diff --git a/Gemfile.lock b/Gemfile.lock
index 2340089..d0baf7e 100644
--- a/Gemfile.lock
+++ b/Gemfile.lock
@@ -108,7 +108,7 @@ GEM
     bindex (0.8.1)
     bootsnap (1.18.6)
       msgpack (~> 1.2)
-    brakeman (7.0.2)
+    brakeman (7.1.0)
       racc
     builder (3.3.0)
     bullet (8.0.8)
diff --git a/app/controllers/api/hackatime/v1/hackatime_controller.rb b/app/controllers/api/hackatime/v1/hackatime_controller.rb
index 66c7708..db4b401 100644
--- a/app/controllers/api/hackatime/v1/hackatime_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/api/hackatime/v1/hackatime_controller.rb
@@ -236,6 +236,9 @@ class Api::Hackatime::V1::HackatimeController < ApplicationController
 
       parsed_ua = WakatimeService.parse_user_agent(heartbeat[:user_agent])
 
+      # if category is not set, just default to coding
+      heartbeat[:category] ||= "coding"
+
       # special case: if the entity is "test.txt", this is a test heartbeat
       if heartbeat[:entity] == "test.txt"
         source_type = :test_entry
diff --git a/lib/test_wakatime_service.rb b/lib/test_wakatime_service.rb
index 2c630c7..9db8f7e 100644
--- a/lib/test_wakatime_service.rb
+++ b/lib/test_wakatime_service.rb
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ include ApplicationHelper
 class TestWakatimeService
   def initialize(user: nil, specific_filters: [], allow_cache: true, limit: 10, start_date: nil, end_date: nil, scope: nil, boundary_aware: false)
     @scope = scope || Heartbeat.all
-    # trusting time from hackatime extensions..... 
+    # trusting time from hackatime extensions.....
     # @scope = @scope.coding_only
     @scope = @scope.with_valid_timestamps
     @user = user