Argus

Argus quietly records which app you're using every 5 seconds.

No cloud. No account. No tracking — of you. Your data stays on your machine.

What is TUI?

TUI stands for Text-based User Interface. Instead of buttons and windows, it draws an interactive interface using plain text and characters, right inside your terminal. Think of it like a dashboard that lives in your command-line — no GUI window needed.

For a system like Argus, this matters: it means one command (argus tui) starts both the tracker and the dashboard at the same time, no background service setup required. It's lightweight and keyboard-driven.

Features

• Every 5 seconds — records the active app, window title, and timestamps silently in the background
• Auto-categorises — groups time into Browser, IDE, Communication, Gaming, Media, and more
• Local-only — all data stored in a simple SQLite file on your computer; nothing sent anywhere
• Cross-platform — works on Windows and Linux

Screenshots

Functional screenshots

Theme changes

Requirements Definition

functionality requirement

#	Feature	Details
R1	Tracks your active window	Every 5 seconds, silently
R2	Auto-categorises apps	Browser, IDE, Terminal, Chat, etc. — 11 categories
R3	Stores data locally	SQLite file, no server, no account
R4	TUI runs the tracker too	argus tui starts both dashboard and tracker — no daemon needed
R5	Auto-starts on login	OS-specific, one command to enable
R6	6 UI languages	Press L in the TUI to switch
R7	12 colour themes	Press T in the TUI to cycle

Non-functionality requirement :

#	Quality	Details
R8	Privacy	All data stays on your machine — zero network calls
R9	Cross-platform	Windows, Linux
R10	Lightweight	Uses less than 1% CPU on normal desktop use
R11	Idle detection	Pauses recording when you're away
R12	Small storage	One row per 5-second snapshot
R13	Modular	Clean layer separation for easy maintenance

---

Project structure:

src/
├── main.py               # CLI entry point — delegates to argus/
└── argus/
    ├── __init__.py       # version
    ├── config.py         # constants, category rules, settings
    ├── i18n.py           # UI strings (6 languages)
    ├── tracker.py        # active window + idle detection (per OS)
    ├── storage.py        # SQLite read/write
    ├── daemon.py         # background polling loop
    ├── report.py         # daily/weekly/status reports
    ├── tui.py            # live dashboard
    └── autostart.py      # login auto-start (per OS)
build.py                  # PyInstaller build script → dist/argus[.exe]
requirements.txt          # runtime dependencies
requirements-dev.txt      # runtime + build tools
dist/                     # compiled executables (git-ignored)

TUI — Keyboard shortcuts:

| Key | Action | |---| | R | Refresh data immediately | | T | Cycle through colour themes | | L | Cycle through UI languages (6 languages) | | A | Toggle Auto Start | | O | Open the data folder | | [ ] | Previous / next day | | { } | Previous / next week | | Q | Quit |

argus tui opens a live full-terminal dashboard powered by Textual. It also runs the tracker in the background — no separate start command needed.