01 / remember
Stop relying on a perfect memory.
Revisit what you were doing, what you read, and where your time went, whenever you need the context.
v1.2 now available — Free for Windows
Automatic time tracking for Windows · Private RescueTime alternative · No extension needed
Your day,
remembered.
DayRecall quietly captures the work you do, the pages you read, and the time you spend — including browser URLs with nothing to install. Then it helps you make sense of it, without sending your life to the cloud. One free Windows app, that's the whole setup.
v1.2 · Free · Windows 10/11 · ~72 MB MSI — browser tracking built in, works without AI, no account needed
Heads-up: Windows may show an “Unknown publisher” prompt — the installer is unsigned indie software. Click More info → Run anyway. Details
No account neededNo extension neededPrivate by designWindows 10 / 11
A quieter way to keep the context you worked hard to build.
DayRecall in action
See how your day comes back into focus.
A quick look at how DayRecall turns your everyday activity into a private, searchable record.
DayRecall product preview27 seconds
See what stays with you
A living record of the work behind your day.
DayRecall runs quietly in the background, turning scattered activity into something you can return to.
DayRecall desktop dashboardRuns locally on your Windows machine
The problem
Where did the day go?
Between windows, tabs, documents, and articles, the useful thread of a day is easy to lose. DayRecall keeps the thread.
02 / understand
Make your history useful.
Daily digests, project analytics, search, and chat turn raw activity into a clearer picture of your work.
One private memory
Everything you need to find your way back.
Useful on an ordinary Tuesday, valuable when a detail from three weeks ago suddenly matters.
Browser tracking, built in
Active-tab URLs, titles, domains, and per-page durations from Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera, Firefox, and more — natively, with nothing to install. Blacklist and incognito controls included.
Daily digest
Turn your day's activity into a concise summary of apps, domains, projects, and article takeaways.
Ask your day
Ask natural-language questions about your tracked history with AI grounded in your own data.
Timeline
Replay a day as contiguous frames and remember what you were doing at a specific time.
Projects
Per-project time across VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains IDEs, and more — with git commits, file activity, search, sort, and range presets.
Global search
Full-text plus semantic search across activity, browser history, articles, documents, memories, and chat answers — with live topbar results as you type.
Analytics
Accurate Active Time that reconciles with Usage, plus focus, distraction, and learning trends across days, weeks, and months.
Billing & reviews
Weekly, monthly, and yearly AI reviews plus professional invoice PDFs with hourly rates, tax, discounts, and timesheets — for freelancers.
Export, backup & updates
Export to CSV, JSON, Markdown, or PDF, keep timestamped local SQLite backups, and get one-click MSI updates. Uninstalls and upgrades never touch your data.
Privacy is the starting point
Your data belongs to you.
Most productivity tools begin with a cloud account. DayRecall begins on your Windows machine. It stores activity locally and lets you choose how AI fits into your setup.
LOCAL
Activity is stored in a local SQLite database on your machine.
OPTIONAL
Use Ollama for local AI, or configure OpenAI when that tradeoff works for you.
YOURS
Export your records anytime, and keep your own local backups.
QUIET
Runs from the system tray and starts with Windows when you choose.
How it works
One install, then it just remembers.
Download the Windows app. That's the whole setup — no account, no extension, no cloud, no ritual. Browser tracking is already inside.
Install the app
Download the standalone Windows app (~72 MB MSI). No .NET needed. Open it once and complete the welcome wizard.
Let it track
DayRecall logs active windows and browser URLs natively every 2 seconds, with idle and lock detection. It can start with Windows and live in the tray.
Find the thread
Ask the AI chat, replay your timeline, inspect projects and analytics, or export the record you built. AI via local Ollama is optional.
Ask your day
Questions you already know how to ask.
Your personal context is more useful when it is queryable. DayRecall's chat works from the activity it has tracked for you.
How much time did I spend coding today?
What articles did I read this morning?
What was I working on around 3 PM?
Which projects took most of my time this week?
Timeline playback
Remember exactly what you were doing.
When a thought, decision, or useful page is just out of reach, move through the day instead of guessing.
Tuesday, October 0809:00 — 18:00
Focused work — Visual Studio
Read — article in Chrome
Planning — Notion
Review — pull request
One install — nothing else
Start remembering your day.
A private, local-first memory for the work you already do. v1.2 - Free - Windows 10/11 - ~72 MB MSI installer
1 Download MSI2 Double-click - install3 Open app (check tray by clock)
Windows blocked it? Unknown publisher? Fix in 10 seconds
Click More info - Run anyway on the SmartScreen popup. DayRecall is unsigned indie software - this warning is normal. After install, if nothing opens, look for the DayRecall icon next to the clock (system tray) and double-click it.
No .NET needed - No account - Data stays in local SQLite - AI with Ollama is optional.
More than a time tracker
One workday. Many ways back in.
DayRecall turns the same local record into different kinds of help, depending on what you need to remember.
See the day
Dashboard stats, activity logs, usage reports, Day Story narrative, and timeline playback show what happened and when.
Understand the pattern
Accurate Active Time, rebuilt Projects with search and range presets, focus sessions, context switching, and trends help you review how time moved.
