DeskTime
DeskTime is an automatic time tracking software that helps teams and freelancers monitor productivity, manage projects, and analyze work habits.
Verdict
Common use cases
- Pull weekly project hours for invoicing
- Audit app usage across remote teams
- Create projects from chat during kickoffs
- Spot underutilized employees for reallocation
- Compare planned vs actual task durations
Integration
- Vendor
- DeskTime
- Category
- other
- Auth
- API_KEY
- Tools
- 10
- Composio slug
desktime
Tools
- Create Project with Optional Task
Tool to create a new project with an optional initial task. use when you need to set up a new desktime project programmatically.
- Get Account Details
Tool to retrieve detailed information about the authenticated user's company account. use after confirming the api key is valid to fetch company name, work settings, account timezone, and timestamp.
- Get All Company Employees
Tool to list all employees in the company, including their roles and statuses. use after confirming valid credentials to fetch the organization’s roster.
- Get Employee Data
Tool to fetch data for all employees within the company. use after verifying the api key is valid.
- Get Employee Projects
Tool to retrieve information about projects assigned to employees, including project names, durations, and statuses. use when you need to fetch per-employee project tracking data for a specific date.
- Get Employee Projects and Apps
Tool to retrieve an employee's tracked projects and application usage. use when you need combined project/app time data for a given employee and date (defaults to current user and today). example: "get projects and apps for employee 711867
- Get Projects List
Tool to retrieve all active projects for the company, including related tasks. use when you need projects overview after authentication.
- Ping DeskTime API
Tool to check the api's availability and confirm the service is operational. use when you need to verify that the desktime api is reachable and responsive.
- Start Project Task
Tool to start tracking time for a specified project and optional task. use when you need to begin timing work on a project and optionally tag a task.
- Stop Project Task
Tool to stop tracking time for a specified project and optional task. use when you have finished work and need to record end time.
Setup
Setup guide
- 11. In Switchy, open your workspace settings and navigate to the Integrations tab. 2. Search for DeskTime and click Connect. 3. You'll be prompted to paste a DeskTime API key — generate one by logging into your DeskTime account, visiting Settings > API, and creating a new key with read and write permissions. 4. Copy the key and paste it into Switchy's prompt, then click Authorize. 5. Switchy will ping the DeskTime API to confirm the key is valid and retrieve your company account details. 6. Once connected, open any Space and type '@DeskTime get all company employees' to test — you should see a list of your team roster with roles and statuses. 7. If the test fails, double-check the API key hasn't expired and that your DeskTime plan includes API access.
What teammates see: by default, memories from DeskTime are scoped to the Space (PROJECT visibility) - you can mark any memory PRIVATE or share it ORG-wide.
Works well with
Top models
Compatibility data appears once enough Spaces have used this MCP together with a given model.
How Switchy teams use it
Starter prompts
Weekly Hours Rollup
@DeskTime get employee data for the last week, then group by employee and sum project hours. Format as a table with employee name, total hours, and top three projects.Open in a Space →
New Project Setup
@DeskTime create a new project called 'Q2 Website Redesign' with an initial task 'Wireframe homepage layout'. Confirm the project ID once created.Open in a Space →
Productivity Snapshot
@DeskTime get projects and apps for employee ID 12345 for today. List the top five apps by time spent and flag any non-work categories.Open in a Space →
Team Roster Check
@DeskTime get all company employees and filter for active status. Show name, role, and last activity timestamp in a table.Open in a Space →
Project Assignment Audit
@DeskTime get employee projects for yesterday across all team members. Highlight anyone with zero logged time or more than three concurrent projects.Open in a Space →
Example outputs
Illustrative - representative of the model's voice and quality, not literal recordings.
@DeskTime show me all active projects and their tasks for our company
Here are your company's active projects: • Website Redesign (ID: 12345) — 3 tasks: Homepage mockup, Navigation UX, Mobile responsive testing • Q1 Marketing Campaign (ID: 12346) — 2 tasks: Social media calendar, Email sequence draft • Internal Tool Migration (ID: 12347) — 4 tasks: Database schema review, API endpoint mapping, Frontend refactor, QA test plan All projects are currently active. This snapshot reflects what DeskTime is tracking as of today.
This example uses the Get Projects List tool to pull a company-wide view of active work. Requires an API key with read access to projects. The output is a point-in-time snapshot — projects created or archived after the call won't appear until you query again.
@DeskTime create a new project called 'Customer Onboarding Sprint' with an initial task 'Draft welcome email template'
Project created successfully: • Project name: Customer Onboarding Sprint • Project ID: 12348 • Initial task: Draft welcome email template (ID: 98765) • Status: Active • Created: 2025-01-15 14:32 UTC The project is now live in your DeskTime account. Team members can start logging time against it immediately, and you can add more tasks through the DeskTime web interface or via additional @DeskTime prompts.
