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ActivityWatch — automatic time tracking where the user owns the activity data

OSS scale score 241.3OSS health 78Update pace 42 commits/30d
About these scores

OSS scale score is an unbounded metric that log-compresses and weights Stars, Watchers, Forks, and Contributors. Discovery score is the current OSS scale score minus the score at discovery. Update pace is commits in the last 30 days, growth momentum is the OSS scale score difference within the recent observation window, and OSS health is a 0–100 rating based on available recency, Community Health, and release data.

Stars
18,947
Primary language
Python
License
MPL-2.0
Repository last updated
Sep 19, 2026

Overview

ActivityWatch is an open-source automatic time tracker that records active applications, window titles, browser activity, and AFK state to help users understand how time is spent, with a strong emphasis on keeping data under the user's control.

Features and best fit

Based on official documentation; not hands-on tested · Content checked:

Automatically record applications, windows, browser activity, and AFK state

Watchers capture active applications, window titles, browser tabs, and interaction state so users can analyze how time was spent.

Sources: [2][3]

Keep data locally and extend collection through modular watchers

Activity data is stored under user control, and users can choose or build watchers for the signals they want to collect.

Sources: [2][3]

For users who want automatic work-history analysis without starting timers manually

It fits personal productivity analysis where application and activity patterns should be recorded automatically for later review.

Sources: [2]

Detailed activity data requires explicit privacy governance in organizational use

Window titles and URLs can contain sensitive information. Organizational deployment should define consent, collection scope, access controls, and retention clearly.

Sources: [2][3]

Official sources

  1. [1]ActivityWatch/activitywatch repository(2026-09-20)
  2. [2]ActivityWatch README(2026-09-20)
  3. [3]ActivityWatch documentation(2026-09-20)
  4. [4]ActivityWatch MPL-2.0 license(2026-09-20)
Supplemental curator note

ActivityWatch centers on user-owned local activity data rather than uploading detailed usage history to a centralized tracker. Because it can capture sensitive window titles and browser URLs, organizational deployment should establish transparent consent, scope, and retention policies.

Try it in 3 steps

  1. 1

    Get the source

    git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ActivityWatch/activitywatch.git
  2. 2

    Enter the repository

    cd activitywatch
  3. 3

    Check the official steps

    Continue with the commands in the README Installation, Quick Start, or Getting Started section.

    find . -maxdepth 1 -iname 'README*' -exec sed -n '1,220p' {} \; -quit
Check the official README

Growth

Growth trends · Last 30 days

18,947 Stars

Trend data is still being collected.

Development activity

Last 90 days · weekly

Commits (last 30 days)
42
Open PRs
13

Development activity is still being collected.

Built with

Categories and tags

Categories

Tags

GitHub data

GitHub dataView detailed GitHub data
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GitHub Topics

  • quantified-self
  • activitywatch
  • productivity
  • time-tracking
  • time-tracker
  • afk
  • cross-platform
  • app
  • timetracker
  • analytics
  • dashboard
  • timetracking
Stars
18,947
Forks
1,014
Watchers
130
Open issues
171
Contributors
34
Primary language
Python
License
MPL-2.0
Repository last updated
Sep 19, 2026
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