Keep the knowledge
DeepMemory sensors learn from terminal commands, process runs, git commits, and workspace files — all local, secrets redacted — plus bookmarks, documents, and article summaries.
Review with perspective
Ask about your day, generate weekly or monthly reviews, export invoices as PDF, and check Settings → Updates for one-click upgrades.
Designed for control
Know what is being remembered.
DayRecall is built for sensitive context. It records useful metadata about your work without pretending that “productivity” is an objective measurement.
CAPTURES
Foreground apps, window titles, executable paths, browser URLs, tab titles, domains, and time spent.
DOES NOT
It does not continuously capture screenshots, keystrokes, or full page contents.
YOU CHOOSE
Pause tracking, clear date ranges, configure browser privacy rules, export your data, or restore a local backup.
BE HONEST
Focus and productivity insights are helpful heuristics, not a verdict on how you worked.
Start with the right expectations
Made for a local Windows setup.
The app is intentionally close to the machine. That keeps your records private, and makes the setup a little different from a cloud SaaS tool.
Desktop app
DayRecall runs on Windows 10/11 as a tray-friendly desktop application.
No extension — tracking built in
Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera, and Firefox URLs, tab titles, and page time are captured natively. Nothing to install.
Ollama is the default
Install Ollama and the supported model for local digests, chat, summaries, and embeddings.
OpenAI is optional
You can configure OpenAI as a fallback, but relevant prompts and context then leave your machine.
A product that gets out of the way
Capture quietly. Return intentionally.
DayRecall can start with Windows, live in the system tray, and keep tracking while you work. It is there when a memory is useful, not another tab demanding attention.
How it compares
A private alternative to RescueTime, ManicTime & ActivityWatch.
Same idea — know where your time went — with a different default: your data never leaves your PC.
| Feature | DayRecall | RescueTime | ManicTime | ActivityWatch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Where data lives | Your PC (SQLite) | Cloud | Your PC | Your PC |
| Account required | No | Yes | No | No |
| Browser URLs | Built in, no extension | Extension | Extension | Extension |
| AI chat over your history | Yes — local via Ollama | — | — | — |
| Price | Free | Free tier + paid | Free tier + paid | Free, open source |
Based on each product’s publicly documented behavior at the time of writing — features change, so check the vendors for current details.
Release notes
v1.2.1 — latest release.
Free and ready for everyday Windows use. Accurate Active Time, smarter Projects, in-app updates, and deeper local memory — in a smaller, faster installer.
Accurate Active Time + rebuilt Projects
Idle/lock/sleep no longer erases real activity — Dashboard now reconciles with Usage. Project detection covers Antigravity, Kiro, Zed, Trae, Fleet, PhpStorm, RubyMine, Android Studio and more, backfills history at startup, and the Projects page adds search, sort, and range presets.
In-app updates
Settings → Updates checks GitHub releases automatically with banner, toast, and tray alert, plus one-click Download & Install. No need to watch the releases page.
DeepMemory + Day Story + live search
Local-only sensors learn from terminal commands, process runs, git commits, and workspace files (secrets redacted), with a narrative Day Story view and live topbar search as you type.
Smaller, reliable installer
Dead-code removal shrinks the single-file exe (~72 MB MSI). The installer stops the running tray app first so upgrades don't fail on locked files, and uninstall/upgrade never touches your database, backups, or settings.
Questions, answered
Frequently asked questions.
Short answers. Your data never leaves your machine to read them.
Is DayRecall really private? Where is my data stored?
Yes. DayRecall stores activity in a local SQLite database on your Windows machine. There is no account, no cloud sync, and no background upload.
Does DayRecall need an account or internet connection?
No. DayRecall works offline with no account. Internet is only needed to download the app, fetch updates, or if you optionally configure a cloud AI provider.
What does DayRecall track — and what does it not track?
It captures foreground apps, window titles, executable paths, browser URLs, tab titles, domains, and time spent. It does not continuously capture screenshots, keystrokes, or full page contents.
How does AI work without sending data to the cloud?
DayRecall uses Ollama by default for local digests, chat, summaries, and embeddings. Your prompts stay on your machine. OpenAI is an optional fallback you must explicitly configure.
Which versions of Windows are supported?
DayRecall runs on Windows 10 and Windows 11 as a tray-friendly desktop app. No .NET runtime or SDK is needed.
How does browser tracking work without an extension?
DayRecall reads the active tab URL and title natively via Windows UI Automation from Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera, Firefox, and more. Nothing to install — per-page durations, domains, and SPA navigation are recorded automatically, with blacklist and incognito controls in Settings.
Is DayRecall free?
Yes. DayRecall v1.2 is free. You can export your records to CSV, JSON, Markdown, or PDF, and keep your own local backups.
How do updates work?
Settings → Updates checks GitHub releases automatically and shows a banner, toast, and tray alert when a newer version is available. One click downloads and installs the MSI. Upgrades and uninstalls never touch your database, backups, or settings.
How do I pause, delete, export, or back up my data?
You can pause tracking from the system tray, clear any date range, configure browser privacy rules, export to CSV, JSON, Markdown, or PDF, and restore from timestamped local SQLite backups.
Feedback & reviews
Tried DayRecall? Tell us how it went.
One short form. No account, no tracking — just your rating and words, stored privately for the maker to read.