EBYT — Every Byte You Track

"Every move you make, every byte you track..."

Minimal X11 activity tracker. Logs which window is focused, for how long, and when you're AFK. Data goes into SQLite. That's it.

For full-featured activity tracking with broader support, see ActivityWatch or arbtt. ebyt intentionally stays small, X11 only, SQLite only, no plugins, no config files. Use the built-in TUI for interactive browsing, or query the database directly (sqlite3, scripts, whatever you prefer).

Dependencies

• Zig >= 0.15.0
• libX11 — active window detection (WM_CLASS, _NET_WM_NAME)
• libXi — XInput2 raw events for AFK detection
• libsqlite3 — local database
• zigzag — TUI framework (fetched automatically by zig build)

The system libraries (X11, Xi, sqlite3) are standard on most Linux desktops.

Install

On Arch (via AUR):

yay -S ebyt-bin   # prebuilt binary
yay -S ebyt       # build from source

Or grab the binary from the releases page.

Build

zig build
zig build -Doptimize=ReleaseSafe  # optimized binary

Binary goes to zig-out/bin/ebyt.

Usage

ebyt daemon [--poll 5] [--afk-timeout 300]    # start daemon (foreground)
ebyt tui                                      # interactive dashboard
ebyt export [--today|--week|--since DATE]     # export as CSV
ebyt status                                   # current window + tracking uptime

Daemon

Polls the active X11 window at a configurable interval (default 5s). Detects AFK after a configurable timeout (default 300s) using XInput2 raw input events. Shuts down gracefully on SIGINT/SIGTERM.

TUI

Interactive terminal dashboard built with zigzag. Day and week views with stacked active/AFK bar charts, per-app breakdowns with expandable window titles, and vim-style navigation.

Export

CSV export for scripting and external tools:

ebyt export                       # today's activity
ebyt export --week                # this week
ebyt export --since 2026-01-01    # since a specific date

Output: window_class,window_title,start_time,duration(s)

Systemd

A user service is included. The AUR packages install it automatically:

systemctl --user enable --now ebyt

For manual installs, the service expects the binary at /usr/bin/ebyt:

cp ebyt.service ~/.config/systemd/user/

Database

SQLite, stored at $XDG_STATE_HOME/ebyt/ebyt.db (defaults to ~/.local/state/ebyt/ebyt.db). One row per continuous activity on the same window — rows are extended on each poll if nothing changed, new row on window or AFK state change.

SELECT window_class, SUM(end_time - start_time) as seconds
FROM activities
WHERE afk = 0 AND start_time > unixepoch('now', '-7 days')
GROUP BY window_class
ORDER BY seconds DESC;

Limitations

Window class and title are truncated to 256 bytes. Good enough (^_^)

Disclaimer

First Zig project, written with the help of an AI coding assistant. It works, but review accordingly.

License

Apache-2.0