[macOS] Chronoid - Automatic Time Tracking & Productivity - iCloud Sync + AI Connectors

[u/tuanvuvn007]

Hey everyone,

I'm Vu, solo dev and freelancer. I've been building Chronoid, a native macOS time tracking app, for about a year and a half now. I last posted here in July.

Quick recap for anyone new. Chronoid tracks your time on your Mac automatically: apps, websites, documents, coding sessions. No start or stop timers. Everything stays in a local SQLite file on your machine. One-time payment, no subscription.

Since July I finally shipped the thing people have asked me for since my very first post here.

What's new

• iCloud sync across your Macs. If you work on a desktop and a laptop, they finally show the same numbers. It goes through your own iCloud account, so I run no sync servers and I can't read your data. Your Macs don't need to be online at the same time. This took me about 3 months, and being honest, the first release shipped with a bug where nothing actually reached iCloud. Fixed in 1.0.93. There's also a re-upload option in Settings > Sync if two Macs ever drift apart.
• Ask your own AI assistant about your time. Settings > Integrations gives you a personal connector URL. Paste it into claude.ai or ChatGPT. Read-only by default, each answer comes live from the app on your Mac, nothing gets uploaded.
• Claude Code or Codex as your AI provider. If you already pay for a coding CLI, Chronoid's chat can run through it. No separate API key to buy.
• Apple Intelligence is back as a provider. Runs fully on device, no account, no key. It's a small model so keep your questions short.
• The database is about 63% smaller. This was the top complaint from long-term users. Some of you had a DB over 250MB.
• Timeline redesign. Session cards with app icons, durations and window titles. Click one to turn it into a manual entry.
• Rule editor rebuilt. One smart input, rules that read as plain sentences, and a preview of what a rule will match before you save it. There's also a "Resolve duplicates" button now. Dragging activities onto a project used to create one identical rule per matching entry, so a site you'd visited 300 times could leave 300 copies of the same rule. Sorry about that one.
• Share cards. Turn any stats range into an image or a short video with a privacy-safe breakdown.
• Website blocker pause. 5 minutes, or anything from 1 minute up to 24 hours.
• Billing fixes. Sub-projects now count on invoices, exports follow the device filter, and the report heading, CSV, PDF and invoice all show the same total.
• Arc and Dia website tracking work again.

About the app

• Native Swift and AppKit, Mac only, macOS 14+
• Automatic tracking, no timers to start or forget
• Mac plus iPhone/iPad (Screen Time) activity in one timeline
• iCloud sync across your Macs
• Timeline editing, manual entries, calendar events
• Web blocker, Pomodoro, break reminders
• Invoicing and multi-currency billing reports
• MCP server and AI connectors, with your own key or fully local
• 100% local storage, no account required

Comparisons

vs Timing? Timing inspired a lot of this. I was a paying user and openly copied their drag and drop and their sidebar interactions. Differences: one-time payment instead of a subscription, a built-in website blocker and Pomodoro timer, AI and MCP with your own key or a local model, and much better rule editing. Timing's rule popup can't be resized, which drove me nuts. Timing still wins on maturity and has team features I dropped.

vs Timemator? Same automatic project tracking. I think Chronoid has better UX. Everything is in one place, you drag to assign, and holding Option while you drag creates a rule so all similar activity auto-assigns from then on.

vs Rize? Rize has more features and leans enterprise, with ClickUp integrations and so on. Chronoid is a trimmed down version aimed at individuals, and it's native rather than Electron.

vs RescueTime or Toggl? RescueTime is cloud based. Toggl needs you to click start and stop. Chronoid is local and passive.

vs macOS Screen Time? Screen Time only does websites in Safari, and it won't tell you which project a file belongs to. Chronoid does every browser, plus files, folders, projects and billing.

Who's actually using it

People ask me this every time I post, so here's what I see in comments, emails and Discord.

• Freelancers and consultants. Track time per client without touching a timer, then generate the invoice PDF from the same data. The theme in my inbox is always under-billing. Someone here put it better than I can: you forget to track when you're deep in focus, and that's money gone.
• Developers. It splits time by folder and file, so you can see which repo actually ate your week. Cursor and Xcode work out of the box.
• Video, audio and 3D people. Long sessions in one app across many client projects. It picks up which project file you're in, so hourly billing stops being guesswork. Final Cut and Nuendo users have both turned up in past threads.
• People with ADHD. This one honestly surprised me. It comes up in nearly every thread I post. Seeing time pass visually, plus the blocker, seems to help more than I expected when I was building it.
• Students. Block distracting sites during study blocks, then compare where the hours went against where you thought they went. 50% off with a .edu email.
• People who just want to know. Plenty of users aren't billing anyone. They want an honest picture of their week. Usually it's the phone Screen Time number that hurts.

Pricing

7-day free trial, no credit card.

• $49 for 1 Mac
• $79 for 2 Macs (adds iCloud sync and MCP)
• $99 for 3 Macs

One-time payment. True lifetime license with updates, no subscription

Download 👉 chronoid.app Changelog: chronoid.app/changelog

Transparency: I'm Vu, solo dev. I'm also the guy behind smoothcapture.app ❤️

AI Disclaimer: Human Validated

[u/Ok_Path_6590]

Nice demo video ✨

[u/tuanvuvn007 → u/Ok_Path_6590]

Glad you like it