A private, automatic work journal for Mac.
Dayflow understands the work you do on your Mac and turns it into a clear timeline of your day. Built from the ground up for privacy, it’s open source, local-first, and can run entirely with local AI.
Dayflow turns raw screen activity into a chronological timeline of what you actually did, so you can reconstruct the day without timers or manual notes.
See a GitHub-style activity grid of your day, plus yesterday's highlights, today's priorities, and blockers, so you can walk into standup with the update already written.
See your week at a glance: when you were focused, where time went, which apps dominated, and what pulled you off track.
Ask questions about your day/week/year and get answers grounded in your timeline instead of digging through notes, screenshots, or memory.
Dayflow runs quietly on your Mac and builds a useful record of your day from your screen activity.
| Feature | How it works | Why it's useful |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic timeline | Dayflow captures lightweight screen chunks, analyzes them with your chosen AI provider, and turns the day into activity cards. | You get an accurate work journal without starting timers or writing notes. |
| Context-aware summaries | It looks at what you were actually doing on screen, not just which app was active. | Cursor, Chrome, YouTube, or Slack become meaningful work context instead of vague app usage. |
| Daily standup | Dayflow pulls yesterday's highlights, today's tasks, and blockers from your timeline. | You can write updates in minutes and stop relying on memory. |
| Chat with your work journal | Ask natural-language questions about your timeline and recent activity. | You can recover details, explain where time went, and turn raw activity into useful answers. |
| Weekly review | It aggregates your timeline into focus patterns, categories, app usage, and interaction graphs. | You can see where the week actually went and spot the habits that helped or hurt. |
| Distraction tracking | Dayflow identifies distracting sessions and shows them alongside focused work. | You can catch drift early without manually labeling every break. |
| Timeline export | Export your timeline as Markdown for any date range. | Useful for status updates, client notes, personal reviews, or saving a searchable record. |
| Local-first storage | Recordings, timeline data, and the app database stay on your Mac by default. | You stay in control of sensitive screen history and can delete it whenever you want. |
| AI provider choice | Use local models, Gemini, ChatGPT, or Claude depending on your privacy and quality needs. | You can trade off privacy, cost, speed, and summary quality instead of being locked into one backend. |
| Automatic cleanup | Configure storage limits and let Dayflow purge old recordings automatically. | You get the value of a work journal without filling your disk forever. |
Most time trackers tell you which app was open. Dayflow tries to understand what you were doing.
Cursor for two hours could mean shipping a feature, debugging auth, reviewing a PR, or getting lost in setup. Dayflow gives you the context, not just the window title.
Dayflow is local-first and open source.
Your recordings, timeline, and database live on your Mac at:
~/Library/Application Support/Dayflow/
You choose how AI analysis runs:
- Local models through Ollama or LM Studio
- Gemini with your own API key
- ChatGPT or Claude through their local CLI tools
If you choose a cloud provider, activity data needed for analysis is sent to that provider. If you choose local models, analysis stays on your machine.
Download the latest Dayflow.dmg from GitHub Releases:
Open the DMG, drag Dayflow into Applications, then grant macOS Screen & System Audio Recording permission when prompted.
brew install --cask dayflow- macOS 14+
- Screen & System Audio Recording permission
- Optional: Gemini API key, Ollama, LM Studio, Codex CLI, or Claude Code depending on your preferred AI provider
git clone https://github.com/JerryZLiu/Dayflow.git
cd Dayflow
open Dayflow/Dayflow.xcodeprojSelect the Dayflow scheme in Xcode and run it.
Issues and pull requests are welcome. If you are planning a larger change, open an issue first so the scope is clear.
Dayflow is licensed under the MIT License.