This example demonstrates the Create Project with Optional Task tool, which writes to your DeskTime account. The API key must have project-creation permissions. Side-effect: a new project appears in your company's DeskTime dashboard instantly, visible to all users with appropriate access.
@DeskTime pull project time data for employee Sarah Chen from last Monday and summarize where she spent the most hours
Sarah Chen's project time for Monday, January 8, 2025: • Website Redesign: 4h 22m (largest block — focused on homepage mockup and navigation UX) • Q1 Marketing Campaign: 1h 47m (social media calendar planning) • Internal Tool Migration: 52m (quick API endpoint review) • Unassigned time: 38m Sarah's day was heavily weighted toward the Website Redesign project, accounting for 62% of her tracked time. The unassigned block suggests brief context-switching or admin work not tagged to a specific project.
This example pairs the Get Employee Projects tool with AI reasoning to synthesize time-allocation insights. Requires an API key with employee-data read permissions and the employee's DeskTime user ID or email. The AI interprets raw duration data into a narrative summary — useful for managers reviewing weekly focus patterns.
Use-case deep-dives
When DeskTime works for distributed contractor billing
A 6-person agency with three contractors in different time zones needs to bill clients by project hour. DeskTime's employee-project tracking tools let you pull per-employee project durations by date, which maps cleanly to invoicing workflows. The API key auth means you can script weekly exports without OAuth friction. The catch: DeskTime tracks time at the application level, so if your team switches contexts constantly (Slack, email, five browser tabs), the project assignments get noisy. This MCP is the right call if your contractors work in focused blocks on named projects—think design sprints, dev tickets, or content batches. If your work is interrupt-driven or you need sub-hour granularity, look at a tool with manual time entry instead.
Using DeskTime to forecast sprint load across employees
A 10-person product team wants to see who's overcommitted before sprint planning. DeskTime's employee-project tools let you query how many hours each person logged per project last week, which surfaces capacity patterns you can't see in Linear or Jira alone. The 'Get Employee Projects' tool returns durations and statuses, so you can script a weekly report that flags anyone over 35 hours or under 20. The limit: DeskTime doesn't integrate task-level data from your project tracker, so you're correlating time with external ticket IDs manually. This MCP fits if you treat projects as the unit of work and need a lightweight check-in on who's stretched thin. If you need task-level burn-down or story-point velocity, you'll want a deeper PM integration.
When DeskTime satisfies client audit requirements
A consulting firm with SOC 2 clients needs timestamped proof that work happened during contracted hours. DeskTime's account-detail and employee-data tools let you pull company-wide logs with timestamps, roles, and project assignments—exactly what auditors ask for in a quarterly review. The API key model means you can automate exports to a secure bucket without managing OAuth tokens for 40 employees. The trade-off: DeskTime's app-tracking layer can feel invasive if your team isn't used to time surveillance, and the 10-tool scope means you're not getting deep integrations with Slack or email for context. This MCP is the right fit if compliance is non-negotiable and your team already expects time tracking. If your culture leans toward trust-based work, the friction cost outweighs the audit benefit.
Frequently asked
What does the DeskTime MCP do in Switchy?
It connects your DeskTime time-tracking account so AI agents can read employee hours, project assignments, and app usage data. Agents can also create new projects and tasks programmatically. This is useful for automated reporting, capacity planning, or syncing time data with other tools in your workspace without manual exports.
Do I need admin access to connect DeskTime?
Yes. You'll need a DeskTime API key, which typically requires admin or owner permissions in your DeskTime account. The key grants read access to all employees' time data and write access to create projects, so only connect it if you're comfortable giving Switchy that level of visibility into your team's tracking.
Can the MCP edit or delete existing time entries?
No. The available tools only read time data and create new projects or tasks. You can't modify logged hours, reassign time to different projects, or delete entries through Switchy. For those actions, you'll need to use DeskTime's web interface directly or contact their support about API capabilities.
How is this different from exporting CSV reports from DeskTime?
Switchy pulls live data on demand, so agents always see current hours and project status without waiting for scheduled exports. You can also chain DeskTime queries with other MCPs—like pulling this week's hours and posting a summary to Slack—without writing integration code or maintaining scripts.
Who on the team should connect this MCP?
Whoever manages your DeskTime account and is comfortable sharing employee time data with the AI workspace. Since the API key exposes all tracked hours and app usage, connect it only if your team already treats that data as shared internally. Individual contributors don't need separate connections.