How Tracewise works.

Overview

You install a small app that lives in your menu bar. You tell it which folders you work in. Then you just work — it watches file activity in those folders, groups it into sessions, and measures how long you were genuinely working. When it's time to bill, your hours are already there, grouped by project. Learn more about why we built Tracewise.

It runs quietly and locally. You open it when you want to see your day; the rest of the time it stays out of the way.

Install

macOS 13 or later, on Apple Silicon or Intel.

• Download the app and drag Tracewise.app into your Applications folder.
• Open it. The first time, macOS may say the app is from an unidentified developer. Right-click the app, choose Open, then confirm — or go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway.
• Sign in with your email. We send a magic link — click it and you're in. No password to remember.

Getting started

After you sign in, tell Tracewise which folders hold your work. Click the tw icon in the menu bar → Switch folder → pick a directory (for example ~/Projects or a specific client folder).

Only the folders you choose are watched. Everything else on your Mac is invisible to it.

Then keep working normally. Save a file in one of those folders and a session starts within seconds. That's it — there's nothing to press.

How tracking works

The part that makes your hours trustworthy.

Sessions

A session is a continuous stretch of work on one project. It starts when you save a file in a watched project (or when an AI assistant is writing code there), and it's named after the project automatically — no manual timers, no naming.

Two kinds of time

Tracewise measures two numbers, on purpose:

• Engaged time — the time you were actually working, including reading a ticket and thinking through a solution. This is what your invoices bill. It stops the moment you step away.
• Focus time — the minutes you were actively in the keyboard and mouse. This is a productivity insight, not the bill — reading and thinking don't move the mouse, so it's too strict to charge by.

Thinking counts. Away-time doesn't. That's what keeps the number fair to you and to your client.

Idle and away

When you stop touching your Mac, the timer stops counting and the menu shows Idle · not counting. If you're away for the idle window (10 minutes by default), the session pauses on its own. Nothing counts while you're gone, and sleep is excluded entirely — a session can't run overnight.

Working alongside AI

If you use an AI assistant like Claude or ChatGPT to write code in a tracked project, that counts as work — you're directing and reviewing it. Supervising the AI is billable, so you don't lose that time.

The menu bar

Click the tw icon to open the panel. It shows:

• Now tracking — the current project and your engaged time, with a green dot. If you step away it becomes Idle · not counting with an amber dot; if you pause it, Paused.
• Switch folder — change which project directory you're working in.
• Pause — stop tracking on purpose (a break, a call). Resume anytime.
• Settings — launch at login, idle-timeout length (Solo), your account and plan.
• Dashboard — open the web app to see sessions, insights, and invoices.

Projects & clients

Every folder you work in becomes a project automatically — you don't create them by hand. In the dashboard you can link a project to a client, which sets the hourly rate used when the work is invoiced.

Rates resolve simply: if the project's client has an hourly rate, that's used; otherwise your profile's default rate applies. You set both in the dashboard.

Invoicing

Solo plan. Your tracked hours, turned into a client-ready PDF.

Tracewise groups your engaged hours by project and client, so a week of work becomes an invoice you can review, sign, and send. Hours per project are shown on the invoice; the detailed session log stays in your dashboard as proof if a client ever asks.

Automatic invoicing

Turn on Auto Invoice for a client and pick a cycle — weekly (on a chosen day) or monthly. Each period, Tracewise creates a draft invoice for the hours worked, waiting in your dashboard with an "auto" tag.

AI insights

Solo plan.

Tracewise looks at your own sessions and writes short, useful notes — a weekly summary of where your hours went, and your peak focus hour (the time of week you consistently do your deepest work). The analysis runs on our servers using session summaries only — never the contents of your files.

Plans & limits

On the Free plan, your two most-recently-active projects stay fully visible. Extra projects are still recorded — they're just locked until you upgrade. Nothing is ever deleted, and upgrading unlocks everything instantly, including the history captured while you waited.

Privacy

Tracewise reads file-system events in the folders you choose — file names, timestamps, project switches, idle gaps. That's all it needs to measure your work.

It never opens or transmits the contents of your files, never records keystrokes or the clipboard, and never takes screenshots. Your code is yours.

Your data is stored locally first, in a database on your Mac, and syncs to the cloud only when you're signed in. Full details are in the Privacy Promise.

Troubleshooting

A session isn't starting

Check that the folder you're working in has been added (tw → Switch folder) and that you're saving files in a coding app. A bare file change with no editor activity is treated as background noise and ignored.

It's asking me to sign in again

Sessions expire for security. If Tracewise notifies you to sign in again, open the menu and sign in — your local data is untouched, and syncing resumes right away.

The menu won't open

Quit Tracewise (or use Quit from the menu if it responds) and open it again from Applications. Your session data is saved continuously, so nothing is lost.

Still stuck?

Email hello@tracewise.app — we read every message and reply within 5 business days.