Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to set a mission every day?

No. A day in Hawser is a list of tasks in the order you put them, and the top one that isn't done is your current task, the one Hawser keeps you on. A mission, one line for what the day is for, is there if you want it, and Hawser weighs it alongside your current task when you set one. A new morning opens on a Start your day page inside Hawser's window, and you can skip it. Tasks don't carry over by themselves: yesterday's unfinished ones wait under "Review tasks from earlier days" for you to bring in or let go.

How does planning with Claude work?

Three presses to connect, then you just ask. Press Connect Claude in Hawser (Settings, About and advanced, Agent access), press Install in the Claude app for Windows, then press Allow on the card Hawser shows. Then ask Claude to plan your week.

Claude reads your days, your goals, how the last two weeks went and your best focus hours, and sends a plan: a mission and tasks for each day, reminders, alarms, time blocks and steps toward your goals. The plan waits on Hawser's Calendar, every change day by day, until you press Confirm, and one press undoes it afterwards. A day you planned opens ready that morning. If your Claude has its own calendar connector, such as Google Calendar, it plans around your events too. More on planning with your own AI.

What can Claude see, and what can it change?

What its connection allows, which the card says before you press Allow. The Claude app's connection allows everything Hawser can do, including planning: how your day is going (today's mission and tasks, your focused and distracted minutes, and a short list of what you have been doing for the last 25 minutes or so, which names apps and window titles, as words, never a screenshot), your notes and brain dump, and for planning, your planning brief and your days. It can make the same changes the in-app companion can, under the same rules and confirmations.

A plan never touches your settings or your blocking, and it changes nothing until you press Confirm, unless you switch on "Let Claude change my plans without asking" for it, which is off until you do. Hawser and the Claude app talk on your own PC, so none of it passes through our servers; what Claude reads goes to Anthropic under your own Claude account. You can narrow what Claude may do, or revoke it, on its entry in Settings. The privacy policy lists every field.

Does planning with Claude cost extra?

Not from us. The planning runs on your own Claude account, so it counts toward your Claude plan like any other chat, and Hawser charges nothing on top of its own $25 a month or $250 a year.

Does it work with ChatGPT, or other AI apps?

Not yet. Today planning works with the Claude app for Windows, the one that has been tested from start to finish. More AI apps are coming, and none is promised, or given a date, until it works. Chats that run in a browser or on a phone, like claude.ai, can't reach Hawser today, because Hawser only listens on your own PC.

Where did the Roadmap, Insights and Rhythm tabs go?

Into the Calendar and Settings. Your goals are on the Calendar now, each on its date, and "Put a step on a day" turns a step into a task on that day. Your best focus hours show on the days ahead. History is in Settings, History. Nothing you had was deleted.

Is my data stored on your servers?

Mostly no. Almost everything Hawser knows about you stays on your own computer in plain JSON files you can open and read in any text editor. We only store the minimum needed to run your subscription: your email, a hashed password, your active session token, and your Stripe customer ID. Your activity history, tasks, missions, chat messages and task log stay on your machine, and screenshots are never stored anywhere.

The one exception is optional: if you switch on sync across devices, the work you write in Hawser is uploaded so your other devices can see it. That means your captures, notes, daily missions, tasks, goals, reminders, flashcards and timers. What Hawser observed about you never syncs: your activity history, window titles and screenshots are never uploaded by sync, and neither are your task log, your settings or your chats.

A day you planned ahead syncs like any other day, but the alarms and time blocks you put on your days stay on your computer. Planning with your own Claude app happens on your PC and never passes through our servers. Sync is off until you turn it on, Hawser lists exactly what goes up and asks first, and you can delete the uploaded copy at any time. See the full Privacy Policy for the exact list.

What gets sent to the AI?

What it needs at that moment, and none of it is kept. To judge what you are doing, or to write you a nudge, Hawser sends the name and title of the window you are in and what it has noticed over the last few minutes to Anthropic's Claude. When you talk to the companion, what you type goes with the context it needs, such as today's tasks and mission.

Windows on your sensitive list are replaced before anything is sent, and you can switch off "Read window titles" in Settings. On a Hawser trial or subscription it travels through our backend, which passes it straight on and keeps none of it, and Anthropic does not train on it. In Fully local mode none of it goes to Anthropic. The privacy policy has the full list.

Are screenshots uploaded to the cloud?

Sent for a moment when Hawser needs a closer look, never stored. Screen awareness is on by default, and the first setup screen says so with the off switch right there. When a window title isn't enough, a compressed screenshot goes to Anthropic as part of the request, is answered in the moment, and is never stored or written to disk, by us or on your computer. Windows and sites you mark sensitive are left out. You can turn screen awareness off during setup or any time in Settings, Privacy & data.

Can Hawser see which websites I'm on?

Only if you install the browser extension, and only the site name. On its own, Hawser can see that your browser is in front of you but not which tab, so eight hours of work and eight hours of drift look the same to it. The optional Hawser browser extension tells them apart: it reports the name of the site you are on and how long you were on it, such as youtube.com, 12 minutes, and never the address of a page.

