Activity History

Activity History helps Neotask understand recent work you do by hand on your Mac. With your permission, it turns supported app and website activity into a private timeline. You can ask an agent where you left off, prepare a standup, find recent work, or draft a standard operating procedure (SOP) from a repeated process.

Activity History observes your work. It never moves the mouse, types, or takes control of your computer. It is off by default, starts only after you turn it on, and does not create history for work completed before then.

Availability

Activity History is available on Apple Silicon Macs in the current release. Intel Macs and the Windows and Linux desktop apps do not record computer activity yet. Activity History is unavailable in HIPAA deployments.

Before you can turn it on:

Memories must be enabled. Memories make Activity History summaries available across chats and tasks.
Your organization must allow it. On a company account, an owner or admin chooses which roles and members may opt in. Access never starts recording and never grants consent for you.
You must consent on this Mac. Each Mac has its own consent and recording controls.
Global Privacy Control and Do Not Track must be off. Either privacy signal blocks Activity History.
Neotask needs macOS Accessibility access. This permission lets Neotask read supported app, window, and control information. Activity History does not request Screen Recording.

Turn It On

Open the Neotask desktop app and select Settings.
Select Activity History in the General section.
Review the Permissions tab. Keep the default to record supported apps and websites, then add private apps and sites to the skip lists. For a smaller scope, choose selected apps and websites.
Read and accept both consent statements. One statement covers data processing. The other asks you to pause recording during calls, meetings, chats, and other communications with people.
Grant macOS Accessibility access when prompted, then return to Neotask and finish setup.
Turn on Remember my computer activity and save your changes. The status changes to Recording when every requirement is satisfied.

Recording is not retroactive. Nothing from before setup is added to your timeline.

What Neotask Can Record

Activity History saves a small set of signals instead of a screen recording.

Signal	What can appear in history	What is left out
Active app	The foreground app name	Activity from excluded apps, hidden system apps, and Neotask helper processes
Window	A supported visible window title	Window pixels and screenshots
Browser page	The website domain and page path, such as `docs.example.com/projects/launch`	URL query strings, page fragments, usernames, passwords, and private-browsing pages
Visible text and form values	Selected text and the current value of a focused element when the app exposes it through macOS Accessibility	Secure password fields; text from excluded apps and websites
Keyboard activity	A count of key presses and recognized shortcuts such as `cmd+c`	Key-by-key typed content and modifier-only presses
Clicks	That a mouse button was clicked and, when available, the kind of control involved, such as a button or text field	Pointer coordinates, screenshots, and a guaranteed copy of the clicked label
Context changes	App switches, window changes, and supported browser page changes	Background network traffic and a record of every scroll position

Activity History does not save your typing key by key. A visible document selection or form value can still appear when an app exposes it through Accessibility. Exclude messaging, health, financial, password, and other sensitive apps or websites before recording if you do not want that content in your history.

Activity History leaves out audio, microphone input, screenshots, clipboard contents, and private-browsing activity. Private browsing stays excluded even when the browser or website is otherwise allowed.

Choose Which Apps And Websites Count

The Permissions tab provides separate controls for apps and websites:

Record all supported apps or websites uses a skip list.
Record selected apps or websites uses a record list.

For apps, select Choose apps and search or scroll through the apps installed on your Mac. Each choice shows the app's name and icon, and you can select several apps before closing the list. The picker works before you grant Accessibility access. Accessibility is still required when recording starts.

These personal settings control what the Mac records. Company settings do not add activity that your personal settings left out.

Browser activity must pass both controls. For example, allowing example.com does not record it when the browser itself is excluded. An exclusion always wins.

Enter websites as exact hostnames, such as example.com or docs.example.com. Neotask normalizes www., but a rule for a parent hostname does not automatically cover each subdomain. Add the relevant subdomains separately.

You can also exclude an app from one of its timeline entries. Save permission changes before expecting the recorder to apply them.

How Summaries Work

Activity is collected as short local segments. When new activity is ready, Neotask normally prepares a readable summary about every 10 minutes. It can also create larger six-hour and daily summaries so agents can answer broader questions without scanning a long list of individual events.

There are two separate kinds of processing:

Recording activity does not call an AI model and does not use model tokens.
Writing readable summaries uses your configured model provider. These calls use model tokens, and the selected activity sent for a summary may leave your Mac under that provider's terms and your Neotask configuration.

Summary work runs only when there is finalized activity to process. It is not a constant model call every few seconds.

How Work Is Assigned To A Company

One recorder covers the Mac, even when your Neotask account has several companies. Neotask assigns each summary separately instead of treating all computer activity as work for the company page you last opened.

Each company can also have its own app and website matching rules. An admin can let the company use all supported apps and websites with skip lists, or limit it to selected apps and websites. These rules help with company assignment. They do not change what your Mac records.

