Introduction

Flowline is a free automatic time tracker for Windows 10 and 11. It records the foreground app, tags that time as productive, neutral, or distracting, and shows the day on a local dashboard. An optional Chrome or Edge extension adds the active browser domain.

There is no account and no upload. The history file is SQLite at %APPDATA%/flowline/flowline.db.

Who it is for

• Developers, writers, designers, and students doing desk work on their own PC.
• People who drop manual timers after a day or two.
• Anyone who will not send an activity log to a cloud time tracker.

It is not for employers, teachers, or parents who want to watch someone else’s screen. There is no admin view.

What it does not do

• No macOS or Linux build. Tracking uses Windows foreground-window APIs.
• No website or app blocking. A distraction alert is a notification.
• No screen recording and no keystroke log.
• No team billing. If you need client timesheets, a timer product is a better fit.

How it differs from a cloud tracker

RescueTime and similar services keep the timeline on their servers and ask you to sign in. Flowline does not. ActivityWatch is the nearer open-source neighbor: local data, more platforms, more assembly. Flowline trades that range for a Windows UI with rules, Pomodoro blocks, goals, and streaks already wired up.

Per-site numbers need the browser extension. Without it, browser time is guessed from the window title.

Next steps

• Install Flowline on Windows.
• Add the browser extension if you want domains, not just “Chrome”.
• Edit rules and goals in Configuration.
• Read Privacy before you decide the local-database claim is enough.