time-guard 0.0.4

Python-based screen activity tracker that captures images every 5 seconds for AI-powered computer usage analysis.

Protect your time!

Ever wonder how you really spent your day? Time Guardian silently captures screenshots and uses AI to tell you exactly what you were doing—so you can finally answer the question: "Where did my afternoon go?"

Why Time Guardian?

📸 Automatic tracking — Set it and forget it. Screenshots every 5 seconds, intelligently filtered.
🧠 AI-powered analysis — AI Vision understands what you're doing, not just which app is open.
📊 Honest reports — See breakdowns by app, activity type, and get AI-generated summaries.
🔒 Privacy-first — Everything runs locally. Your screenshots and data stay on your machine.

Installation

pip install time-guard

Quick Start

# Start tracking (runs until you stop it)
time-guardian track

# Generate a report of your activity
time-guardian summary

That's it. Time Guardian will capture screenshots, analyze them with AI, and show you where your time went.

Usage

Tracking

# Track indefinitely (Ctrl+C to stop)
time-guardian track

# Track for 1 hour
time-guardian track --duration 60

# Custom interval (every 10 seconds instead of 5)
time-guardian track --duration 60 --interval 10

# Track without AI analysis (just screenshots)
time-guardian track --no-ai

Screenshots are saved to ~/.time-guardian/screenshots by default.

Reports & Analysis

# View activity summary
time-guardian summary

# Analyze a specific screenshot directory
time-guardian analyze-screenshots -s ./my-screenshots

# Check version
time-guardian version

Utility Commands

# Verify screen recording permissions work
time-guardian check-permissions

# Take a single screenshot
time-guardian screenshot -o snapshot.png

# See connected monitors
time-guardian monitors

# List visible windows
time-guardian windows

# List running processes
time-guardian processes

Example Report

Time Guardian Activity Report
=============================
Generated at: 2025-12-04T05:26:42

Activity by Application
-----------------------
[Cursor] - 7 events
  • Coding
  • Code editing and running a script
  ...

[iTerm2] - 4 events
  • Coding
  ...

AI Summary
==========
The computer activities primarily consisted of "Coding," with one 
instance involving "Code editing and running a script."

How It Works

graph LR
    A[📸 Capture] --> B{Changed?}
    B -->|Yes| C[💾 Save]
    B -->|No| D[Skip]
    C --> E[🤖 AI Classify]
    E --> F[📊 Report]

1. Capture — Screenshots taken every N seconds across all monitors
2. Compare — Only saves when screen content actually changes
3. Classify — GPT-4 Vision analyzes each window to determine activity
4. Report — Aggregates data into human-readable summaries

Command Reference

Command	Description
track	Start tracking screen activity
summary	Display activity summary
analyze-screenshots	Analyze a directory of screenshots
check-permissions	Verify screen recording permissions
screenshot	Take a single screenshot
monitors	Show connected monitors
windows	Show visible windows
processes	List running processes

Track Options

Option	Default	Description
--duration	∞	Minutes to track
--interval	5	Seconds between captures
--ai/--no-ai	enabled	AI classification
--min-pixels	1000	Change threshold

Requirements

• Python 3.12+
• macOS (Windows/Linux support planned)
• Screen recording permission for your terminal

Development

# Clone and setup
git clone https://github.com/brycedrennan/time-guardian
cd time-guardian
make init

# Common commands
make test        # Run tests
make lint        # Run linter
make af          # Auto-format code
make check       # Run all checks

License

MIT

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Stop wondering. Start knowing. → pip install time-guard