Automatic time tracking for freelancers, on your Mac.

What it does

Billable hours without the bookkeeping

Manual timesheets are a memory test most freelancers fail on Friday. Tracker does the time tracking while the work happens, designed around your own work on your own Mac rather than around monitoring a team.

• 01

  It just watches

  Tracker samples the front window and browser URL every few seconds. You never start a timer, and you never forget to stop one.

• 02

  Rules, not guesses

  A URL or window-title pattern per client. github.com/acme goes to Acme, notion.so/northwind goes to Northwind. Ambiguous sites stay neutral until you decide.

• 03

  Idle time is separated

  Idle detection helps separate inactive periods from recorded activity. Computer activity alone does not determine whether work is billable. Check reports against your actual work, including calls and meetings.

• 04

  Reports you can invoice from

  Pick a client and a range, get hours per day and per source. The export is a CSV: an input to the invoice you send, not the invoice itself.

• 05

  Native, small, quiet

  Rust and Tauri under the hood. It sits in the macOS menu bar, uses almost no memory, and never asks for attention.

• 06

  Local-first

  A SQLite file on your disk is the whole backend. No account, no server that knows how you spend your day, and no sync: the history belongs to the Mac that recorded it.

How it works

From install to invoice in three steps

Setup takes a few minutes on your Mac. After that the time tracking runs without you.

1. 01

   Install and grant access

   Open the app, allow it to read the front window. That is the whole setup.

   Accessibility · granted
2. 02

   Add clients and rules

   One client, a few patterns. From then on every matching window is theirs.

   url github.com/northwind → Northwind Co.
3. 03

   Export the report

   Choose the client and the month. Send the file with the invoice.

   northwind-2026-09.csv · 41:20

FAQ

Questions freelancers ask

Short answers on how the time tracking works, what it costs, and where your hours are kept.

• Is Tracker an automatic time tracker?

  Yes. It samples the front window and the browser URL every few seconds and files that time under a client. You never start a timer, you never stop one, and there is no timesheet to fill in on Friday.

• How does Tracker know which client I am working for?

  You write one or two rules per client: a URL or a window-title pattern. github.com/acme goes to Acme, notion.so/northwind goes to Northwind. Anything ambiguous stays neutral until you decide where it belongs.

• What happens to time that does not match any rule?

  It stays neutral rather than being assigned to a client by guesswork, and you decide where it belongs. Rules are yours to add as new clients and tools appear.

• Does Tracker track meetings and calls?

  Tracker is designed around activity on your Mac. Do not assume its report includes every meeting or phone call; review the recorded hours against the work you intend to bill.

• Where is my data stored? Is it private?

  In a SQLite file on your Mac, and nowhere else. There is no account and no server, so window titles and URLs never leave the machine. Delete the file and the history is gone with it.

• What permissions does Tracker need on macOS?

  Setup includes granting Accessibility access so the app can read the active window. The exact requirements, including which browsers are supported, are confirmed with the first release.

• Can I export billable hours for an invoice?

  Pick a client and a date range and Tracker writes a CSV with totals per day and per source. Attach it to the invoice or paste it into your accounting tool.

• Does Tracker replace my invoicing tool?

  No. It produces the hours behind an invoice, not the invoice itself. The CSV is an input to whatever you already invoice with.

• Can I share tracking with a team or sync history across Macs?

  No. There is no shared or synced history: Tracker is designed around your own work, on the Mac that records it.

• How much does Tracker cost?

  It is free during early access. After launch it becomes a one-time license, not a subscription: the app runs on your own Mac, so there is nothing to rent.

• Which Macs does Tracker run on?

  It is a native macOS menu-bar app and runs on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs on recent versions of macOS. The exact minimum version is confirmed with the first release.