Frequently asked questions
What Atend is, what it does and does not record, and how it captures both your accurate hours and what you got done.
The basics
- What is Atend?
- Atend is an automatic time tracker that captures two things at once: your accurate hours and a recap of what you actually got done. It runs in the background, sorts your workday into three states (Engaged, Attending, and Away), and keeps a short bullet-point record of the work itself. You never start a timer, and it captures metadata only: no keystrokes, no screenshots.
- What is the recap?
- The recap is a running record of what you got done, as short bullet points rather than essays. It builds automatically alongside your hours, and you stay in control: edit any point, keep it private, or approve it. Approved points answer "what did I get done this week" for a client, a stand-up, or yourself, and they appear on your invoices next to the hours.
- What is the "Attending" state, and why does it matter?
- Attending is the time you spend waiting on a running AI agent, like a 40-minute agent run you're supervising without touching the keyboard. Other time trackers read no keystrokes as idle and drop that time, even though it's real, billable work. Atend recognises a running agent and counts that time, while still leaving out the time you genuinely stepped away.
- Does locking my screen stop the clock?
- Locking your screen does not stop the clock by itself. If you were still directing an agent from another device, that time still counts. Only genuinely stepping away is left out. Atend measures whether a human was directing the work, not whether this particular keyboard was in use.
- How does Atend track time automatically?
- A lightweight desktop agent reads signals on your machine: whether there's recent input, which app is in focus, and whether an AI agent is running. It sends that metadata to Atend, which reconstructs your day. If you install the Atend plugin for Claude Code, Atend also reads the events Claude Code declares about itself, such as you sending a prompt or the agent finishing, never the text of either. There's nothing to start or stop. You only confirm a day before it becomes an invoice.
- Is automatic time tracking a proven approach, or a new idea I'd be testing?
- Automatic time tracking, capturing your hours from what's happening on your machine with nothing to log, is an established, widely used approach, not an experiment. The major automatic trackers have offered it for years, it has drawn serious investment, and it's relied on by firms whose whole business is billing time accurately. Atend brings that same automatic capture to independent and small-team work, and adds the one hour those tools still miss: the time you spend attending a running AI agent, which is real, billable work even when no keys are pressed.
- Which operating systems does Atend support?
- Atend runs on Windows today, via a lightweight desktop agent that installs in a couple of clicks and updates itself. macOS support is planned.
Privacy & trust
- Is Atend surveillance or bossware?
- No. Atend stores metadata only: whether you were active or idle, the name of the app in focus, and whether an AI agent was running. It never stores keystrokes, screenshots, or the content of your work. If you turn on browser attribution, Atend also reads the bare domain of the site in focus (like acme.com), never the full address, never page contents, never a history log, so browser work lands on the right client, and it is off until you switch it on. That's what makes the hours trustworthy for everyone involved. On a team, each member sees their own data, a manager sees totals and never content, and time only counts when work was actually happening.
- What data does Atend collect, exactly?
- Atend collects activity metadata: input idle/active state, screen lock/unlock, the foreground application's name, and whether a known AI agent is running. If you install the Atend plugin for Claude Code, it adds the events Claude Code declares about itself: that a session started or ended, that you sent a prompt, that the agent finished or is waiting for you, how many agents were running, and the folder each session was working in, each with a time. It never collects keystrokes, screen contents, files, or the text of your work, and that includes the text of prompts and replies. Raw signals can be auto-deleted on a retention schedule you set; your tracked time and invoices are kept.
- Can my employer see what I typed or which websites I visited?
- No. There is no keystroke log and no screenshot capture in Atend, so nothing you type is ever recorded. Atend does not keep a browsing history: the one exception is opt-in browser attribution, which, only if you switch it on, reads the bare domain of the site in focus (like acme.com, never the full address, never page contents, never a history log) so browser time lands on the right client. Team views show durations and project totals, not the content of anyone's work.
Billing & teams
- Can I invoice clients from Atend?
- Yes. Approved billable time exports to a clean timesheet (CSV) or a branded PDF invoice, with the recap of what you did listed alongside the hours, and rounding follows each client's policy. You approve a day, or a whole month at once, before any time becomes an invoice.
- How much does Atend cost?
- Atend has three plans in USD. Free is $0 and includes 2 projects, unlimited history, and the full capture engine (you can even build invoice previews). Solo is $9/month with unlimited projects and clients, AI, and issuing branded invoices. Team is $15/user/month with a shared workspace and fair team views. No credit card is needed to start.
- Who is Atend for?
- Atend is for anyone who wants an accurate record of both their hours and their output. That's freelancers and consultants who bill by the hour, and small teams who want a fair, trustworthy picture of what everyone worked and got done: developers, designers, writers, and agencies. It's especially useful when work runs through AI agents, where the hours and the output both get hard to see on a normal tracker.
- How is Atend different from Toggl, Harvest, or activity trackers?
- Two things. First, it's fully automatic and accurate: it counts the time you spend attending a running AI agent, which manual timers (Toggl, Harvest) miss because you forget to start them, and which activity trackers read as idle. Second, it captures what you got done, not just how long, as a short recap other trackers don't keep. It's metadata-only, so both freelancers and teams can trust it.
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