LocusWhat Locus does
Three things share one native window: a board of four fixed stages, a Claude Code session that builds that board as you work and native focus tracking that records where your attention actually went. Each is set out below.
Four fixed stages, tasks that are units of execution
Stages have stable internal IDs and renameable labels. Tasks carry a status (Not Started, In Progress, Blocked, Complete) and are timed at the task level, with only one session active at a time.
Plan
Scope the work before you start it. Research and shaping live here.
Execute
Active units of work. Sessions time attention against the task you pinned at start.
Check
Verify what was built. Test runs from Claude Code land here automatically.
Done
Completed work. A named snapshot is saved automatically at session end.
Your session builds the board as you work
Hook scripts and a skill file are installed and removed automatically by the installer. Each meaningful tool call appears as a board card with an amber left border, routed to the right stage and moved to Done when it succeeds. Trivial commands are filtered out.
Edits start at Execute
Edit, Write and NotebookEdit tool calls appear at Execute, labelled by filename.
Tests start at Check
Bash calls with test keywords (go test, pytest, jest) route to Check; other meaningful commands go to Execute.
Success moves to Done
On a successful command the card moves to Done. On failure it stays in place, so what stalled stays visible.
Noise is dropped
Trivial commands like cd, ls and cat are filtered. Compound commands strip the trivial prefix first.
Native tracking, no external tools
Locus reads foreground focus through the Windows
GetForegroundWindow and QueryFullProcessImageNameW
APIs, polling every 500ms into the same SQLite database as your tasks.
Focus data is available from first launch.
Real app names
Resolved from Windows PE version info, falling back to product name then the executable stem. No hardcoded mappings.
Idle-aware
Gaps over five minutes are detected and subtracted from deep-work time, so idle does not count as focus.
System noise filtered
Processes under C:\Windows\ are excluded automatically, leaving the applications you chose to open.
Four time windows
Today, Yesterday, This Week (ISO) and This Month, ranked by total focus time with today refreshing every two seconds.