I Built a VS Code Extension to Track My Coding Time — And Kept Your Data 100% Local

I Built a VS Code Extension to Track My Coding Time — And Kept Your Data 100% Local

Tags: vscode, productivity, opensource, webdev

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I never really knew how many hours I was actually coding each day.

I'd sit down at 10am, blink, and suddenly it's 6pm. Or I'd feel like I worked all day but actually only coded for 2 hours between meetings, distractions, and YouTube rabbit holes.

I looked for a solution. Most tools required an account. Some sent your data to their servers. Others needed manual start/stop — which I always forgot.

So I built Dev Code Tracker — a free VS Code extension that just works.

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How it works

Open your project → timer starts. Walk away → idle detection pauses it. Close VS Code → session saved. That's it.

No clicking. No setup. No babysitting.

Open project  →  ⏱ Dev Code Tracker - 0s Working...
               →  ⏱ Dev Code Tracker - 1h 23m 45s
Walk away      →  ⏱ Dev Code Tracker - 1h 23m Idle
Come back      →  new session starts automatically

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The part I'm most proud of — privacy

Every session is saved in a sessions.json file inside your own project folder. Nothing goes anywhere. No cloud. No account. No telemetry.

There's a fully offline dashboard built right into VS Code — beautiful, interactive, works without internet.

If you want to sync to your own PHP server, that's optional. But local always works, always.

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What it tracks

• ⏱ Live status bar timer per project
• 🔥 Coding streaks + daily goals
• 💤 Smart idle detection (configurable timeout)
• 🗂 Multi-root workspace support
• ☁ Optional sync to your own server

It also works perfectly with Cursor AI and Claude Code.

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Try it

It's free on the VS Code Marketplace:

👉 Dev Code Tracker on VS Code Marketplace

I'd love to hear your feedback — what features would you want next? Drop a comment below 👇