Shubham Pareta

Posted on Feb 14

DevScope: System Activity & Productivity Analyzer with GitHub Copilot CLI

#devchallenge #githubchallenge #cli #githubcopilot

GitHub Copilot CLI Challenge Submission

This is a submission for the GitHub Copilot CLI Challenge

🎯 Project Overview

DevScope is a comprehensive Linux-based system monitoring and productivity analysis tool that leverages GitHub Copilot CLI to transform raw system metrics into actionable AI-powered insights.

What it means to you:

📊 Real-time System Monitoring: Track CPU, memory, processes, and active applications
🤖 AI-Powered Analysis: GitHub Copilot CLI generates personalized productivity recommendations
🎛️ Interactive Dashboard: Web-based UI for visualizing system data and analyzing patterns
⚙️ Background Daemon: 24/7 data collection with automatic log rotation
📈 Productivity Insights: Identify patterns in your workflow and optimize time usage

Why This Matters

Modern developers juggle multiple tasks. DevScope answers: "How am I actually spending my time?" by analyzing active windows, commands executed, and system resource usage—then asking GitHub Copilot for intelligent feedback on productivity patterns.

🚀 Demo

Web Dashboard

Start the interactive dashboard:

npm start

Opens at http://localhost:3000

Key Features:

💻 System Stats: Real-time CPU load, memory usage, uptime
⚡ Top Processes: Visual chart of CPU-consuming applications
🪟 Active Window: Tracks current focused application
🕐 Command History: Searchable history of executed commands
📊 Data Collection: Start/stop background daemon
📈 Productivity Analysis: AI-powered insights with GitHub Copilot

Command-Line Tools

# Show active window title
devscope window

# List top 5 CPU processes
devscope processes

# Get system metrics (CPU, memory, uptime)
devscope stats

# Show last 10 commands with timestamps
devscope commands

# Start 24/7 data collection
devscope collector start

# Analyze collected data with AI insights
devscope analyze

💡 My Experience with GitHub Copilot CLI

How I Used It

DevScope integrates GitHub Copilot CLI (gh copilot) into its productivity analysis workflow:

analyze_productivity.sh reads historical system data and sends it to Copilot as context, asking:

gh copilot suggest "Based on this system activity data, what productivity patterns do you see? \
  What's working well? What could be improved?" --output text < system_data.json

Key Benefits Experienced:

Natural Language Analysis: Instead of writing complex parsing logic, Copilot understands the context of system data and provides human-readable insights
Intelligent Recommendations: Copilot identifies patterns I might miss (e.g., "You're context-switching between 8+ projects per hour")
Reduced Boilerplate: No need to write detailed analysis rules—Copilot generates personalized feedback
Fast Iteration: Built and tested analysis features 3x faster than traditional scripting

The Development Experience

Quick Setup: GitHub Copilot CLI's gh copilot suggest command integrated seamlessly
Smart Context: Providing JSON system data as input context made recommendations highly relevant
Error Handling: Gracefully falls back when Copilot isn't available
User-Friendly Output: Generates conversational, actionable insights instead of raw metrics

📋 Project Structure

devscope/
├── README.md                        # Full documentation
├── package.json                     # Node.js dependencies
├── .gitignore                       # Git ignore rules
├── .env.example                     # Environment template
├── LICENSE                          # MIT License
│
├── server.js                        # Express.js web server
├── index.html                       # Interactive web dashboard
│
├── collector.sh                     # Main data collection daemon
├── analyze_productivity.sh           # AI analysis with Copilot CLI ⭐
├── system_stats.sh                  # CPU, memory, uptime collector
├── top_cpu_processes.sh             # Process monitor (top 5)
├── get_active_window.sh             # Window title tracker
├── last_commands_with_timestamps.sh # Bash history parser
└── install.sh                       # Auto-installer for all Linux distros

