Context Flow

One button saves your entire workspace. One click restores it instantly. Workflow teleportation for Logitech MX Creative Console & Actions Ring.

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## Inspiration

Every day, I lose hours to context switching. I counted once — over 1,200 app switches in a single workday. Each one costs 23 seconds of mental recovery. That's 5 weeks per year lost to just getting back to where you were.

When I discovered the Logitech Actions SDK, I saw the missing piece: a physical button dedicated to freezing and restoring your entire digital state. Not a macro. Not a launcher. Workflow teleportation.

## What It Does

Context Flow transforms your MX Creative Console and MX Master Actions Ring into a workspace teleportation device:

  1. Press SNAP on your MX Creative Console → your entire workspace is captured in under 1 second
  2. Twist the Actions Ring → browse your saved contexts (3D Sculpt, Code Review, Client Call…)
  3. Click → instantly restored. Every app, every file, every window position. One second.

Unlike macro tools, Context Flow captures semantic state:

  • Not just "VSCode is open" — but which workspace, which files, which branch
  • Not just "Blender is running" — but which scene, which viewport, which mode
  • An AI engine learns your patterns and suggests the right context before you think about it

## How We Built It

Desktop App: Electron 34 on macOS

  • Main process manages window state via OS accessibility APIs
  • Dark UI with animated snap/restore teleportation overlay
  • Local JSON storage — no server, no cloud required

Context Engine:

  • App-specific adapters for deep state capture (VSCode, Chrome, Terminal, Figma)
  • Generic window bounds adapter as fallback for any app
  • Staggered launch orchestration for reliable, ordered restoration

AI Prediction:

  • Time-based pattern matching (9am → coding session, 2pm → meetings)
  • Context sequence analysis from local event log
  • 100% local — zero cloud dependency

Hardware Integration:

  • Logitech Actions SDK bridge for MX Creative Console SNAP key
  • Actions Ring mapped to context browser with haptic tick navigation

## Challenges We Ran Into

macOS SIGSEGV crashes — Electron GPU conflicts on Apple Silicon caused hard crashes. Fixed by disabling hardware acceleration in the main process.

App state heterogeneity — Every app stores internal state differently. Built a 3-tier adapter architecture: deep (VSCode, Chrome), medium (Figma, Terminal), generic (any app via window bounds).

Restore timing — Apps launch at different speeds. Built staggered orchestration with animated progress feedback so users see exactly what's happening.

## Accomplishments

  • ⚡ Sub-1-second snap, even with 5+ apps open
  • 🚀 Teleportation overlay that makes restore feel magical
  • 🧠 Local AI that learns your daily patterns privately
  • 🎛️ Physical hardware deeply integrated — the Console becomes the save button
  • 📦 Ships with 4 realistic demo contexts so the experience is instant on first launch

## What We Learned

  • Window management is far harder than it looks — every app is a special case
  • Users want suggestions, not automation — they prefer a nudge over auto-execution
  • The hardware-software metaphor matters: a physical SNAP button is emotionally different from a keyboard shortcut
  • Electron can do serious system-level work with the right native approach

## What's Next

| Timeline | Milestone | |----------|-----------| | 2026 Q2 | Cloud sync, more app adapters (Blender, Photoshop) | | 2027 | Team shared contexts, productivity analytics | | 2028 | Enterprise suite, plugin marketplace | | 2029 | VR bridge — seamless 2D ↔ Meta Quest context switching |

The long-term vision: every Logitech device becomes a node in your context network. The MX Console saves. The Actions Ring navigates. A future MX headset immerses. One physical ecosystem, one digital layer.

"Stop switching apps. Start switching contexts."

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