systemctl is-active aw-server
curl -s http://localhost:5600/api/0/info

active
{"hostname": "aw-server01", "version": "v0.14.1", "testing": false, "device_id": "a34e4cfc-7992-4c03-a7a2-7422da090665", "profile": "default"}

apt-get install -y python3-pip
pip3 install aw-client
which aw-client

/usr/local/bin/aw-client

/opt/activitywatch/aw-server/aw-server --version

aw-server 0.14.1

/opt/activitywatch/aw-server/aw-server --help

usage: aw-server [-h] [--testing] [--profile PROFILE] [--verbose] [--version]
                 [--log-json] [--host HOST] [--port PORT] [--storage STORAGE]
                 [--cors-origins CORS_ORIGINS] [--custom-static CUSTOM_STATIC]

Starts an ActivityWatch server

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --testing             Run aw-server in testing mode using different ports
                        and database (alias for --profile testing)
  --profile PROFILE     Named instance profile (data, config, port and
                        settings are isolated). --testing is an alias for
                        --profile testing.
  --verbose             Be chatty.
  --version             Print version and quit
  --log-json            Output the logs in JSON format
  --host HOST           Which host address to bind the server to
  --port PORT           Which port to run the server on
  --storage STORAGE     The method to use for storing data. Some methods (such
                        as MongoDB) require specific Python packages to be
                        available (in the MongoDB case: pymongo)
  --cors-origins CORS_ORIGINS
                        CORS origins to allow (as a comma separated list)
  --custom-static CUSTOM_STATIC
                        The custom static directories. Format:
                        watcher_name=path,watcher_name2=path2,...

cd /opt/activitywatch && ./aw-server/aw-server --port 5667

 * Running on all addresses (0.0.0.0)
 * Running on http://127.0.0.1:5667
 * Running on http://10.89.59.2:5667  (werkzeug:187)

./aw-server/aw-server --testing

2026-10-22 16:36:41 [INFO ]: Using database file: /root/.local/share/activitywatch-testing/aw-server/peewee-sqlite.v2.db  (aw_datastore.storages.peewee:189)
 * Running on http://localhost:5666  (werkzeug:187)

systemctl start aw-server
systemctl stop aw-server
systemctl restart aw-server
systemctl status aw-server --no-pager
journalctl -u aw-server -f

● aw-server.service - ActivityWatch Server (aw-server)
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/aw-server.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Thu 2026-10-22 16:29:22 UTC; 11s ago
   Main PID: 4347 (aw-server)
      Tasks: 1 (limit: 94371)
     Memory: 36.7M

/opt/activitywatch/aw-server-rust/aw-server-rust --version

aw-server 0.14.1

aw-client --help

Usage: aw-client [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

  CLI utility for aw-client to aid in interacting with the ActivityWatch
  server

Options:
  --host TEXT     Address of host
  --port INTEGER  Port to use
  -v, --verbose   Verbosity
  --testing       Set to use testing ports by default
  --help          Show this message and exit.

Commands:
  buckets    List all buckets
  canonical  Query 'canonical events' for a single host (filtered,...
  events     Query events from bucket with ID `bucket_id`
  heartbeat  Send a heartbeat to bucket with ID `bucket_id` with JSON `data`
  query      Run a query in file at `path` on the server
  report     Generate an activity report

pip3 show aw-client | head -2

Name: aw-client
Version: 0.5.15

aw-client buckets

Buckets:
 - test-bucket

aw-client events test-bucket

events:
 - 2026-10-22 10:05:00 (0:00:00) {'status': 'not-afk'}
 - 2026-10-22 10:00:00 (0:00:30) {'status': 'not-afk'}

aw-client heartbeat test-bucket '{"status": "cli-test"}' --pulsetime 10

{'id': None, 'timestamp': datetime.datetime(2026, 10, 22, 16, 18, 24, 658000, tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc), 'duration': datetime.timedelta(0), 'data': {'status': 'cli-test'}}