It first checks useful context that can be explained to you:

Apps and websites selected or skipped in each company's Activity History settings.
A website domain connected with one of your companies.
A file or repository inside a company workspace managed by Neotask.
A work identity domain associated with the company.
An active Neotask company or session when that context is available.
Company corrections you made on earlier summaries.

A skip can settle a close match. For example, if one company skips Safari and another company allows it, Safari activity cannot be assigned to the company that skipped it. Neotask still considers the other available context before assigning the work.

When two or more companies are still plausible, a built-in local matching model can compare the activity description with the candidate companies and their approved task or project names. This matching stays on the Mac and does not spend provider credits. It runs only for a real tie between companies that already have supporting context.

The local tie-break waits when the Mac is on battery or under high processor or thermal load. Recording and ordinary summaries continue. If Neotask cannot make a responsible choice, the summary stays Unattributed or shows low confidence for you to review.

Open the summary's company control to assign or correct it. Your correction updates that summary and helps with similar close calls later. Unattributed work is not silently used as evidence for another company's SOP.

How Agents Use Activity History

Agents can search the summaries through Activity History when you ask. Useful requests include:

"What was I working on before lunch?"
"Where did I leave off on the Acme renewal?"
"Find the project I was reviewing yesterday."
"Prepare a standup from today's work."
"Draft an SOP from this repeated process."

History content serves only as reference material. A sentence on a web page or in a document cannot grant permission to make the agent run a tool. Activity History also does not start Computer Use or perform actions on your behalf.

For company work, only attributed summaries are eligible to inform that company's learning and planning settings. Owners and admins can turn those uses off independently from recording access.

How SOP Learning Works

When SOP learning is allowed for a company, Neotask can look for repeated patterns in company-attributed summaries and suggest an SOP. Each suggestion includes supporting activity references for review.

An Activity History suggestion follows the company's normal approval policy. Approval creates an editable draft. It does not publish an active SOP or automatically execute the observed workflow. Ambiguous and unattributed work stays outside another company's SOP evidence until it is resolved.

Record A Set Work Period With Watcher

Watcher records one set period of work, then checks that period for useful process suggestions. The default is five days. You can choose 30 minutes, one day, five days, seven days, or a custom time from 30 minutes to 30 days.

Use a short session to record one workflow. Use a longer session when you want Neotask to study a workday or work week.

To start a session:

Turn on Activity History, save your recording choices, and grant consent on the Mac.
Open the History tab in Settings > Activity History.
Choose a time under Watcher session, then select Start Watcher.
Do your work as usual. Watcher uses the same app, website, private-browsing, and skip-list rules as Activity History.
Return after the session ends to review the result tiles. They show work summaries, clicks recorded, keys typed, apps used, websites visited, SOP suggestions, workflow rule suggestions, and skill suggestions for that session.

One Watcher session can run on the same Mac at a time. Closing the Neotask window or quitting the desktop app does not end the session. The background Gateway service and macOS recorder keep it running. The Mac must be awake and your macOS session must be available to record activity. Time spent asleep or powered off is not added to the end of the session.

Select End and prepare suggestions when you have finished early. Select Cancel session when you want to stop without running the Watcher review. Canceling does not delete activity already saved in your ordinary history. Use Clear activity history if you also want to remove it.

When a session ends, Neotask first finishes its readable summaries. It then checks only the session's time period for repeated work. A session can include work for several companies. Each summary keeps its own company assignment, and work is considered only for the company it was assigned to. Unattributed work is left out of company SOP, rule, and skill evidence.

Watcher can finish with zero suggestions. A short session, unrelated tasks, weak company assignment, or too little repeated evidence may provide nothing worth proposing. Neotask does not fill the result with guesses.

Watcher follows the same review controls as the rest of Neotask:

SOP and workflow rule suggestions go to the normal company review and approval flow.
Skill suggestions go to Skill Workshop for inspection before they can be applied.
A suggestion cannot publish itself, approve itself, or run a workflow.
Company admins cannot start a member's Watcher session or read that member's raw activity.

Recording still uses no model tokens. Summary writing and the end-of-session review use your configured model provider and may use model tokens. Local company matching for a close attribution decision does not use provider credits.

Pause Or Stop Recording

Use the Neotask menu bar icon to pause Activity History for 30 minutes, one hour, or until tomorrow. The menu shows when recording will resume, and you can resume sooner from the same place.

To stop future recording, turn off Remember my computer activity or withdraw consent in Settings > Activity History. An organization owner or admin can also disable the feature for the organization. Organization and platform controls override the setting on a Mac and stop its recorder.

Stopping recording leaves existing history in place. Use the deletion controls when you also want to remove saved activity.

