ActivityWatch marks Steam games as AFK when using a controller

[jerto2002]

When playing Steam games with a controller on Pop!_OS (X11), ActivityWatch marks the session as AFK even though the game window is active and being used.

The window watcher correctly detects the game and records window activity (e.g., ŌKAMI HD), but the AFK timeline still shows the time as idle. This appears to happen because controller input does not generate keyboard or mouse events that ActivityWatch’s AFK watcher detects.

I attempted to configure exceptions in aw-watcher-afk.toml so the game would not be considered AFK, but it did not change the behavior.

I tested with the following entries in the “ignore titles / don’t mark as AFK” configuration:

okami hd
steam_app_587620
ŌKAMI HD
steam_app_587620
.*steamapp_.*
.*Steam.*
.*steamwebhelper.*

Even with these patterns configured, gameplay time is still recorded as AFK while the game window is active.

This occurs with Steam games launched through Proton and controlled via a gamepad, where no keyboard or mouse input is generated.

[github-actions]

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[TimeToBuildBob]

Submitted a fix in ActivityWatch/aw-watcher-afk#80.

The root cause is that aw-watcher-afk only monitors keyboard and mouse events via pynput — gamepad button presses are invisible to it. The PR adds an optional GamepadListener using python-evdev that resets the AFK timer on button presses, which covers the controller-while-gaming use case.

To try it: pip install evdev (or pip install aw-watcher-afk[gamepad] once merged). No config needed — if evdev is installed and a gamepad is found, it activates automatically.

[TimeToBuildBob]

This is a known limitation — aw-watcher-afk only monitors keyboard/mouse input, so controller-only gaming sessions are incorrectly marked as AFK.

There's an open PR that adds gamepad/joystick support: ActivityWatch/aw-watcher-afk#80. It uses evdev on Linux to detect gamepad input events and treat them as user activity, which would fix this exact scenario.

The aw-watcher-afk.toml config for ignoring titles won't help here because the AFK detection is based on input events, not window titles — the watcher genuinely sees no input when you're using only a controller.

[TimeToBuildBob]

This is addressed by ActivityWatch/aw-watcher-afk#80, which adds gamepad/joystick support via evdev. It detects controller input events (button presses, axis movement, hat switches) and treats them as user activity, preventing false AFK detection during gaming.

The PR is awaiting review.