cat > /tmp/testquery.q <<'EOF'
events = query_bucket("test-bucket");
merged = merge_events_by_keys(events, ["status"]);
RETURN = merged;
EOF

aw-client query /tmp/testquery.q

TypeError: query() got an unexpected keyword argument 'json'

from datetime import datetime, timedelta, timezone
from aw_client.client import ActivityWatchClient
c = ActivityWatchClient("cli-demo")
start = datetime(2026, 10, 22, 0, 0, tzinfo=timezone.utc)
end = start + timedelta(days=1)
print(c.query('events = query_bucket("test-bucket"); RETURN = events;', [(start, end)]))

aw-client report aw-server01 --start 2026-10-22 --stop 2026-10-23

INFO:aw_client.cli:Querying between 2026-10-22 00:00:00 and 2026-10-23 00:00:00
Traceback (most recent call last):
  ...

aw-client --host 10.89.59.2 --port 5600 buckets
aw-client --testing buckets

/opt/activitywatch/aw-qt --help

Usage: aw-qt [OPTIONS]

  A trayicon and service manager for ActivityWatch

Options:
  --testing                 Run the trayicon and services in testing mode
  --profile TEXT            Run an isolated instance under this profile name
                            (data, config, port and lockfile are separate).
                            --testing is an alias for --profile testing.
  -v, --verbose             Run with debug logging
  --autostart-modules TEXT  A comma-separated list of modules to autostart, or
                            just `none` to not autostart anything.
  --no-gui                  Start aw-qt without a graphical user interface
                            (terminal output only)
  -i, --interactive         Start aw-qt in interactive cli mode (forces --no-
                            gui)
  --help                    Show this message and exit.

cd /opt/activitywatch && ./aw-qt --interactive

2026-10-22 16:19:07 [INFO ]: Started aw-qt...  (aw_qt.main:108)
2026-10-22 16:19:07 [WARNING]: Found matching file but was not executable: /opt/activitywatch/aw-server-rust/aw-server.service  (aw_qt.manager:72)
2026-10-22 16:19:07 [INFO ]: Found 7 bundled modules  (aw_qt.manager:97)
2026-10-22 16:19:07 [INFO ]: Found 0 system modules  (aw_qt.manager:145)
2026-10-22 16:19:07 [INFO ]: Starting module aw-server  (aw_qt.manager:217)
2026-10-22 16:19:07 [INFO ]: aw-server: server already running on port 5600, using existing instance instead of starting a new one  (aw_qt.manager:224)
2026-10-22 16:19:07 [INFO ]: Starting module aw-watcher-window  (aw_qt.manager:217)
2026-10-22 16:19:07 [INFO ]: Starting module aw-watcher-afk  (aw_qt.manager:217)
>

/opt/activitywatch/aw-watcher-afk/aw-watcher-afk --help

usage: aw-watcher-afk [-h] [--host HOST] [--port PORT] [--testing] [--verbose]
                      [--timeout TIMEOUT] [--poll-time POLL_TIME]

A watcher for keyboard and mouse input to detect AFK state.

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --host HOST
  --port PORT
  --testing             run in testing mode
  --verbose             run with verbose logging
  --timeout TIMEOUT
  --poll-time POLL_TIME

/opt/activitywatch/aw-watcher-window/aw-watcher-window --help

usage: aw-watcher-window [-h] [--host HOST] [--port PORT] [--testing]
                         [--exclude-title] [--exclude-titles EXCLUDE_TITLES [EXCLUDE_TITLES ...]]
                         [--verbose] [--poll-time POLL_TIME]
                         [--strategy {jxa,applescript,swift}] [--research]
                         [--no-research]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --host HOST
  --port PORT
  --testing
  --exclude-title
  --exclude-titles EXCLUDE_TITLES [EXCLUDE_TITLES ...]
                        Exclude window titles by regular expression. Can
                        specify multiple times.
  --verbose
  --poll-time POLL_TIME
  --strategy {jxa,applescript,swift}
                        (macOS only) strategy to use for retrieving the active
                        window
  --research            Enable Research Edition mode: browser titles are
                        classified into study categories, non-browser titles
                        are dropped. Category map must be set in the config
                        file.
  --no-research         Disable Research Edition mode, even when enabled in
                        the config file.

