How a day fills itself in
Hourbrook notes which window is in front, draws what it saw, and turns it into entries when you say so. Here is one working day, start to end, and what it never does along the way.
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Join the waitlistIt notices what's in front
Every two seconds Hourbrook looks at the app in front, its window title and, in Safari, Chrome, Arc, Brave, Edge and Vivaldi, the page you're on. Firefox gives it the window title only.
After five minutes without keyboard or mouse it marks you away, unless a call is running, a video or slideshow is full screen, or Claude or a build is busy. You choose the minutes.
1Password, Bitwarden and Keychain Access are skipped by default. A private window is kept only as “Private window”, without its title or address, when Hourbrook can tell it's private (when it can). Apps and sites you add to its rules leave no trace at all.
It draws the day as a brook
Each app is a stream; the brook is how wide your day ran at each hour. Beside it, every app gets a lane of memories: what was in front, from when to when.
This one is live. Click memories in the lanes and log them, the way you would on your Mac.
Picked 2h 3m → logging 2h 30m (+24m rounding, +3m joined gaps)
You pick, it adds up fairly
Pick the memories that belong together and press ⌘↩. Short breaks between them count, up to the limit you set, and the entry is rounded out to the quarter hour. (Drafts round to 5 minutes; timers don't round.)
The card always says how it got its number, so nothing is added that you can't see.
Or take a draft
As you log, a small model on your Mac learns which repositories, sites, issue keys and words go with which project. Next time it drafts the entry for you, with its reasons.
Rules you write always win. Say “not this” and it learns that too. None of it is sent anywhere.
The week, the invoice, the report
Logged entries become cards in the Week. Drag a card's edge to change its length, add time the Mac didn't see, and plan the days ahead. Projects, budgets, reports and invoices are built from these entries.
When you sign in, these entries are what syncs: to the web dashboard, your other Macs and, if you have one, your team. What syncs, exactly
What it reads, and what it never does
The whole list. If something isn't on the left, Hourbrook doesn't look at it.
It reads
- The app in frontevery 2 seconds
- Its window titleyou can turn this off
- The page address in a browseryou can turn this off
- Whether you've used the keyboard or mouse latelynot what you pressed
- Whether a microphone is in useto notice calls; nothing is heard
- Whether Claude Code, Codex or a command is busyby their CPU use and when their session logs were last written; plus which folder they work in and, in the Claude app, the chat's name. Never the conversation.
- Your calendar eventsread on the Mac, if you allow it
It never
- Takes screenshots or records the screen
- Records keystrokes or what you type
- Records audio or video
- Keeps a private window's title or addresswhen it can tell the window is private
- Records apps and sites you exclude
- Gives anyone a scoreno productivity percentages, no ranking
- Syncs any of the left-hand listit stays in a database on your Mac
Questions
Does it slow the Mac down? It looks at the front window every 2 seconds and listens for changes instead of polling where macOS allows it. It's built to stay out of your way.
Which permissions does it ask for? Accessibility, to read window titles, and Automation for each browser whose address you want. Calendars only if you connect them.
What if I forget to log for a week? Nothing is lost. The memories stay on your Mac until you delete them or they pass the age you set, and the Week shows what isn't logged yet.
Can I still use a timer? Yes. Start one from the menu bar, a shortcut or Shortcuts, and add time by hand for anything the Mac didn't see.
Does it work with my calendar? Meetings from the calendars on your Mac show on the day, so a call is easy to log. Calendar events are read on the Mac and never synced.
What do I need? A Mac with macOS 14 or later. A Windows version is in the works.