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fix(query): configurable flood pulsetime to fix missing time with high poll intervals #875

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fix(query): configurable flood pulsetime to fix missing time with high poll intervals #875

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701e6df
fix(import): show success message and propagate server error to UI
behdadmansouri Jun 17, 2026
637abe9
fix(query): make flood pulsetime configurable to fix missing time wit…
behdadmansouri Jun 17, 2026
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17 changes: 14 additions & 3 deletions src/queries.ts
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -33,6 +33,14 @@ interface BaseQueryParams {
bid_browsers?: string[];
bid_stopwatch?: string;
return_variable_suffix?: string;
/**
* Seconds used as the pulsetime argument to flood().
* Must be >= your watcher's polling interval to avoid gaps in the timeline.
* Default: 5 (matches the default 1s poll interval with headroom).
* Increase this if you use a higher polling interval (e.g. set to 31 for 30s polling).
* See: https://github.com/ActivityWatch/activitywatch/issues/1177
*/
floodPulsetime?: number;
}

interface DesktopQueryParams extends BaseQueryParams {
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -125,14 +133,16 @@ export function canonicalEvents(params: DesktopQueryParams | AndroidQueryParams)
// For simplicity, we assume that bid_window and bid_android are exchangeable (note however it needs special treatment)
const bid_window = isDesktopParams(params) ? params.bid_window : params.bid_android;

const pulsetime = params.floodPulsetime ?? 5;

return [
// Fetch window/app events
`events = flood(${queryBucket(bid_window)});`,
`events = flood(${queryBucket(bid_window)}, ${pulsetime});`,

@greptile-apps greptile-apps Bot Jun 17, 2026

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P1 Extra argument may break flood() on older aw-server versions

The PR description notes this change pairs with aw-core#139, which adds pulsetime as a named parameter to flood(). Users running an aw-server version that predates that change will suddenly receive a query with an unexpected second positional argument. Depending on how the query language dispatcher handles extra args, this could result in a TypeError or similar runtime error that causes all activity queries to fail — with no fallback.

Before landing, it is worth confirming that the aw-core query interpreter silently ignores extra positional arguments when flood() is called with the old signature, and documenting the minimum required aw-server version if not.

// On Android, merge events to avoid overload of events
isAndroidParams(params) ? 'events = merge_events_by_keys(events, ["app"]);' : '',
// Fetch not-afk events
isDesktopParams(params)
? `not_afk = flood(${queryBucket(params.bid_afk)});
? `not_afk = flood(${queryBucket(params.bid_afk)}, ${pulsetime});
not_afk = filter_keyvals(not_afk, "status", ["not-afk"]);` +
(always_active_pattern_str
? `not_treat_as_afk = filter_keyvals_regex(events, "app", "${always_active_pattern_str}");
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -279,13 +289,14 @@ export const browser_appname_regex: Record<string, string> = {

// Returns a list of active browser events (where the browser was the active window) from all browser buckets
function browserEvents(params: DesktopQueryParams): string {
const pulsetime = params.floodPulsetime ?? 5;
let code = `
browser_events = [];
`;

_.each(browsersWithBuckets(params.bid_browsers), ([browserName, bucketId]) => {
const browser_appnames_str = JSON.stringify(browser_appnames[browserName]);
code += `events_${browserName} = flood(query_bucket("${bucketId}"));
code += `events_${browserName} = flood(query_bucket("${bucketId}"), ${pulsetime});
window_${browserName} = filter_keyvals(events, "app", ${browser_appnames_str});`;

