Running on GNOME

The aw-qt tray icon works on GNOME if you install the AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support extension (it ships by default in some distributions such as Ubuntu). If you can’t or don’t want to use it, read on.

As an alternative for users of GNOME 3 and other desktop environments that don’t support app trays, or simply to avoid depending on Qt, you can place two simple workaround scripts in your ActivityWatch install folder:

start.sh:

#!/bin/bash

cd ~/.local/opt/activitywatch         # Put your ActivityWatch install folder here


./aw-watcher-afk/aw-watcher-afk &
./aw-watcher-window/aw-watcher-window &                 # you can add --exclude-title here to exclude window title tracking for this session only
notify-send "ActivityWatch started"   # Optional, sends a notification when ActivityWatch is started
./aw-server/aw-server;

kill.sh:

#!/bin/bash
pkill aw-
notify-send "ActivityWatch killed"    # Optional, sends a notification when ActivityWatch is killed

Don’t forget to chmod +x start.sh and chmod +x kill.sh.

Then you can create two desktop files for these scripts to show up among your apps:

~/.local/share/applications/aw-start.desktop:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Start ActivityWatch
Comment=Start AW
Exec="~/.local/opt/activitywatch/start.sh"
Hidden=false
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Version=1.0
Icon=activitywatch
Categories=Utility;

~/.local/share/applications/aw-kill.desktop:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Kill ActivityWatch
Comment=Kill AW
Exec="~/.local/opt/activitywatch/kill.sh"
Hidden=false
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Version=1.0
Icon=activitywatch
Categories=Utility;