win-track

Get the active window — and the current browser tab URL — in Node.js on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

win-track is a fast, lightweight native module that tells you which window the user is focused on right now — the app name, window title, process, bounds, memory — and, uniquely, the URL of the active browser tab, with no browser extension required on Windows or macOS.

It's built on N-API (Node-API), so a single native build runs across Node and Electron versions without recompiling — perfect for time-tracking, productivity / activity-monitoring, screen-time, and RPA / automation tools.

✨ Features

• 🪟 Active / foreground window — app name, window title, id, bounds, owner (exe path + PID) and memory usage
• 🌐 Browser URL detection — the current tab's URL and domain, no extension needed on Windows/macOS
• ⚡ Sync and async APIs — getActiveWindow() and getActiveWindowAsync()
• 🖥️ Cross-platform — Windows, macOS and Linux
• 🧩 N-API / ABI-stable — one native build works across Node and Electron versions (no electron-rebuild dance)
• 🪶 Tiny — no heavyweight runtime dependencies

🌐 Supported browsers (URL capture)

| Browser | Windows | macOS | | --- | :---: | :---: | | Google Chrome / Chromium | ✅ | ✅ | | Microsoft Edge | ✅ | ✅ | | Brave | ✅ | ✅ | | Opera / Opera GX | ✅ | ⚠️ * | | Vivaldi | ✅ | ✅ | | Mozilla Firefox | ✅ | ✅ ** | | Safari | — | ✅ |

* Opera URL capture on macOS depends on the build's AppleScript support. ** Firefox on macOS uses an accessibility / clipboard fallback — grant Accessibility permission.

On Linux, win-track returns active-window metadata (app, title, bounds, PID) via xprop/xwininfo. Browser URLs aren't reliably available from the desktop session alone on Linux.

📦 Install

npm install win-track

On Windows the native addon compiles on install, so you'll need the standard build toolchain (Visual Studio Build Tools + Python). macOS and Linux use built-in system tools (osascript, xprop) and require no compilation.

🚀 Quick start

const { getActiveWindow } = require("win-track");

const info = getActiveWindow();
console.log(info);
// {
//   appName: 'Google Chrome',
//   title: 'win-track - npm',
//   url: 'https://www.npmjs.com/package/win-track',
//   website: 'www.npmjs.com',
//   id: '1184666',
//   bounds: { x: 0, y: 0, width: 1920, height: 1080 },
//   owner: { name: 'chrome.exe', path: 'C:\\...\\chrome.exe', processId: 12345 },
//   memoryUsage: 284512256
// }

Async (one-off fetch):

const { getActiveWindowAsync } = require("win-track");

const info = await getActiveWindowAsync();
console.log(info?.appName, "→", info?.url);

Poll the focused window every second:

const { getActiveWindow } = require("win-track");

setInterval(() => {
  const w = getActiveWindow();
  if (w) console.log(w.appName, "→", w.url ?? w.title);
}, 1000);

📘 API

getActiveWindow(): ActiveWindowInfo | null

Returns the currently focused window synchronously, or null if there isn't one.

getActiveWindowAsync(): Promise<ActiveWindowInfo | null>

The same result, returned as a promise.

getLastError(): unknown

The last error captured internally (e.g. a failed platform command), or null.

ActiveWindowInfo

interface ActiveWindowInfo {
  appName?: string;   // friendly app name, e.g. "Google Chrome"
  title?: string;     // window title (cleaned of " - <Browser>" suffixes)
  url?: string;       // active browser tab URL (browsers only)
  website?: string;   // hostname derived from url, e.g. "github.com"
  id?: number | string;
  bounds?: { x: number; y: number; width: number; height: number };
  owner?: { name?: string; path?: string; processId?: number };
  memoryUsage?: number; // working set, in bytes
}

⚙️ How it works

• Windows — a C++ / N-API addon reads the foreground window via the Win32 API and extracts the browser URL using UI Automation (the address bar).
• macOS — uses AppleScript (osascript) for the frontmost app/window and the active tab's URL.
• Linux — uses xprop and xwininfo for active-window metadata (X11).

Because the native addon is N-API, the compiled binary is ABI-stable: it loads in any modern Node.js and Electron version without rebuilding.

💡 Use cases

Time tracking · productivity & activity monitoring · screen-time analytics · focus / digital-wellbeing apps · automated UI testing & RPA · desktop-app usage telemetry.

❓ FAQ

How do I get the URL of the active browser tab in Node.js? Call getActiveWindow() (or await getActiveWindowAsync()). When a supported browser is focused, the result's url and website fields hold the current tab's address — no browser extension needed on Windows or macOS.

Does it work with Electron? Yes. win-track is N-API / ABI-stable, so the same native binary loads across Electron and Node versions — no electron-rebuild step required.

Is it synchronous or asynchronous? Both — getActiveWindow() is synchronous and getActiveWindowAsync() returns a promise.

Which browsers can it read URLs from? Chrome / Chromium, Edge, Brave, Opera, Opera GX, Vivaldi and Firefox (plus Safari on macOS). See the support table.

📄 License

MIT © monirsaikat