ArkWatch

Windows 11 desktop screen-time tracker built with Electron + React + TypeScript.

Features

• Per-app active time tracking (foreground app sampling every 1s)
• Idle detection (default 5 minutes)
• Local-only SQLite storage (%APPDATA%/ArkWatch/arkwatch.db)
• System tray controls (open, pause/resume, quit)
• Auto-start at login toggle
• Neo-brutalist dashboard using shadcn/ui + Merriweather font

Tech Stack

• Electron + electron-vite
• React + TypeScript + Tailwind + shadcn-style UI primitives
• SQLite (sqlite + sqlite3)
• Vitest for unit/integration tests

Development

bun install
bun run dev

Quality Checks

bun run typecheck
bun run test
bun audit

Build

bun run build

Windows Installer (NSIS)

bun run dist

Unsigned installer output:

• release/0.1.0/ArkWatch-0.1.0-setup.exe

Auto Updates

ArkWatch now uses Electron's auto-updater in packaged builds.

• Checks for updates 15 seconds after startup, then every 6 hours
• Downloads updates automatically in the background
• Shows live download progress in the dashboard
• Prompts the user to restart when the update is ready
• Installs automatically on quit if the user chooses "Later"

Updates are pulled from GitHub Releases (Subvius/arkwatch) via electron-builder publish config.

Publish an update

$env:GH_TOKEN = "<github-token-with-repo-access>"
bun run dist:publish

This uploads installer/update metadata (latest.yml, blockmap, setup .exe) so existing installs can auto-update.

Notes

• The project keeps signing optional for local builds (signAndEditExecutable: false). Windows EXE metadata/icon branding is applied in build/after-pack.cjs via rcedit, so ArkWatch appears correctly in Task Manager and shell surfaces.
• To enable code signing for production, provide standard Electron Builder signing environment variables (for example CSC_LINK and CSC_KEY_PASSWORD) and adjust signing options as needed.