A privacy-focused activity tracker for Linux, written in Rust.

Unlike cloud-based alternatives (Wakatime, RescueTime), all your data stays local. Track only the apps you choose, see exactly where your time goes.

• Privacy-first: All data stored locally in SQLite
• Whitelist-based: Only tracks apps you explicitly configure
• Window titles: See which browser tabs, terminal folders, or files you worked on
• Web Dashboard: Beautiful Svelte-based dashboard at localhost:5555
• System tray: Live tracking indicator with "Open Dashboard" button
• TUI Dashboard: Multi-pane terminal UI with tabs (Summary, Detailed, Timeline)
• Self-update: Update with flowmode update
• Idle detection: Automatically pauses when you're away
• Lightweight: Single binary, minimal resource usage

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install xdotool xprintidle

# Fedora
sudo dnf install xdotool xprintidle

# Arch
sudo pacman -S xdotool xprintidle

git clone https://github.com/krisk248/flowmode.git
cd flowmode
cargo build --release

# Binary will be at ./target/release/flowmode

# Copy to local bin
cp ./target/release/flowmode ~/.local/bin/

# Or system-wide
sudo cp ./target/release/flowmode /usr/local/bin/

# Generate default config
flowmode init

# Start tracking
flowmode start

# View stats
flowmode stats

# Open TUI dashboard
flowmode dashboard

The dashboard has 3 tabs with keyboard navigation:

Tabs:

• Summary: App breakdown with progress bars
• Detailed: Window titles grouped by app
• Timeline: Hourly activity chart + category breakdown

Summary (flowmode stats):

FlowMode - Today's Activity
════════════════════════════════════════

Total tracked: 4h 32m

Brave           2h 15m  49% ████████████████████
VS Code         1h 28m  32% █████████████
Ghostty            42m  15% ██████
Obsidian            7m   2% █

Detailed (flowmode detailed):

FlowMode - Detailed Activity
════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Brave ─────────────────────────────────
   1h 12m  YouTube - Brave
      38m  GitHub - krisk248/flowmode - Brave
      25m  ChatGPT - Brave

Ghostty ─────────────────────────────────
      28m  ~/Projects/flowmode
      14m  ~/Documents

Config file: ~/.config/flowmode/config.toml

idle_timeout_secs = 300    # 5 minutes
poll_interval_secs = 5     # Check every 5 seconds

[[apps]]
name = "Brave"
match_type = "windowclass"
pattern = "brave"
category = "Browser"

[[apps]]
name = "VS Code"
match_type = "windowclass"
pattern = "code"
category = "Development"

[[apps]]
name = "Ghostty"
match_type = "windowclass"
pattern = "ghostty"
category = "Terminal"

[[apps]]
name = "Teams"
match_type = "windowtitle"
pattern = "Microsoft Teams"
category = "Communication"

• windowclass - Match by WM_CLASS (most reliable)
• windowtitle - Match if window title contains pattern
• process - Match by process name

# Click on a window to get its class
xprop WM_CLASS | grep -i class

The tray icon shows:

• Date and time in tooltip
• Working/Idle/Paused status
• Today's tracked time

Icons change based on status:

• Clock icon when working
• Idle icon when away
• Pause icon when paused

mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user

cat > ~/.config/systemd/user/flowmode.service << 'EOF'
[Unit]
Description=FlowMode Activity Tracker
After=graphical-session.target

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=%h/.local/bin/flowmode start
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5
Environment=DISPLAY=:0

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target
EOF

# Reload systemd
systemctl --user daemon-reload

# Enable auto-start on login
systemctl --user enable flowmode

# Start now
systemctl --user start flowmode

# Check status
systemctl --user status flowmode

# View logs
journalctl --user -u flowmode -f

systemctl --user stop flowmode
systemctl --user disable flowmode

• Config: ~/.config/flowmode/config.toml
• Database: ~/.local/share/flowmode/activity.db

All data is stored locally. Nothing is sent to any server.

cp ~/.local/share/flowmode/activity.db ~/backup/

sqlite3 ~/.local/share/flowmode/activity.db \
  "SELECT app_name, SUM(duration_secs)/60 as minutes
   FROM activity
   WHERE date(started_at) = date('now')
   GROUP BY app_name
   ORDER BY minutes DESC"

• Ensure you have a system tray (KDE, GNOME with extension)
• Check if ksni is working: systemctl --user status

# Test xdotool
xdotool getactivewindow getwindowname

# Test xprop
xprop -id $(xdotool getactivewindow) WM_CLASS

# Test xprintidle (returns milliseconds)
xprintidle

When you run flowmode start, a web dashboard is available at http://localhost:5555

Features:

• Live-updating activity summary
• App breakdown with category colors
• Hourly activity chart
• Detailed window title view
• 30-day history
• Dark theme

Access via:

• System tray → "Open Dashboard"
• flowmode web command
• Direct browser to localhost:5555

• Web dashboard with Svelte frontend (localhost:5555)
• "Open Dashboard" in system tray opens browser
• Self-update: flowmode update downloads latest from GitHub
• flowmode version command
• Single binary with embedded web assets

• Multi-pane TUI dashboard with 3 tabs (Summary, Detailed, Timeline)
• Keyboard navigation (1/2/3, Tab, arrows, j/k)
• Improved system tray with date, idle status, and dynamic icons
• Hourly activity chart with current hour indicator
• Category breakdown view
• Better color-coded progress bars

• Initial release
• Window tracking with xdotool
• SQLite storage
• System tray with ksni
• Basic TUI dashboard
• Idle detection with xprintidle

MIT License - see LICENSE file

Issues and PRs welcome at https://github.com/krisk248/flowmode