Hansel

Product Introduction

1. Definition: Hansel is a local-first, privacy-focused activity logging and context retrieval application for macOS. It operates as a background agent that automatically and securely records user activity across applications and windows.
2. Core Value Proposition: Hansel exists to solve the problem of digital context loss and fragmented work memory. Its primary function is to automatically create a searchable, private timeline of your computer activity, enabling you to recall past work, recover lost context, and answer questions about your workday without relying on memory or manual note-taking.

Main Features

1. Automatic, Encrypted Activity Logging: Hansel runs silently in the background, continuously recording metadata about your active application, window title, and document URLs. All recorded data is encrypted using local encryption keys and stored exclusively on your Mac's disk, ensuring no data is transmitted to external servers.
2. Semantic Search & Natural Language Querying: The core utility feature allows users to search their activity history using natural language. Instead of exact keyword matching, you can ask questions like "What was that article about design systems I read last Tuesday?" or "Find the Slack conversation with the client about API specs." Hansel uses on-device semantic search models to interpret intent and retrieve relevant timeline entries.
3. Contextual Timeline & Insights Dashboard: The application presents a chronological, searchable timeline of your workday, segmented by application and task. It can provide insights such as time spent on different projects or applications, helping with personal productivity analysis and retrospective work reporting.

Problems Solved

1. Pain Point: The "What was I working on?" problem and context-switching overhead. Professionals frequently lose time trying to recall where they saved a file, what website they researched, or the details of a past conversation, leading to fragmented focus and reduced productivity.
2. Target Audience: Knowledge workers, software engineers, researchers, writers, project managers, and freelancers who perform deep work across multiple applications (e.g., IDEs like VS Code, browsers, Slack, Figma, Notion) and need to maintain continuity across sessions.
3. Use Cases: A developer needs to recall the specific terminal command used to fix a bug three days ago. A writer wants to find the source material and notes for an article drafted last week. A project manager needs to compile a report on time allocated to different client projects over the past month.

Unique Advantages

1. Differentiation: Unlike cloud-based activity trackers (e.g., RescueTime, Timely) or manual note-taking apps, Hansel's defining characteristic is its strict local-first and private-by-design architecture. All processing and storage occur on-device, appealing to privacy-conscious users in regulated industries or those wary of cloud data exposure.
2. Key Innovation: The integration of on-device semantic search over a locally encrypted activity log. This combination provides the utility of intelligent context retrieval—traditionally a cloud-AI service—while maintaining complete data sovereignty and offline functionality, a significant technical and privacy-oriented innovation.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. Is Hansel a spyware or keylogger? No, Hansel is not spyware. It is a user-installed, consent-based productivity tool. It logs application and window metadata (e.g., "Slack - #project-channel", "Safari - title of webpage") for personal retrieval, not keystrokes, passwords, or screen content. All data is encrypted and never leaves your Mac.
2. How does Hansel's local semantic search work without the cloud? Hansel uses compact, efficient machine learning models (like sentence transformers) that run directly on your Mac's processor (CPU/GPU). These models convert your search query and your activity log entries into numerical vectors, allowing it to find conceptually similar matches entirely offline.
3. Can Hansel sync my activity log across multiple devices? As a strict local-first application, Hansel does not offer cloud sync to uphold its privacy promise. Your activity log is stored only on the Mac where it is installed. This is a core design choice prioritizing security over convenience.
4. What kind of performance impact does Hansel have on my Mac? Hansel is designed to be lightweight. The background logging agent has minimal CPU and memory footprint. The most resource-intensive operation is running the local semantic search model during a query, which is temporary and optimized for Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3) and Intel Macs.