// Add regex-based matching to cover case/spacing/versioning variants (e.g., Firefox.exe, firefox-esr-esr140)
Expand Down
2 changes: 2 additions & 0 deletions src/stores/activity.ts
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -342,6 +342,7 @@ export const useActivityStore = defineStore('activity', {
filter_categories,
host_params: {},
always_active_pattern,
floodPulsetime: useSettingsStore().floodPulsetime,
});
const data = await getClient().query(periods, q, { name: 'multidevice', verbose: true });
this.query_window_completed(data[0].window);
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -371,6 +372,7 @@ export const useActivityStore = defineStore('activity', {
filter_categories,
include_audible,
always_active_pattern,
floodPulsetime: useSettingsStore().floodPulsetime,
});
const data = await getClient().query(periods, q, {
name: 'fullDesktopQuery',
Expand Down
7 changes: 7 additions & 0 deletions src/stores/settings.ts
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Expand Up @@ -49,6 +49,12 @@ interface State {
showYearly: boolean;
useMultidevice: boolean;
requestTimeout: number;
/**
* Seconds used as the pulsetime argument to flood() in queries.
* Increase if you use a high watcher polling interval (e.g. set to 31 for 30s polling).
* See: https://github.com/ActivityWatch/activitywatch/issues/1177
*/
floodPulsetime: number;

// Set to true if settings loaded
_loaded: boolean;
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -90,6 +96,7 @@ export const useSettingsStore = defineStore('settings', {
showYearly: false,
useMultidevice: false,
requestTimeout: 30,
floodPulsetime: 5,

@greptile-apps greptile-apps Bot Jun 17, 2026

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P2 No store-level bounds validation for floodPulsetime

The HTML input enforces min="1", but the store's update() action accepts any value passed to it directly (e.g. from tests, direct API calls, or a malformed server response). A value of 0 or a negative number would silently produce flood(query_bucket("..."), 0) in the generated query string, which likely has undefined behaviour in the query language. Adding a clamp or guard (e.g. Math.max(1, value)) inside the setter or the update action would be more defensive.


_loaded: false,
}),
Expand Down
11 changes: 8 additions & 3 deletions src/views/Buckets.vue
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Expand Up @@ -88,7 +88,9 @@ div

b-card-group.deck
b-card(header="Import buckets")
b-alert(v-if="import_error" show variant="danger" dismissable)
b-alert(v-if="import_success" show variant="success" dismissible @dismissed="import_success = false")
| Import completed successfully!
b-alert(v-if="import_error" show variant="danger" dismissible @dismissed="import_error = null")
| {{ import_error }}
b-form-file(v-model="import_file"
placeholder="Choose or drop a file here..."
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -174,6 +176,7 @@ export default {

import_file: null,
import_error: null,
import_success: false,
delete_bucket_selected: null,
fields: [
{ key: 'id', label: 'Bucket ID', sortable: true },
Expand All @@ -191,10 +194,12 @@ export default {
await this.importBuckets(this.import_file);
console.log('Import successful');
this.import_error = null;
this.import_success = true;
} catch (err) {
console.log('Import failed');
// TODO: Make aw-server report error message so it can be shown in the web-ui
this.import_error = 'Import failed, see aw-server logs for more info';
const serverMessage = err?.response?.data?.message;
this.import_error = serverMessage || 'Import failed, see aw-server logs for more info';
this.import_success = false;
}
// We need to reload buckets even if we fail because imports can be partial
// (first bucket succeeds, second fails for example when importing multiple)
Expand Down
12 changes: 12 additions & 0 deletions src/views/settings/DeveloperSettings.vue
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Expand Up @@ -19,6 +19,10 @@ div
div
b-input.float-right.ml-2(v-model="requestTimeout" type="number")

b-form-group(label="Flood pulsetime (seconds)" label-cols-md=3 description="Controls how large a gap between events (in seconds) is filled when computing activity durations. The default of 5 works for the standard 1s polling interval. If you have raised the watcher polling interval (e.g. to 30s), set this to polling_interval + 1 to avoid missing time in reports. See issue #1177.")
div
b-input.float-right.ml-2(v-model.number="floodPulsetime" type="number" min="1" step="1")

div
| Web UI commit hash: {{ COMMIT_HASH }}
</template>
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -65,6 +69,14 @@ export default {
useSettingsStore().update({ requestTimeout });
},
},
floodPulsetime: {
get() {
return useSettingsStore().floodPulsetime;
},
set(floodPulsetime) {
useSettingsStore().update({ floodPulsetime });
},
},
},
};
</script>