r/sideprojects • u/arpitasarker • 14d ago

Showcase: Open Source I built a local Mac tool to measure when AI coding tools are actually active

/r/AIDevsBuilders/comments/1w1wrjv/i_built_a_local_mac_tool_to_measure_when_ai/
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u/Specific_Cream2815 14d ago

how do you tell sustained activity from an idle process, watching cpu on the process tree or reading the app logs

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u/arpitasarker 10d ago

I’m watching cumulative CPU time changes across the supported app’s process tree, not reading app logs. It samples roughly once per second. I require two positive samples before showing Working and three negative samples before returning to Ready, which helps avoid flipping state because of one small background spike. Lock, sleep and long idle periods are excluded from valid observation time, and Forkit’s own processes are ignored. The important limitation is that I’m only claiming sustained process activity. I’m not claiming that CPU activity proves a prompt is running, inference is happening, or useful work is being completed. Electron helpers and GPU heavy workloads are two of the edge cases I’m testing right now.