The path and the search terms are dropped inside the extension before anything is sent, so Hawser is never told which video, which document or which search. It all goes to the Hawser app on your own PC over a connection that cannot leave the machine: nothing reaches our servers, and nothing about your browsing is given to an AI. Connecting it is a card Hawser shows you on your own screen, which you can turn down, and you can disconnect any browser on its own afterwards. You can switch the reporting off in the extension, and Hawser can forget the lot with one button. See the privacy policy for the full detail.

Why does the browser extension want access to every website?

Only so it can show you a nudge on the page you are reading, and only if you ask it to. Installing the extension grants access to no website at all: that permission is optional, and your browser only asks for it at the moment you tick "Show Hawser's nudges on the page I am on". Untick it and the access goes straight back, which you can check in your browser's extensions page under Site access. Leave it off and everything still works: nudges arrive on the toolbar icon instead.

The card is the only thing the extension ever puts in a page, and only when Hawser has something to say. It cannot read the page, not the address, not the text, not what you type, and the page cannot read it either. The one thing it can do to a tab is send it to a Hawser page, and only when that tab is on a part of a site you asked Hawser to block, such as youtube.com/shorts. It never stops any other page loading. See the privacy policy for the full detail.

Does Hawser slow down my computer?

Not noticeably for most users. Hawser runs as a lightweight background process - typically 60-120 MB of RAM at idle and well under 1% CPU. Active screen analysis (vision mode) briefly bumps CPU when it's actually capturing, then drops back to idle. If you're running on a battery-constrained laptop or older hardware, you can lower the analysis frequency in Settings, Companion, Nudges & blocking.

Can I disable monitoring entirely?

Yes, anytime. There's a one-click pause from the system tray, the dashboard, and inside chat ("take a break for an hour"). You can also turn off individual monitoring features in Settings, Privacy & data, Privacy: screen analysis, app and window title tracking, and idle detection are each independent switches. The whole app keeps running but stops observing.

Can I pause tracking for a break?

Yes - and it's the recommended way to take breaks. Tell the chat companion something like "taking lunch for an hour" or "playing games for a bit," and Hawser pauses all monitoring and nudges for that duration, then auto-resumes. You can also right-click the tray icon → Pause Monitoring for a manual pause. Hawser is built to respect breaks - it doesn't guilt-trip you for taking them.

How do refunds work?

14-day money-back guarantee, no questions asked. Cancel within 14 days of your first paid charge and we refund the full amount. After day 14, cancel anytime via Account → Manage Subscription; you keep access until the end of your current billing period (no proration on partial months). Full details, including how to request a refund and what happens to your data afterward, are in our Refund Policy.

Does Hawser work offline?

Partially. Local monitoring, the activity feed, warnings, hard blocks, your tasks and missions, and the on-device chat companion (in Fully local mode) all work without internet. The cloud AI features - hosted chat, vision analysis, cloud transcription - need a connection. If your connection drops mid-session, Hawser gracefully falls back to local features without crashing.

Does Hawser work on Mac or Linux?

Not yet. Today Hawser runs on Windows 10 and Windows 11 (64-bit). macOS support is on the roadmap - it'll come once Windows is humming and we have a critical mass of paying users. Linux is further out. Want to be notified? Sign up for the waitlist on the homepage.

Is there a phone app?

Yes, a web one, in beta. Open gethawser.com/app in your phone's browser, sign in with the same account, and add it to your home screen. There is nothing to install and no app store, and it comes with your account. It carries the half of Hawser you write: brain dump capture, your notes, timers and reminders, in step with the desktop. It works with no signal and sends what you wrote once you are back. It needs sync switched on in the desktop app, and while it is a beta there is no day view, a note cannot be edited or deleted from the phone, and your computer is still what fires a reminder.

Why does website blocking need administrator privileges?

Website blocking works by editing the system hosts file, which Windows protects. Apps that aren't elevated can't modify it. When you install Hawser, choose "Run as administrator" (or launch via run.bat) to enable site blocking. App blocking and time limits work fine without admin - only DNS-level site blocking requires elevation.

Can I bring my own AI key instead of using your hosted service?

Yes. Settings, Account, Anthropic API key lets you paste your own Anthropic API key. Hawser talks directly to Anthropic with your key - we never see it. You pay Anthropic directly for that usage. The Hawser subscription still applies. Useful for developers who already have Anthropic credit, or anyone who wants to keep their AI usage entirely under their own control.

What if I want to delete my account and all data?

In Hawser, "Delete my account" on the Account tab deletes your account from our servers straight away, including anything you synced, cancels your subscription, and then offers to erase what is on your computer too. Settings, Privacy & data, Backup & restore, "Delete all Hawser data" erases the local side on its own: your tasks, missions, task log, chat history and activity. You can also email support@gethawser.com and we'll delete your account within 30 days. We retain only what we're legally required to (e.g. tax records for completed payments).