I Built a macOS Menu Bar App to Track My Freelance Time — Here's How

MZP — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 16:27:27 +0000

As a freelance developer juggling multiple clients, I had one recurring problem: I never really knew where my time was going.

I tried spreadsheets. I tried Toggl. I tried telling myself "I'll write it down later." You know how that ends.

So I did what any developer does when they can't find the perfect tool — I built my own. Meet KronoBar 👋

What is KronoBar?

KronoBar is a lightweight macOS menu bar app that lets you log time entries per client and project, without ever leaving your workflow. It lives quietly in your tray, one click away.

No account. No cloud. No subscription. Just a clean local app that minds its own business.

Why not just use an existing tool?

Honestly? Most time trackers are either too heavy, too expensive, or require you to live inside a browser tab. I wanted something that:

Doesn't interrupt my flow — a quick Cmd + Shift + T is all it takes
Stays local — all data lives on my machine (SQLite, no sync, no tracking)
Shows me the right info fast — today's breakdown, weekly stats, nothing more

Features (the good stuff)

🎨 Color-coded clients — see at a glance where your day went
📅 Today / History / Stats views — browse by day, week, month, or year
📤 CSV export — for invoicing or just your own records
⌨️ Global shortcut — Cmd + Shift + T toggles the window from anywhere
🌙 Dark mode — obviously
🔒 100% local — your data never leaves your machine

Tech stack

I used this project as an opportunity to experiment with a stack I don't usually touch in my day-to-day (I'm mainly a PHP/Symfony dev):

Layer	Tech
Desktop shell	Electron + Electron Forge
UI	React + TypeScript
Build	Vite
Database	SQLite via `sql.js` (WASM — zero native deps!)
Styling	CSS Modules

The most interesting decision was using sql.js instead of a native SQLite binding. It runs SQLite compiled to WebAssembly, which means no native Node modules to deal with — packaging and distribution become much simpler.

The WASM SQLite trick

If you've ever tried bundling a native Node addon in an Electron app, you know the pain. Platform-specific builds, node-gyp nightmares, ARM vs x64 headaches.

sql.js sidesteps all of that. The database runs entirely in WASM inside the renderer process. The tradeoff: you manage persistence yourself (serialize to disk on save). For a single-user desktop app with small datasets, it's a perfect fit.

// Persisting the DB is just:
const data = db.export();
fs.writeFileSync(dbPath, Buffer.from(data));

Simple. Clean. No native deps.

What's next

This started as a weekend experiment and has become my daily driver. Here's what's coming:

[ ] Invoicing tool integration — connect KronoBar directly to your billing workflow
[ ] External app sync — an open interface to push your data to third-party tools (Notion, Airtable, you name it)
[ ] Weekly reports — get a proper summary of your week, ready to share or archive
[ ] Windows - maybe conversion for Windows

Try it / contribute

The project is open source under MIT. If you're a freelancer or consultant dealing with multi-client time tracking, give it a spin — and feel free to open an issue if something doesn't work or if you have ideas.

👉 github.com/splyy/KronoBar

git clone https://github.com/splyy/KronoBar.git
cd KronoBar
chmod +x install.sh
./install.sh

⚠️ macOS may block the app on first launch since it's not signed with an Apple Developer cert. The install script handles this automatically with xattr.

Built with ☕ and mild frustration at existing time trackers.

Tags: #electron #react #typescript #macos #opensource #freelance #sqlite #sideproject

DEV Community: MZP