FocusDesk

Windows system tray app that tracks how long you use each application. Companion to FocusTab — FocusTab tracks browser tabs, FocusDesk tracks desktop apps. Both sync to the same GitHub Gist for a unified dashboard.

Features

• App tracking — detects the foreground window every 3 seconds, maps exe names to friendly names
• Idle detection — pauses tracking after configurable idle time (default 5 min)
• System tray — right-click menu shows today's top 3 apps and total screen time
• Health indicators — icon color changes with status (green = recording, amber = idle, red = error); tooltip shows current app + total time
• GitHub Gist sync — bidirectional merge with FocusTab data, auto-discovers gist ID
• Secure token storage — GitHub token encrypted via Windows Credential Manager (DPAPI)
• Auto-start — optional "Start with Windows" toggle in tray menu
• Heartbeat — writes heartbeat.json every 30s for external health monitoring
• Log file — append-only log with auto-rotation at 1 MB

Requirements

• Windows 10/11
• Rust toolchain (for building from source)

Build & Run

cargo build --release
./target/release/focusdesk.exe

The app runs as a tray icon (no console window). Only one instance can run at a time.

Configuration

All data lives in %APPDATA%\desktop_monitor\. The app creates this directory on first run.

config.json

{
  "device_name": "Desktop",
  "idle_threshold_seconds": 300,
  "sync_interval_minutes": 30
}

Field	Default	Description
device_name	"Desktop"	Label for this device in multi-device sync
idle_threshold_seconds	300	Seconds of no input before pausing tracking
sync_interval_minutes	30	How often to sync with GitHub Gist

GitHub Gist Sync (optional)

1. Create a GitHub personal access token with gist scope
2. Add "github_token": "ghp_..." to config.json
3. FocusDesk will auto-discover the gist (looks for one containing focustab_data.json)
4. On first run, the token is migrated from config.json to Windows Credential Manager

After migration, github_token is removed from config.json automatically. You only need to add it once.

app_names.json (optional)

Custom exe-to-friendly-name mappings. Place in %APPDATA%\desktop_monitor\:

{
  "Code.exe": "vs code",
  "firefox.exe": "firefox",
  "photoshop.exe": "adobe photoshop"
}

If this file is missing, built-in defaults cover ~24 common apps. Names are case-insensitive and should be lowercase.

Data Files

File	Purpose
tracking_YYYY-MM-DD.json	App name to milliseconds map
timeline_YYYY-MM-DD.json	Timestamped app switch events
heartbeat.json	Last-known status (for external monitors)
focusdesk.log	Event log (startup, sync, errors)
config.json	User settings

Files older than 90 days are automatically cleaned up on startup.

Architecture

main thread          monitor thread
    |                     |
    |  Arc<Mutex<State>>  |
    |<------------------->|
    |                     |
 Win32 msg loop      3s poll loop
 tray menu/icon      idle detection
 menu events         window tracking
                     save/sync/heartbeat

• Main thread: Windows message pump, tray icon, menu events
• Monitor thread: polls foreground window, accumulates time, saves to disk, syncs to Gist
• Shared state: Arc<Mutex<AppState>> — tracking data, timeline, health status

FocusTab Compatibility

FocusDesk writes to the same Gist format as FocusTab. Data appears in the FocusTab dashboard grouped by device name:

{
  "Desktop": {
    "tracking_2026-03-08": { "vs code": 3600000, "firefox": 1800000 }
  },
  "Laptop": {
    "tracking_2026-03-08": { "chrome": 7200000 }
  }
}

Merge strategy: max(local, remote) per app per day — same as FocusTab.

Security

• GitHub token stored via DPAPI (Windows Credential Manager), not plaintext
• Single-instance mutex prevents data corruption from concurrent writes
• Atomic file writes via MoveFileExW (no partial JSON on crash)
• Config values sanitized (device name length, date format validation)
• App name mappings loaded from APPDATA, not CWD (prevents hijack)
• Response size capped at 5 MB (prevents memory exhaustion from malicious gist)

License

Private project.