Mono - Screen Time Tracker (Linux Only)

A privacy-first screen time tracking application for Linux with a polished terminal-based user interface (TUI). Mono runs silently in the background to track your application usage while providing a beautiful, htop-inspired dashboard for visualization.

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Features

• Privacy-First: All data stored locally in SQLite, never leaves your machine
• TUI Dashboard: Beautiful terminal interface inspired by htop, btop, and lazygit
• Background Tracking: Runs as a daemon on system startup
• Real-Time Updates: Live tracking of active applications
• Weekly Overview: Visual bar chart of daily screen time
• Application Stats: Detailed breakdown of time spent per application
• Window Manager Support: Integrated with Hyprland, Sway, KDE, and other Wayland compositors

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Requirements

• Linux only (tested on Arch Linux with Hyprland)
• Rust 1.70 or later
• Cargo (included with Rust)
• SQLite (bundled with the application)

Supported Desktop Environments

Environment	Status	Notes
Hyprland	Full support	Automatic detection
Sway	Full support	Automatic detection
KDE (Wayland)	Full support	Uses KWin D-Bus interface
Other Wayland	Fallback	Basic tracking via X11 tools
X11	Disabled	Use Wayland instead

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Installation

git clone https://github.com/xonoxc/mono.git
cd mono
./install.sh

The install script builds the release binary, installs it to ~/.local/bin/mono-tracker, and sets up autostart via systemd (with XDG autostart as fallback).

Manual Installation

cargo build --release
./install.sh
mono # launch dashboard

Uninstall

./uninstall.sh

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Binaries

Binary	Purpose
mono	TUI Dashboard
mono-tracker	Background tracking daemon
mono-cli	CLI management tool

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Usage

TUI Controls

Key	Action
j / Down	Scroll down
k / Up	Scroll up
h / Left	Previous day
l / Right	Next day
g	Go to today
r	Refresh data
Tab	Switch between sections
q	Quit

First Run

On first launch, Mono displays a consent prompt:

• Enable Tracking: Starts the daemon and enables autostart
• Skip for Now: Opens dashboard without tracking

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CLI Commands

mono-cli status    # Check tracking status
mono-cli setup     # Enable tracking and autostart
mono-cli unsetup   # Disable tracking and remove autostart

Daemon Control

mono-tracker        # Start daemon manually
pkill mono-tracker  # Stop daemon
pgrep mono-tracker # Check if running

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Architecture

src/
├── main.rs                # Daemon entry point
├── lib.rs                 # Core library
├── session_manager.rs     # Session management & tracking
├── storage.rs            # SQLite database
├── autostart.rs         # Autostart registration
├── window_managers/     # Window manager integrations
│   ├── mod.rs          # WindowManager trait & detection
│   ├── hyprland.rs     # Hyprland (hyprctl)
│   ├── sway.rs         # Sway (swaymsg)
│   ├── kde.rs          # KDE (KWin D-Bus)
│   ├── generic_wayland.rs # Fallback (X11 tools)
│   └── x11.rs          # X11 (disabled)
├── ipc_server.rs        # IPC server
└── tui/
    ├── main.rs         # TUI dashboard
    ├── db.rs          # Database queries
    └── consent.rs     # Consent handling

Data Storage

• Database: ~/.local/share/mono/mono.db
• Config: ~/.config/mono/
• Consent: ~/.config/mono/consent

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Development

cargo build           # Debug build
cargo build --release # Release build
cargo test            # Run tests
cargo run --bin mono  # Run TUI

Tests

cargo test           # All tests

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Key Dependencies

• ratatui: Terminal UI framework
• rusqlite: SQLite bindings
• sysinfo: System information
• chrono: Date/time handling

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Troubleshooting

Daemon Not Running

mono-cli setup

View Database

sqlite3 ~/.local/share/mono/mono.db
sqlite3 ~/.local/share/mono/mono.db ".schema"

Window Manager Not Detected

The daemon falls back to basic tracking without window titles. Ensure you're running a supported Wayland compositor.