Pulse

See what Windows is really doing.
A modern, read-only diagnostics platform for Windows — events you can understand, not logs you decode.

github.com/Regncreative/Pulse

Timeline — live Event Log events in plain language

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What is Pulse?

Windows already knows everything about itself — crashes, service starts, explorer restarts, boot failures. The problem is how that knowledge is presented: Event Viewer IDs, opaque XML, and tools that feel like they were built for another decade.

Pulse observes. Pulse explains. Pulse visualizes. Pulse never changes Windows.

It turns raw system activity into a readable timeline:

Instead of…	Pulse shows…
Application Error · Event ID 1000	Explorer unexpectedly closed. Windows restarted Explorer.
Service Control Manager · 7036	Windows Update service entered the running state.
Kernel-Power · 41	The system restarted without a clean shutdown.

Designed to feel like a built-in Windows 11 utility (Fluent Design, Mica, dark-first) — not a typical diagnostics utility.

Philosophy: Observation only. No injection. No hooks. No patches. No telemetry. No cloud.

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Features

Timeline

• Human-readable events — Level 1 plain language first; technical summary and raw XML on demand
• Live monitoring — Windows Event Log via EvtSubscribe, pushed over named-pipe IPC
• Historical snapshot — recent events on connect, then live prepend as Windows works
• Search & filters — severity, source, category, provider, process, and date presets (including last 15 minutes)
• Detail panel — metadata, process context, and expandable raw event payload
• Incidents & export — correlated groups plus JSON/CSV export of the session

System Health

• CPU, Memory, GPU, Disk, Network — live cards and 60-second sparklines
• PDH Processor Utility — frequency-aware CPU % (not just classic Processor Time)
• Hardware summary — OS, CPU, GPU, memory, uptime at a glance
• Graceful offline mode — clear empty states when PulseService is not running

Inventory

• System — motherboard, BIOS, CPU, memory, storage, network, battery (SMBIOS / SetupAPI where available)
• Devices — USB, PCI, displays, audio, Bluetooth, printers
• Software — installed programs, drivers, and Windows services
• Copy & export — field-level copy plus inventory reports

Reports

• Templates — System Health, Timeline, Diagnostics, and inventory catalogs
• Formats — JSON, CSV, HTML, PDF
• Local export — writes under Documents / Pulse / exports by default

Diagnostics

• Service snapshot — SCM state, uptime, identity, binary path, connected clients
• IPC & pipeline — named-pipe health, collectors, performance budgets
• MCP status — PulseMCP bridge metrics when AI Integration is enabled
• Copy diagnostics — support bundle without leaving the machine

Settings

• General, Appearance, System Health, Timeline, Diagnostics, Performance, Privacy
• AI Integration — opt-in PulseMCP registration for Cursor / Claude Desktop
• Preferences persist locally (SharedPreferences) — no account, no sync

Product principles

• Read-only — never modifies OS behavior
• Local-first — everything stays on this PC
• No telemetry / analytics / ads
• Fast & light — idle near-zero CPU, responsive scrolling
• Native Windows feel — custom title bar, acrylic/mica, DPI-aware

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Screenshots

 

Timeline — live humanized events  ·  System Health — CPU, memory, GPU, disk, network

 

Inventory — hardware & software catalog  ·  Reports — local JSON / CSV / HTML / PDF export

 

Diagnostics — service, IPC, pipeline  ·  Settings — local preferences & AI Integration

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Architecture

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                         Windows                          │
│   Event Log · PDH · DXGI · IP Helper · Process APIs      │
└────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┘
                             │ read-only APIs
┌────────────────────────────▼─────────────────────────────┐
│                      PulseService                        │
│  Collector · Humanizer · Health · Inventory · IPC server │
│              (native C++ Windows service)                │
└────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┘
                             │ named pipe (framed binary)
┌────────────────────────────▼─────────────────────────────┐
│                       Pulse App                          │
│   Flutter · Timeline · Health · Inventory · Reports      │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

v1 pipeline

Windows Event Log → Collector → Humanizer → IPC → Timeline UI

PulseService is required (installer or elevated --install-start). A ZIP payload is not a true portable edition — see portable vs service.

ETW, WMI, and plugins are intentional future milestones — see docs/architecture.

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Installation

For everyone (stable installer)

1. Download Pulse-Setup-1.1.0-windows-x64.exe from GitHub Releases
2. Run the installer and accept the UAC prompt
3. PulseService is registered and started automatically
4. Skip or complete the short welcome — then open Timeline or System Health

Tip: for troubleshooting without the SCM service, run service\PulseService.exe --console from a payload folder.

VirusTotal

Pulse-Setup-1.0.0-windows-x64.exe was scanned on VirusTotal — 0 / 68 security vendors flagged the installer. Clean result across the board.

