Know how much of your day was actually code.
Chronos watches your editor, terminal and browser tabs, splits real work from review, docs and chat, and shows where the hours went. You never start a timer.
What Chronos fixes for developers
Context switches you never notice
Every jump from the editor to Slack to a pull request is recorded with its app or tab, so the day you remember and the day you had finally match.
Docs and AI chats that blur into work
Rules on URL and window title separate a GitHub pull request from GitHub notifications, and documentation from a rabbit hole.
Browser time counted twice
When both the desktop tracker and the browser extension run, Chronos reconciles them so a minute in a tab is never counted again as browser window time.
A setup that fits
Start with zones like these, add a few rules, and anything Chronos has not seen before shows up in a sorting list with suggestions. Pick a zone once and it files itself from then on.
- Deep Work
- Code review
- Docs and learning
- Meetings
- Rest
Example rules
| Match | Pattern | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| App | Code | Deep Work |
| Title | Pull Request | Code review |
| Domain | stackoverflow.com | Docs and learning |
Questions
Does it read my code or keystrokes?
No. Chronos records the app name, window or tab title, URL and how long it was active. It never records keystrokes, screenshots or file contents.
Which editors and terminals does it see?
Any desktop app ActivityWatch can see, which covers VS Code, Cursor, JetBrains IDEs, Vim in a terminal and every terminal emulator on Windows, macOS and Linux.
More answers on the main FAQ and the pricing page.