Documentation

Deski is a local-first desktop time tracker. It quietly notices when you're active at your computer and turns that into time blocks, charts and tags — and your activity data stays on your device. This page covers everything: installing, your account, every screen, and every setting.

Getting started

Install

1. Download the Windows installer from the pricing section and run it.
2. Windows SmartScreen may warn you on first run while builds are unsigned. Click More info → Run anyway.
3. Follow the installer; Deski starts when it finishes.

Sign in

1. On first launch, enter your email address. No password — Deski emails you a 6-digit code instead.
2. Enter the code (it's valid for 15 minutes; you can request a new one).
3. That's it. By signing in you agree to Deski's Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

One account works on up to 3 devices at the same time — see Account, trial & billing for details.

The walkthrough

After your first sign-in, a short 4-step tour highlights the timer, your sessions, Insights and the sidebar. You can replay it anytime from Settings → Tutorial → Start.

Account, trial & billing

• 14-day free trial of the full app — a card is collected at checkout, but you're charged $0 during the trial.
• After the trial, Deski Pro is $5/month. Cancel within the first 14 days and you owe nothing.
• The free trial is one per account. Cancelling mid-trial keeps your access until the trial's end date (and you can resume it before then); once it lapses, resubscribing starts billing immediately — there's no second trial.
• Payments are handled by Freemius, our Merchant of Record. We never see your card details.
• Cancel anytime in the app: Settings → Account → Cancel subscription. Your access continues until the period you've paid for ends.
• You can be signed in on up to 3 devices at once. Signing in on a 4th quietly signs out the oldest one.
• Offline use: Deski checks your subscription about once a day and keeps a signed local pass, so it works offline for up to 3 days between checks. Only your subscription status is ever checked online — your tracking data never leaves the device.
• Delete account data — when you cancel your subscription (Settings → Account), tick "Also delete my account data now" to immediately remove the little we store — your email and sign-in sessions — from our sign-in service. Otherwise it's deleted automatically after 90 days of inactivity. Your local tracking data stays on your machine, untouched and yours.

The window

• Move it by dragging the top bar; minimize / maximize / close from the top-right corner.
• The window auto-fits your screen height, including high-DPI and multi-monitor setups.
• A left sidebar switches between Stopwatch (Timer), Insights, and Settings (the gear). It can auto-hide (Settings → Sidebar).
• The footer shows "Local only" — a reminder of where your data lives — plus your subscription status, and a small pill when an update is available.

Timer & tracking modes

Auto mode (default)

Auto records by itself — as soon as Auto is selected, Deski watches for mouse/keyboard activity, opens a time block when you become active, and closes it after a period of inactivity (the idle gap, adjustable from 10 seconds to 5 minutes in Settings → Timing). There's nothing to remember to press. An optional start/stop button (on by default, Settings → Track) lets you pause and resume Auto manually.

Manual mode

A plain stopwatch: Start opens a block, Stop saves it. Good for work away from the keyboard — meetings, calls, whiteboards. You can't switch modes while a manual session is running — stop it first.

If you only ever use Auto, you can hide the Auto/Manual switch entirely with Settings → Track → Manual tracking.

The big circle shows elapsed time and a status pill (Idle, Tracking or In Progress).

Sessions & tags

• Rename a block — click its title and type.
• Tag it — up to 3 tags per block, from a library of up to 10 colour-coded tags you create in Settings → Tags (emojis welcome, e.g. 📚 Study).
• Delete it — the trash icon.
• Each card shows the block's clicks · moves · keys counts.
• Deleting a tag from your library removes it from any blocks using it.

Total Today sums today's tracked time. The Timer page shows your three most recent sessions; the rest live in Insights.

Insights

Daily Activity chart

Pick a chart type (Heatmap or Bar) and granularity (by hour / day / month) — including a GitHub-style contribution calendar and a weekday×hour punch card. Bars are split by tag: the top 5 tags get their own colour, the rest group as "Other".

Efficiency Score

A ring showing focus ÷ span for today: focus is your tracked time, span runs from your first session's start to your last session's end. Breaks in between lower the score. It measures continuity, not the quality of your work.

Recent Activity

Drill down through your history: day → hour → individual blocks, with breadcrumbs.

Settings reference

Settings opens as a three-page panel (arrows at the top switch pages).

Data & privacy

Deski is built so that tracking never becomes surveillance:

• Keyboard = a count only. Deski records that a key was pressed and when, as a running tally. It never records which keys you press.
• Mouse = activity only, no location. Clicks and movement are logged as events in time — never the pointer's position on screen.
• Everything is stored locally in a single SQLite database file in Deski's application-data folder. Your activity is never uploaded anywhere.
• Clearing really clears. Cleared data is securely wiped and the database compacted, so it's genuinely gone from disk.

The only things that touch the network are sign-in and the once-a-day subscription check. Details in the Privacy Policy.

Clearing data

• Delete a single block — the trash icon on its card.
• Clear all (Timer page) — today's blocks, with confirmation.
• Clear all (Insights page) — all history, with confirmation.

⚠️ Deletions cannot be undone. Deski keeps your data local with no cloud backup, so cleared data can't be recovered — it's securely wiped from disk.

Updates

When a newer version exists, a small pill appears in the app footer with a download link. You can also check manually via Settings → About → Check for updates. Updates are installed by running the new installer — your data is untouched.

Troubleshooting

No block appeared in Auto mode

A block opens only once activity is detected, and closes after the idle gap. Check that mouse and/or keyboard tracking is enabled in Settings → Track.

The sign-in code never arrived

Check spam, and that the address is typed correctly. Codes expire after 15 minutes — request a fresh one from the sign-in screen.

"No active subscription" after I subscribed

Click "I've subscribed — check again" on that screen — it re-checks immediately. Make sure you signed in with the same email you used at checkout.

I was signed out unexpectedly

You may have signed in on more than 3 devices — the oldest session is signed out automatically. Just sign in again.

SmartScreen blocks the installer

Expected while builds are unsigned: click More info → Run anyway.

Support

Questions, bugs, ideas — email [email protected].