Automatic activity capture
Dayflow captures screenshots of your screen at low frequency and analyzes them with AI every 15 minutes, then builds a visual timeline of your day.
Dayflow
Dayflow is an automatic work journal for Mac that captures screen activity and turns it into a structured timeline with AI-generated summaries. It is aimed at developers, freelancers, and knowledge workers who want a factual record of their day and a faster way to write updates.
What Dayflow is
Dayflow is an automatic work journal for Mac that captures screen activity and turns it into a structured record of what you spent time on. Instead of asking you to manually tag tasks, it uses AI to produce a visual timeline with descriptions, categories, and summaries.
The product is designed for developers, freelancers, and knowledge workers who want a factual log of their day and a quicker way to write updates or reflect on progress. Dayflow is open source under the MIT license, with local storage by default and optional cloud or provider-based processing depending on how you configure it.
Features
Structured work journal
The product turns captured activity into descriptions, categories, and summaries so you can review what you worked on without tagging items manually.
Context-aware analysis
Dayflow distinguishes between different kinds of similar-looking activity, such as researching on YouTube versus watching unrelated videos, by using context from the screen.
Multiple ways to review your day
It can generate daily and weekly summaries, and it also includes a chat view for reviewing what happened across your work history.
Flexible processing modes
You can choose Local Processing, Bring Your Own AI Provider, or Dayflow Cloud, depending on how you want screenshots analyzed and where the data is handled.
Local data control
The app supports local storage of screenshots, optional cloud sync of activity data in Pro, and export/delete controls for data you keep locally or in the account.
Common ways to use Dayflow
Review your workday
Use Dayflow as an end-of-day record of what you actually spent time on, including coding, planning, communication, and other work segments that it identifies from screen activity.
Write work updates faster
Use the automatically generated summaries to draft status updates, standup notes, or progress reports without rebuilding your day from memory.
Track progress over time
Keep an ongoing log of tasks and focus changes if you want a clearer picture of where your time went over the course of a week.
Match the setup to your privacy preference
Choose local processing if you want screenshots to remain on your own machine, or switch to a bring-your-own-provider setup if you already have preferred AI accounts.
Support team or enterprise use
Use the product as a shared operational tool in an organization that needs account controls such as SSO/SAML and data retention settings.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Automatically records activity and summarizes it into a timeline, reducing manual tagging.
- Open source under the MIT license, so the code is inspectable and self-hostable in principle.
- Local mode keeps screenshots on your device.
- Supports multiple processing options, including local models, bring-your-own-provider, and an opt-in cloud mode.
- Provides summaries that can be used to draft work updates more quickly.
Cons
- The product is Mac-only today, with a Windows version still on the waitlist.
- AI quality depends on the provider you choose, and the site notes that local models may be less detailed than Gemini or ChatGPT/Claude.
- Using cloud AI providers or Dayflow Cloud means screenshots are sent for analysis according to the mode you select.
FAQ
How does Dayflow work?
Dayflow records your screen on Mac, analyzes activity with AI, and turns it into a structured timeline with descriptions, categories, and summaries. The FAQ says it also distinguishes context, so it is meant to understand what you were doing rather than only which app was open.
Is my data private?
Yes. In Local Processing mode, screenshots stay on your device and nothing is sent to Dayflow’s servers except optional anonymous analytics and basic account information. Dayflow also offers a bring-your-own-provider mode and an opt-in cloud mode, so you can choose the level of data sharing you want.
What platforms are supported?
Dayflow is a native macOS app built with SwiftUI and requires macOS 13.0 Ventura or later. The site also says a Windows version is coming and invites users to join the waitlist.
Is there a free version?
The site says Dayflow is free and open source under the MIT license. You can use it with local models or Gemini’s free tier; ChatGPT or Claude require your own paid subscription to access those providers’ APIs.
Can teams use Dayflow?
Yes. The pricing page includes an Enterprise plan with SSO/SAML integration and data retention controls, and the privacy page says the product is designed to work securely across personal and enterprise use cases.
Quick Facts
- Category
- Productivity / Developer Tool
- Platform
- macOS 13.0 Ventura or later
- Pricing shape
- Free plan available; Pro is $20/month; Enterprise uses contact sales
- License
- MIT open source
- Data handling
- Local by default, with bring-your-own-provider and opt-in cloud options
- Website
- dayflow.so
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