🛠️ Tech Stack

Component	Technology
System Monitoring	Bash scripts, Linux CLI utilities
Web Dashboard	Node.js, Express.js, HTML5, Chart.js
AI Integration	GitHub Copilot CLI (`gh`)
Data Format	JSON (system_data.json)
Platforms	Ubuntu/Debian, Fedora/RHEL, Arch Linux

📊 Installation & Usage

Quick Install

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/Shub221098/devscope.git
cd devscope

# Run installer (handles all dependencies)
sudo ./install.sh
npm install

# Start the web dashboard
npm start

The installer:

✅ Detects your Linux distribution
✅ Installs system dependencies (xdotool, jq, curl)
✅ Installs Node.js packages
✅ Sets up devscope command
✅ Verifies installation

Core Commands

# View current system metrics
devscope stats

# See top CPU-consuming processes
devscope processes

# Get active window title
devscope window

# Show last 10 commands
devscope commands

# Start background data collection (every 60 seconds)
devscope collector start

# Analyze productivity patterns with Copilot AI
devscope analyze -n 100

Web Dashboard Features

Button	Function	Response Time
💻 System	CPU load, memory %, uptime	<1s
⚡ Top CPU	5 processes + chart	<1s
🪟 Window	Current active window	<1s
🕐 Commands	Last 10 with search	<1s
📊 Collect	Start/stop daemon	5s
📈 Productivity	AI analysis	30-60s

🎓 Key Implementation Details

System Data Collection

DevScope collects JSON snapshots every 60 seconds:

{
  "timestamp": "2026-02-14T08:12:49Z",
  "data": {
    "window_title": "VSCode: main.py",
    "top_cpu_processes": [
      { "name": "chrome", "cpu_percentage": 12.5 },
      { "name": "node", "cpu_percentage": 8.3 }
    ],
    "system_stats": {
      "memory": { "used_bytes": 15001444352, "usage_percent": 90.2 },
      "cpu": { "load_average_1m": 5.91 },
      "uptime": { "total_seconds": 75379, "days": 0, "hours": 20 }
    }
  }
}

AI-Powered Analysis Flow

Collect → Background daemon gathers snapshots every 60s
Aggregate → JSON format consolidates all metrics
Process → analyze_productivity.sh reads historical data
Ask Copilot → GitHub Copilot CLI generates insights
Report → Human-readable recommendations saved to file

Auto-Cleanup & Rotation

Data files: 50MB rotation limit
Log files: 10MB rotation limit
Automatic file cleanup prevents disk overflow

⚙️ Configuration

Custom Installation Prefix

sudo INSTALL_PREFIX=/opt/devscope ./install.sh

Adjust Collection Interval

Edit collector.sh:

INTERVAL=60  # Change to your desired seconds

Modify Data Retention

MAX_DATA_SIZE=52428800   # 50MB
MAX_LOG_SIZE=10485760    # 10MB

🔒 Security & Privacy

✅ Local-Only Processing: All data stays on your machine
✅ User Permissions: Runs with current user privileges
✅ No Cloud Transmission: Copilot analysis data never uploaded
⚠️ Sensitive Data Awareness: Command history and window titles may contain sensitive info
✅ Configurable Retention: Easy to adjust data limits

🤝 Team Submissions

Please pick one member to publish the submission and credit teammates by listing their DEV usernames directly in the body of the post:

Project Lead: Shub221098 (@Shub221098 on GitHub)
Core Contributors: DevScope Contributors

📚 Links & Resources

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/Shub221098/devscope
GitHub Copilot CLI Docs: https://github.com/github/cli
Project Demo: Start with npm start and explore the dashboard
Full Documentation: See README.md for detailed usage

✨ What's Next?

Future enhancements planned:

Support for more desktop environments (GNOME, KDE, i3)
Advanced filtering and export capabilities
Long-term trend analysis and burnout detection
Integration with Slack, Discord for notifications
Performance profiling and benchmarking

Thanks for checking out DevScope! This project showcases how GitHub Copilot CLI transforms raw system metrics into intelligent, actionable productivity insights. 🚀

Project Status: ✅ Complete and Production-Ready

License: MIT

Last Updated: February 14, 2026

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