A native macOS self-surveillance and activity monitoring application. Track your own computer usage patterns, capture periodic screenshots and camera photos, and prevent system sleep - all stored locally on your device.
Keystroke Logger
- Records all keystrokes with key codes and characters
- Captures modifier keys (Command, Control, Option, Shift, Caps Lock)
- Logs the active application context for each keystroke
Mouse Tracker
- Tracks mouse movements and position coordinates
- Records clicks (left, right, middle buttons) with click counts
- Monitors scroll and drag events
- Captures active application context
Screenshot Capture
- Periodic automatic screenshots at configurable intervals
- Multi-display support - captures all connected displays
- Uses ScreenCaptureKit on macOS 14+ with CGDisplay fallback for older versions
- Records active application at capture time
Camera Capture
- Periodic webcam photo capture at configurable intervals
- Records device name and image dimensions
- Automatic storage management
App History Tracker
- Tracks application activations and deactivations
- Records app launches and terminations
- Calculates usage duration per application
- Captures window titles
File Access Monitor
- Monitors file system events in configurable paths
- Tracks file creation, modification, deletion, and renaming
- Records which application performed the file operation
Clipboard Monitor
- Logs clipboard content changes
- Supports multiple content types: text, image, file, RTF, HTML
- Records source application and data size
Prevent your Mac from sleeping with flexible options:
- Manual Toggle: Enable/disable with a single click
- Duration Options: 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, 8 hours, or indefinitely
- Schedule-based Rules: Configure specific time windows and days of the week
- App-based Rules: Automatically prevent sleep when specific applications are active
- Dashboard: View statistics and summaries of all monitored activities with interactive charts
- Log Viewer: Browse and search through recorded events with filtering
- Data Export: Export logs to JSON or CSV format
- Auto-Cleanup: Automatically delete old data after configurable number of days
- Manual Cleanup: One-click cleanup with confirmation dialog to delete all stored data
- Password Protection: Optional password to protect access to the application
- Launch at Login: Start CatchStalker automatically when you log in
- macOS 14.0 or later (Sonoma+)
- Xcode 15.0 or later for building
- The following system permissions:
| Permission | Required For |
|---|---|
| Accessibility | Keystroke logging, Mouse tracking |
| Screen Recording | Screenshot capture |
| Camera | Camera capture |
The application will guide you through granting these permissions on first launch.
- Clone or download the repository
- Open
CatchStalker.xcodeprojin Xcode - Build and run the project (Command + R)
- Grant the required permissions when prompted
To install the built application:
- Archive the project in Xcode (Product > Archive)
- Export the application
- Move
CatchStalker.appto your Applications folder
If you download a pre-built version of CatchStalker or transfer it from another machine, macOS Gatekeeper may block the app from running because it's not signed with an Apple Developer certificate.
To remove the quarantine flag and allow the app to run:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/CatchStalker.app
⚠️ Security Notice: Only run this command if you trust the source of the application. This command removes macOS's quarantine protection, which is designed to protect you from potentially malicious software downloaded from the internet.
USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. This software is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, express or implied. The developers are not responsible for any damages, data loss, or legal issues arising from the use of this application.
- This application is intended for personal self-monitoring purposes only.
- Do not use this software to monitor others without their explicit consent - doing so may violate privacy laws in your jurisdiction.
- Users are solely responsible for ensuring their use of this software complies with all applicable local, state, and federal laws.
- The keystroke logging and screen capture features are powerful tools - use them responsibly and ethically.
By using this software, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this disclaimer.
CatchStalker runs as a menu bar application. Click the eye icon in the menu bar to access:
- Quick Toggles: Enable/disable individual monitoring modules
- Anti-Sleep Controls: Toggle sleep prevention with duration selection
- Open Dashboard: Access the full application window
The main window provides access to:
- Dashboard: Overview of activity statistics
- Logs: Detailed view of all recorded events
- Settings: Configure intervals, storage paths, auto-cleanup, and more
- Permissions: Check and manage system permission status
All data is stored locally in:
~/Library/Application Support/CatchStalker/
├── catchstalker.db # SQLite database
├── screenshots/ # Screenshot images
└── camera/ # Camera capture images
- Language: Swift
- UI Framework: SwiftUI
- Database: SQLite3 (native, no external dependencies)
- Screenshot: ScreenCaptureKit / CGDisplay
- Camera: AVFoundation
- Anti-Sleep: IOKit power assertions
- Input Monitoring: CGEvent / Carbon
No external dependencies or package managers required.
CatchStalker/
├── App/
│ ├── AppDelegate.swift # Menu bar setup, service lifecycle
│ └── CatchStalkerApp.swift # App entry point
├── Core/
│ ├── Database/
│ │ └── DatabaseManager.swift # SQLite operations
│ ├── Permissions/
│ │ └── PermissionsManager.swift
│ └── Settings/
│ ├── SettingsManager.swift
│ ├── ExportService.swift
│ ├── CleanupService.swift
│ ├── PasswordManager.swift
│ └── LaunchAtLoginManager.swift
├── Modules/
│ ├── Keystroke/KeystrokeLogger.swift
│ ├── Mouse/MouseTracker.swift
│ ├── Screenshot/ScreenshotCapture.swift
│ ├── Camera/CameraCapture.swift
│ ├── AppHistory/AppHistoryTracker.swift
│ ├── FileAccess/FileAccessMonitor.swift
│ ├── Clipboard/ClipboardMonitor.swift
│ └── AntiSleep/AntiSleepManager.swift
├── UI/
│ ├── MenuBar/MenuBarView.swift
│ └── MainWindow/
│ ├── MainWindowView.swift
│ ├── Dashboard/DashboardView.swift
│ ├── Logs/LogsView.swift
│ ├── Settings/SettingsView.swift
│ └── Permissions/PermissionsView.swift
├── Models.swift # Data models
└── Resources/
└── Assets.xcassets
CatchStalker is designed for self-surveillance purposes only. All data is stored locally on your device and is never transmitted externally. Use responsibly and in accordance with applicable laws and regulations.
Contributions are welcome! Please read CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.
This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.
- Dashboard Improvements:
- Added confirmation dialog for "Clean Up Now" button to prevent accidental data deletion
- Improved Storage Usage card UI with better formatting and alignment
- Storage card now spans full width consistently with other sections
- UI/UX Enhancements:
- Fixed content overlapping header when scrolling in main window
- Added modern unified toolbar style with transparent titlebar
- Disabled "Clean Up Now" button when storage is empty
- Requirements:
- Updated minimum macOS requirement to 14.0 (Sonoma)
- Initial release
- Keystroke logging with modifier key support
- Mouse tracking (movements, clicks, scrolls, drags)
- Periodic screenshot capture with multi-display support
- Camera capture at configurable intervals
- Application history tracking
- File access monitoring
- Clipboard content logging
- Anti-sleep functionality with schedules and app rules
- Dashboard with activity statistics
- Log viewer with search and filtering
- Data export (JSON/CSV)
- Auto-cleanup and manual cleanup options
- Password protection
- Launch at login support