/opt/activitywatch/aw-watcher-input/aw-watcher-input --help

Usage: aw-watcher-input [OPTIONS]

Options:
  --host TEXT     Hostname of the aw-server to connect to.
  --port INTEGER  Port of the aw-server to connect to.
  --testing
  --help          Show this message and exit.

/opt/activitywatch/aw-notify/aw-notify --version

aw-notify 0.2.0

/opt/activitywatch/aw-notify/aw-notify --help

ActivityWatch notification service

Provides desktop notifications for time tracking data from ActivityWatch.
Use --output-only to print notifications to stdout instead of showing desktop notifications (useful for scripting or integration with other tools(aw-tauri)).

Usage: aw-notify [OPTIONS] [COMMAND]

Commands:
  start             Start the notification service (use --output-only to print notifications instead of showing them)
  checkin           Send a summary notification (use --output-only to print to stdout instead of showing notification)
  checkin-detailed  Send a detailed summary with all category levels (parent and leaf categories)
  help              Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)

Options:
  -v, --verbose
          Verbose logging

  -c, --config <CONFIG>
          Path to custom configuration file

      --testing
          Testing mode (port 5666)

      --port <PORT>
          Port to connect to ActivityWatch server

  -o, --output-only
          Only print JSON to stdout, no desktop notifications

  -h, --help
          Print help (see a summary with '-h')

  -V, --version
          Print version

error: unexpected argument '-o' found

Usage: aw-notify checkin [OPTIONS]

curl -s http://localhost:5600/api/0/info

{"hostname": "aw-server01", "version": "v0.14.1", "testing": false, "device_id": "a34e4cfc-7992-4c03-a7a2-7422da090665", "profile": "default"}

curl -s http://localhost:5600/api/0/buckets/

{"test-bucket": {"id": "test-bucket", "created": "2026-10-22T16:14:56.717943+00:00", "name": null, "type": "test", "client": "aw-client-test", "hostname": "aw-server01", "data": {}, "last_updated": "2026-10-22T16:18:24.658000+00:00"}}

curl -s -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"client": "aw-client-test", "type": "test", "hostname": "aw-server01"}' http://localhost:5600/api/0/buckets/test-bucket

{}

curl -s -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"timestamp": "2026-10-22T10:00:00+00:00", "duration": 0, "data": {"status": "not-afk"}}' "http://localhost:5600/api/0/buckets/test-bucket/heartbeat?pulsetime=120"

{"id": 1, "timestamp": "2026-10-22T10:00:00+00:00", "duration": 0.0, "data": {"status": "not-afk"}}

curl -s "http://localhost:5600/api/0/buckets/test-bucket/events?limit=5"

[{"id": 1, "timestamp": "2026-10-22T10:00:00+00:00", "duration": 0.0, "data": {"status": "not-afk"}}]

curl -s -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"timeperiods": ["2026-10-22T00:00:00+00:00/2026-10-23T00:00:00+00:00"], "query": ["events = query_bucket(\"test-bucket\"); merged = merge_events_by_keys(events, [\"status\"]); dur = sum_durations(events); RETURN = [merged, dur];"]}' http://localhost:5600/api/0/query/

[[[{"data":{"status":"not-afk"},"duration":30.0,"id":null,"timestamp":"2026-10-22T10:05:00+00:00"}],30.0]]

curl -s http://localhost:5600/api/0/buckets/test-bucket/export

{"buckets": {"test-bucket": {"id": "test-bucket", "created": "2026-10-22T16:14:56.717943+00:00", ..., "events": [...]}}}

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer q1w2e3r4" http://localhost:5600/api/0/buckets/

{"test-bucket": {...}}