states that matter: your scout finished it, and someone signed it off. TrueTrail tracks both — amber for finished-and-waiting, green for signed.
Only green counts toward the rank. And when enough amber piles up, the app says the quiet part out loud: it's time to book a Scoutmaster conference.
Only the green one counts toward the rank percentage.
The long clocks
It spots the clocks before they cost you a year.
The fitness requirements from Tenderfoot through First Class form a chain: record a starting point, wait thirty days, retest, wait again. About thirteen weeks of pure calendar time — and none of it can be rushed.
The first link takes ten minutes. TrueTrail surfaces it in a new scout's very first week, because it's the single item most likely to hold everything else up.
One chain, ~13 weeks
- Record starting fitness test
wait 30 days
- Retest and show improvement
wait 4 weeks
- Second Class fitness goal
wait 4 weeks
- First Class fitness goal
Campouts
One tap before the campout. One tap after.
Tell TrueTrail when the next campout is and it does two things. Beforehand, it shows what to prep so nothing gets missed on the drive up. Afterwards, it asks how camp went and lists everything they could have knocked out while they were there.
Not just this rank's items — every open requirement across every rank that a campout can satisfy. That's usually ten to twenty things, and it's the moment most progress gets logged.
Cancel any time — nothing your scout has tracked is ever deleted.
Merit badges
Every merit badge, in one place — and only the ones they can actually take.
A record they'll keep up with.
Back from camp with four blue cards? Search, tap, save — every badge in one pass. Each one moves from in progress, to done and waiting for a signature, to signed off, the same two-step rule as the ranks.
Eagle-required badges are counted in the real 13 spots, including the ones where you pick one of two or three, so “how many more do I need?” finally has a straight answer.
Suggestions only include badges your scout can start today. Age limits, prerequisites, and the swimmer test are checked first — a badge they can't take never shows up as a suggestion.
7earned
2 in progress · 1 done, needs signature
Eagle-required: 4 of 13
Counted the way the Eagle application counts them
Summer camp, planned from the camp's own guide.
Snap a photo of the camp's badge list or upload its PDF. TrueTrail reads the class schedule and fills in a pick for each period — Eagle-required badges first, then the rare ones that are hard to do anywhere but camp, then the ones that match what your scout likes.
Every pick says why it was chosen, and you can change any of them. Badges your scout is too young for, or hasn't met the prerequisites for, are set aside with the reason — so the sign-up sheet goes in right the first time.
Summer camp · your schedule
- Period 1Environmental ScienceEagleYou need this for Eagle.
- Period 2ArcheryHard to do outside camp.
- Period 3Free period
Can't take yet: Shotgun Shooting — this camp lists it as 14+.
The coach
A coach who knows the requirements — and knows your scout.
Your scout can ask the coach anything about ranks and merit badges and get an answer built from their own progress: what's left, what to do first, and what to take at camp.
It answers from the real requirements.
Requirements, ages, prerequisites, and what’s signed off come from our database and your scout’s own record — not the AI’s memory. When it gives an opinion, like how hard a badge tends to be, it says it’s an opinion.
It only suggests what they can do.
The coach is only ever shown badges your scout is eligible for, so it can’t recommend one they’re too young for or haven’t met the prerequisites of.
It reads photos and PDFs.
A page of the handbook, a camp’s badge list, a flyer from the troop — your scout can send a picture and ask about it.
It never changes their progress.
The coach can read your scout’s record but can’t check anything off. Only your scout does that, on the tracker.
Conversations are never saved.
The chat lives on your scout’s screen and is gone when they leave the page. A short note about their plans and interests is kept so the coach remembers them — you can read it and clear it any time.
It knows when to stop being a coach.
If your scout says something worrying, the coach steps out of its role, points them to a trusted adult and to crisis lines like 988, and never promises to keep a secret.
The coach is included in every plan — no add-on, no extra charge.
One account
One login. Every kid.
You sign up once. Each scout gets their own profile with their own trail, their own progress, and their own next steps — and they pick theirs the way they pick a profile on a streaming app. No separate email or password per kid.
Each additional scout is $2.50 a month.
Because the account is yours, nothing is hidden from you. TrueTrail is a family tool you share with your scout — not a private space they keep from you.
Who's tracking?
Built for a kid’s account
Most of what matters here is what we don't do.
We’re not the official record.