Review, Correct, Export, Or Delete

The History tab groups summaries by date and time of day. From there you can:

Filter the timeline, including summaries that still need a company.
Assign or correct a company.
Open the local summary in Finder.
Delete one summary and its company assignment record.
Request an SOP draft for an attributed company.

Export summaries saves the summaries on that Mac as a portable data file. A complete Activity History data export combines this local file with your Neotask account export. If you used Activity History on several Macs, export from each one.

Clear activity history can remove the last 10 minutes, last hour, last 24 hours, or all history from that Mac. Clearing cannot be undone. Larger summaries can take up to six hours to reflect a clear. Clear each Mac separately when you want to remove device-local history from several computers.

Where Activity History Data Lives

Raw activity segments stay in Neotask's private storage on the Mac and normally expire after about 48 hours.
Readable summaries stay on that Mac until you delete them.
Watcher session status and result counts stay with your account for up to 90 days. Raw activity and summary text are not stored in that Watcher session record.
Neotask stores the account and company records needed for settings, consent, company assignment, deletion, and SOP review. Raw activity files and local summary text are not uploaded with those records.
macOS protects these files inside Neotask's private app storage. Neotask does not add a second layer of file encryption. Use FileVault and automatic screen locking on Macs that record work.

Company Administration

The personal timeline and consent controls live in the desktop Settings > Activity History screen. Company controls live in a separate place.

Owners and admins can open a company in Neotask, select Settings, then select Activity History under Autonomy. The administration page lets them:

Allow or disable Activity History across the organization.
Choose which roles may opt in and add member-specific allow or block overrides.
See whether a member separately opted in, without seeing that member's activity content.
Enable or disable SOP learning and the use of approved insights in planning.
See whether members may start timed Watcher sessions. Members start and control their own sessions on their Mac.
Review Company totals for the last seven days. These totals combine participating members' assigned work and show clicks, keys, apps, websites, SOP suggestions, workflow rule suggestions, and skill suggestions.
Review Your activity on the same page. This section shows the signed-in admin's work summaries, clicks, keys, apps, websites, SOP suggestions, workflow rule suggestions, and skill suggestions for work assigned to that company.
Open Unassigned summaries to separate work still being prepared from finished work that needs a company choice. Waiting work is assigned after processing finishes. An admin can assign finished work to the company currently open.
Choose all supported apps with an app skip list, or choose only the apps that belong to the company.
Choose all supported websites with a website skip list, or choose only the websites that belong to the company.
Review consent events tied to shortened device identifiers.

Admins cannot consent for a member or remotely start recording on that member's Mac. They cannot read local summary text, raw events, window titles, website paths, selected text, or local file paths from the administration page.

Company totals and Your activity are separate. Company totals combine eligible work from participating members. Your activity uses the signed-in account and the company that is open. An admin can check their own results on the company page without opening personal settings.

Company app and website rules only guide company matching. Each member's personal Activity History settings remain in control of recording. The company app picker uses the apps installed on the Mac where the admin opens Neotask.

The Unassigned summaries window shows the work period and its status. It does not show the member's activity text. Still processing means Neotask has not finished company assignment yet. Needs a company means processing finished without a strong match. Only finished work can be assigned from this window.

If another admin saves a policy change first, Neotask keeps your unsaved draft and asks you to refresh before trying again.

Troubleshooting

Activity History Is Missing Or Read-Only

Confirm that you are using the desktop app on an Apple Silicon Mac. On a company account, ask an owner or admin to check the organization, role, and member access settings. A platform or organization disable control cannot be overridden from the Mac.

Activity History is unavailable in HIPAA deployments. Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track also prevents it from being enabled.

Accessibility Permission Is Missing

Open System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility, enable Neotask, then return to Activity History and select Finish setup or Try again. Neotask turns recording off when this permission is denied.

A Website Or App Does Not Appear

Check the app and website rules. Open Choose apps to confirm that the app is selected or absent from the skip list. If an installed app is missing, select Try again and confirm that the app is in a macOS Applications folder. Browser events must pass both rules. Confirm that you added the exact hostname and any needed subdomain. Private-browsing activity is always excluded.

A Summary Has The Wrong Company

Open its company control and choose the correct company. If no company is appropriate, leave the summary unattributed. Owners and admins can review the company's selected and skipped apps and websites in company settings.

A Watcher Session Stopped Or Did Not Finish

Confirm that Activity History is still on, company access and SOP suggestions are still allowed, and the Gateway service is running. The recorder stops when consent, macOS permission, company access, or its short Gateway authorization expires. Reopen Neotask to see the current session status. A failed final review is retried; it does not turn an unfinished suggestion into an approved item.

Privacy Or Data-Rights Help

See Data Privacy & Your Rights or email [email protected]. For product help, contact [email protected].