What is Watson used for?

Watson is a Python command-line time tracker that records work sessions by project and tag and produces reports, with optional sync to a crick server. It is a good fit for freelancers tracking billable hours and developers logging project time from the shell.

Is Watson open source?

Yes. Watson is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at jazzband/Watson and is written mainly in Python.

Yes. Watson is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

What is Watson an alternative to?

Watson is an open-source alternative to Clockify, Harvest, Toggl Track and Everhour. Other open-source alternatives to Clockify include Traggo, Solidtime and Kimai.

Is Watson actively maintained?

The most recent commit to Watson was on 15 December 2025, and the latest release is 2.1.0, published on 16 May 2022. The project has 2.5k stars on GitHub.

Watson: open-source alternative to Clockify, Harvest

About Watson

Watson is a command-line tool for tracking how much time you spend on your projects, for example to prepare a report for a client. This listing is named after the Jazzband community that maintains the project. You start the timer with a start command and stop it with a stop command, which records what Watson calls a frame.

Each frame holds a project name and optional tags, and tags can be shared across projects to build detailed reports. Everything is stored on your own computer, and the sync command can upload sessions to your own crick server so they can be kept remotely and shared with colleagues.

Watson is written in Python and runs on any platform Python supports, including Windows, macOS, Linux and BSD. It installs with pip as td-watson, through Homebrew on macOS, or from distribution packages such as the Arch Linux AUR. The documentation has a user guide, command reference and configuration pages, and the project is MIT licensed.

Key features

Start and stop timers from the terminal
Frames with project names and tags
Reports by project and tag
Local storage on your own computer
Optional sync to a crick server
Install via pip, Homebrew or distro packages

Good fit for

→Freelancers tracking billable hours
→Developers logging project time from the shell

Built with: Python
Tags: time-tracking; cli; python; reports; productivity; command-line; project-management

Watson: questions and answers

What is Watson used for?: Watson is a Python command-line time tracker that records work sessions by project and tag and produces reports, with optional sync to a crick server. It is a good fit for freelancers tracking billable hours and developers logging project time from the shell.
Is Watson open source?: Yes. Watson is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at jazzband/Watson and is written mainly in Python.
Is Watson free?: Yes. Watson is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
What is Watson an alternative to?: Watson is an open-source alternative to Clockify, Harvest, Toggl Track and Everhour. Other open-source alternatives to Clockify include Traggo, Solidtime and Kimai.
Is Watson actively maintained?: The most recent commit to Watson was on 15 December 2025, and the latest release is 2.1.0, published on 16 May 2022. The project has 2.5k stars on GitHub.