Your troop’s system stays the system of record, and a real Scoutmaster signature still happens in person. TrueTrail is the planning aid in between.
Coach chats are never saved.
The coach chat is the one place your scout types freely, and nothing they type is stored — not by us, not in the account. Everywhere else is taps and choices.
We collect nothing physical.
No height, no weight, no fitness scores, no photos of your scout. Just a first name, a birthdate for age-based requirements, and their progress.
No leaderboards, ever.
Your scout is never ranked against another kid, and no one outside your account can see their progress. Advancement isn’t a race.
No ads, no trackers, no data selling.
There’s no analytics or advertising code on any page, and we never sell or share your family’s data — or use it to train AI.
We don’t email you things you didn’t ask for.
No newsletters, no nudge emails, no notifications. The only mail we ever send is a confirmation or password reset you requested yourself.
Delete anything, in two taps.
Remove one scout’s profile or your entire account whenever you want. It deletes for real — data and login both.
Cancel and nothing is destroyed.
If a subscription lapses, the account simply goes read-only. Everything your scout has tracked stays visible. We never delete progress because a card expired.
One account covers every scout in your family.
Pricing
$5 a month. Less for each kid after the first.
One subscription covers your whole family: $5 a month for your first scout and $2.50 for each additional one. Change the number of scouts whenever you need to.
There's no free tier and no ad-supported version — you're the customer, not the product. Cancel any time from your account; if you do, everything your scout has tracked stays visible, just read-only.
Monthly
$5/mo
for your first scout
- 1 scout
- $5.00/mo
- 2 scouts
- $7.50/mo
- 3 scouts
- $10.00/mo
Secure checkout by Stripe. Cancel any time — nothing is deleted.
Questions
Before you sign up.
Is this the official advancement record?
No, and it isn’t trying to be. Your troop’s record and a real Scoutmaster’s signature are still the things that count. TrueTrail is the planning aid your scout uses in between — so that when they do sit down with their leader, they know exactly what they’ve finished and what to ask about.
Is this for me or for my kid?
Your kid uses it. You pay for it and can see everything. The whole design goal is that your scout runs their own advancement instead of you chasing them about it — the app answers "what should I do next" so you don’t have to.
Does it replace Scoutbook?
No. There’s no sync or integration with Scoutbook or any official system, and none is planned for now. Think of TrueTrail as the thing that replaces the pencil marks in the back of the handbook, not the troop’s database.
Is there a free trial?
No. Every account pays from day one — that’s deliberate. It keeps the app free of ads and data-selling, and it means a real adult set the account up.
What happens if I cancel?
The account goes read-only. Every requirement your scout has tracked stays exactly where it is and stays visible — you just can’t edit until you resubscribe. We never delete progress because a subscription lapsed.
What do you know about my kid?
A first name, a birthdate (some requirements and badges are age-gated), what they’ve checked off, and a few optional choices you make — like interests from a list of taps, a troop number, or the date of their swimmer test. Nothing physical and no photos of your scout. Coach chats are never stored; only a short note about their scouting plans is kept, which you can read and clear. You can delete a profile, or the whole account, at any time.
Is the AI coach safe for a kid?
It was built for one. It only talks about scouting, answers from the official requirements we store rather than making things up, and only suggests badges your scout can actually take. Conversations are never saved. If your scout says something worrying, it points them to a trusted adult and crisis resources like 988. It won’t keep secrets, and it doesn’t act as a counselor. We don’t record that conversation or notify anyone, so the coach is not a monitoring tool.
Does it track merit badges too?
Yes. Your scout records every badge they’re working on or have earned, sees how many Eagle-required spots are filled, and gets suggestions limited to badges they’re eligible for. Before summer camp, they can upload the camp’s badge list and get a schedule planned around it.
Does it work on a phone?
That’s the main way it’s meant to be used. TrueTrail is a website built phone-first, so there’s no app to install — it just works in the browser your scout already has, on a phone, tablet, or laptop.
My scout is already a Star Scout. Do we start from scratch?
No. You tell it the rank they’ve earned and everything below it fills in automatically — nobody taps through two hundred historical requirements. From there they only check off what they’ve done since.
Eagle is a long trail. It shouldn't be a confusing one.
Set your scout up in about five minutes and they'll know exactly what to work on this week.
$5/mo for your first scout · cancel any time