SimplyTrack

A simple, elegant macOS productivity tracking app that helps you monitor your application and website usage patterns.

App Overview	MCP Demo with Claude Desktop

Daily Activity View with Bar Chart	Daily Activity View with Pie Chart

Weekly Activity Overview	AI-Powered Usage Summary Notifications

Motivation

I created SimplyTrack out of a personal need to understand and improve my productivity. Like many developers and professionals, I wanted to track my app and website usage to identify patterns, time-wasters, and productivity trends.

After trying several existing solutions, I found they were either:

• Too complex - Loaded with features I didn't need
• Too limited - Missing key functionality I required
• Too expensive - Overkill for simple usage tracking
• Privacy concerns - Sending data to external servers

So I decided to build exactly what I needed: a clean, privacy-focused, local-only productivity tracker that gives you insights without the bloat.

✨ Features

• 📊 App & Website Tracking - Monitor time spent in applications and websites (Safari, Chrome, Edge, Arc, Brave, Vivaldi, Dia, Firefox experimental)
• 📈 Visual Analytics - Charts showing daily/weekly activity patterns
• 🔔 Smart Notifications - Optional AI-powered daily summary notifications with usage insights
• 🤖 AI Integration - Built-in MCP server for seamless integration with Claude and other AI assistants
• 📥 CSV Export - Export usage data as CSV via UI or MCP for analysis in spreadsheets
• 🔒 Privacy-First - All data stored locally, secure keychain storage for API keys, optional private browsing tracking
• 🚀 Menu Bar Interface - Clean popover UI, native macOS integration
• 🔍 Smart Detection - Automatic idle detection, session management, and private browsing detection

🛠️ Installation

Requirements

• macOS 15.0 (Sequoia) or later
• Apple Silicon Mac

Download

⬇️ Download SimplyTrack.dmg

Or manually:

1. Go to the Releases page
2. Download the latest SimplyTrack.dmg file
3. Open the DMG and drag SimplyTrack to your Applications folder
4. Launch SimplyTrack and follow the permission setup guide

Building from Source

git clone https://github.com/renjfk/SimplyTrack.git
cd SimplyTrack
open SimplyTrack.xcodeproj

Build and run in Xcode 15.0 or later.

Setup & Permissions

SimplyTrack requires several macOS permissions to function properly:

Required Permissions

1. Automation Permission: To track browser activity

   • System Preferences → Privacy & Security → Automation
   • Enable SimplyTrack for your browsers (Safari, Chrome, Edge, Arc, Brave, Vivaldi, Dia, Firefox)

2. System Events Permission: For Safari and Firefox browser integration

   • System Preferences → Privacy & Security → Automation
   • Enable SimplyTrack for System Events

3. Accessibility Permission: For Safari and Firefox browser integration

   • System Preferences → Privacy & Security → Accessibility
   • Enable SimplyTrack

4. Firefox Additional Setup: Firefox does not expose tab URLs through its scripting interface, so SimplyTrack reads the address bar via the macOS Accessibility API. This requires a one-time Firefox configuration change. Firefox website tracking is experimental and may stop working if Firefox changes its accessibility hierarchy, if the toolbar is customized, or while the browser UI is in a transient state:

   1. Open Firefox and navigate to about:config
   2. Accept the risk warning if prompted
   3. Search for accessibility.force_disabled
   4. Set the value to -1

5. Notifications (Optional): For update notifications

   • System Preferences → Notifications & Focus → SimplyTrack

Permission Setup

The app provides helpful banners and direct links to the appropriate system preference panes when permissions are needed.

🤖 AI Integration (MCP)

SimplyTrack includes a built-in Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that allows AI assistants like Claude to access your usage data for insights and analysis.

Features

• Usage Data Access: AI assistants can retrieve your app/website usage statistics
• Smart Analysis: Get personalized productivity insights from your data
• Privacy-Focused: Data never leaves your machine - AI connects directly to your local SimplyTrack instance
• Easy Setup: One-click configuration for Claude Desktop

Setup with Claude Desktop

1. Open SimplyTrack Settings → AI tab
2. In the "AI Tool Integration" section, click "Auto-Configure"
3. Select your Claude Desktop configuration file when prompted
4. Restart Claude Desktop to activate the integration

Available Tools

• get_usage_activity - Retrieve detailed usage statistics for any date
  • Filter by applications or websites
  • Customize time ranges and top activity percentages
  • Get formatted data perfect for AI analysis
• export_usage_csv - Export usage sessions as CSV
  • Daily or weekly export periods
  • Standard CSV format for spreadsheets and analysis tools

Example Usage

Ask Claude: "What were my top 3 most used apps yesterday?" or "Analyze my productivity patterns this week"

The MCP server provides real-time access to your usage data while maintaining complete privacy and control.

Contributing

SimplyTrack is open to contributions and ideas! Whether you're a developer wanting to add features or a user with suggestions, your input is valuable.

Issue Conventions

When creating issues, please follow our simple naming convention:

Format: type: brief description

Issue Types

• feat: - New features or functionality
• fix: - Bug fixes
• enhance: - Improvements to existing features
• chore: - Maintenance tasks, dependencies, cleanup
• docs: - Documentation updates
• build: - Build system, CI/CD changes

Examples

• feat: add CSV export functionality
• fix: app crashes when importing large files
• enhance: improve data loading performance
• chore: update dependencies to latest versions
• docs: update README with installation instructions
• build: update Xcode project settings

Guidelines

• Use lowercase for the description
• Be specific and actionable
• Keep under 60 characters
• No period at the end

Development

Release Process

Manual releases with GitHub MCP integration - see RELEASE_PROCESS.md.

For planned improvements and testing infrastructure, see issue #9.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.