ActivityWatch: categorize applications for productivity scoring

[fiddur]

Summary

ActivityWatch data is currently stored without productivity scores or category labels (unlike RescueTime which assigns them server-side). This follow-up adds user-defined categorization rules so ActivityWatch data can be enriched with productivity scores on the way in.

Motivation

• RescueTime assigns a -2 to +2 productivity score to each activity automatically
• ActivityWatch has no such system — the backend receives only app names and window titles
• Without scores, ActivityWatch data shows up in the productivity view but contributes nothing to productivity trend analysis
• Users should be able to define which apps count as "productive" vs "distracting"

Proposed Design

Phase 1: Simple app-name rules (ship first)

User defines rules in Settings: app name pattern → category + score

emacs, vim, neovim          → "Software Development" / +2
alacritty, kitty, wezterm   → "Terminal" / +1
firefox, chromium           → "Browser" / 0  (neutral unless overridden)
slack, discord              → "Communication" / -1
youtube.com (title match)   → "Video" / -2

Rules are applied at push time (when the agent POSTs to /api/sync/activitywatch) and stored with each productivity record.

A separate "re-apply rules" sync operation can backfill existing records when rules change.

Phase 2: Regex/glob matching on app name or window title

For more precise control, support regex patterns on either app (always available) or title (window title from the AW event).

Phase 3: Sensible defaults

Ship a set of default rules covering common developer tools so new users get useful scores out of the box without having to configure anything.

Implementation Notes

• Rules live in user settings (JSONB) as an array of { pattern, match_field, category, productivity } objects
• Rule matching happens in activitywatch-sync.ts before calling insertProductivity
• Rules should be defined in packages/api-spec as a schema
• Settings page gets a new "ActivityWatch Rules" section (similar to Last.fm Tag Rules)
• REST API: CRUD on /api/settings/activitywatch-rules
• MCP: get_activitywatch_rules, add_activitywatch_rule, delete_activitywatch_rule

Related

• Implements part of issue Add ActivityWatch as a productivity data source #217 (ActivityWatch integration)
• Similar in concept to Last.fm tag rules (which tag scrobbles based on track/artist patterns)

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