SHA-256: 7311a4809e64f77b9c44dc8fd59d04db68e3f07288e2348b6470807be72c41d3

Developers can also build a local package:

.\tools\scripts\package_beta.ps1

Output: dist\Pulse-Setup-1.1.0-windows-x64.exe, dist\Pulse\, and dist\Pulse-1.1.0-windows-x64.zip

For developers (day-to-day)

# 1) Build & run the service (console mode — preferred while developing)
.\tools\scripts\run_service_console.ps1

# 2) In another terminal — run the Flutter app
.\tools\scripts\run_app.ps1

Or step by step:

# Service
cmake -S service/pulse_service -B build/service -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug
cmake --build build/service
.\build\service\PulseService.exe --console

# App
cd apps\pulse_app
flutter pub get
flutter run -d windows

Optional SCM install (elevated):

.\build\service\PulseService.exe --install
Start-Service PulseService

Full prerequisites and flags: BUILD.md · DEVELOPMENT.md

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AI Integration (MCP)

Pulse ships PulseMCP — a read-only Model Context Protocol server for Cursor, Claude Desktop, and future clients.

• Enable in Settings → AI Integration (opt-in policy file)
• One-click Register for Cursor (global ~\.cursor\mcp.json) with backup + safe merge
• Bundled private Node runtime — no system Node.js required
• Diagnostics → MCP for live status metrics
• Guides: AI Integration · Installation · Troubleshooting · Security

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Development

Command	Description
.\tools\scripts\run_service_console.ps1	Build (if needed) + run PulseService in console
.\tools\scripts\run_app.ps1	flutter run -d windows
cmake --build build/service	Rebuild native service
.\build\service\pulse_wire_tests.exe	Wire codec unit tests
.\tools\scripts\run_ipc_ping.ps1	IPC Ping/Pong smoke
.\tools\scripts\run_diagnostics_ping.ps1	Diagnostics + inject-event smoke
.\tools\scripts\package_beta.ps1	Build release installer + payload (dist\)
cd apps\pulse_app; flutter test	Flutter unit / widget tests

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Tech stack

Layer	Stack
UI	Flutter Desktop · Provider · window_manager · flutter_acrylic · Lucide icons
Service	C++20 · CMake · Win32 · Wevtapi · PDH · DXGI · IP Helper · SetupAPI / SMBIOS
IPC	Named pipes · framed binary protocol (pulse_wire) · shared Dart/C++ codec
Protocol	shared/pulse_protocol (C++ + Dart) · Protobuf schema for FastMCP tools
AI	PulseMCP (Node) — read-only tools/resources over the same named pipe
Persistence (app)	SharedPreferences for settings · local reports & diagnostics export
CI	GitHub Actions — Windows service build/tests + Flutter analyze/test

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Project structure

Pulse/
├── apps/pulse_app/          Flutter Desktop UI (Timeline, Health, Inventory, Reports, …)
├── service/pulse_service/   Native Windows service (collector, humanizer, health, IPC)
├── apps/pulse_mcp/          PulseMCP bridge (private Node runtime)
├── shared/
│   ├── pulse_common/        Version, errors, constants
│   └── pulse_protocol/      Wire codec (C++ + Dart) + proto
├── tools/
│   ├── ipc_ping/            Smoke clients (IPC / health / diagnostics)
│   └── scripts/             Dev launch + packaging helpers
├── docs/architecture/       ADRs + system design (source of truth)
├── docs/readme/             README screenshots
├── branding/                Logo source (Telemetry Peak)
├── tests/                   Fixtures / integration (expanding)
├── AGENTS.md                Product constitution
└── BUILD.md                 Build & install instructions

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Roadmap

• Named-pipe IPC + framed wire protocol
• Event Log collector → humanized Timeline
• Live monitoring with page-visibility pause
• System Health (Task Manager–aligned metrics)
• Inventory (system, devices, software)
• Reports (JSON / CSV / HTML / PDF)
• Diagnostics page + local export
• Settings persistence + AI Integration (PulseMCP)
• Fluent dark-first UI polish
• Official screenshots in README
• First-launch welcome (skippable)
• Timeline search, filters, date presets, session export
• Stable installer (package_beta.ps1 → Inno Setup)
• v1.0.0 stable release
• v1.1.0 feature release (Assistant, Store MSIX)
• GitHub Releases auto-update
• Crash / WER timeline
• ETW engine (future milestone)
• Plugin system (future milestone)
• Session recording / timeline replay

Every feature should answer one question: "What is Windows doing right now?"

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Privacy & security

• No cloud, no login, no account
• No telemetry, analytics, or tracking
• Data never leaves the machine unless you export a report or diagnostics zip
• Uses official Windows APIs only
• Never injects into processes, never hooks, never bypasses security
• Elevation only when you explicitly install the service

VirusTotal — Pulse-Setup-1.0.0-windows-x64.exe · 0/68

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Documentation

Doc	Purpose
AGENTS.md	Product vision, principles, AI / development rules
CHANGELOG.md	Release history
docs/releases/v1.1.0.md	v1.1.0 release notes
docs/releases/v1.0.0.md	v1.0.0 release notes
docs/architecture/README.md	Full architecture package + ADRs
docs/architecture/24-health-metrics-task-manager.md	Health metrics vs Task Manager
docs/guides/ai-integration.md	PulseMCP setup
BUILD.md	Prerequisites & build
DEVELOPMENT.md	Local workflow
IMPLEMENTATION_GUIDE.md	Implementation notes
CONTRIBUTING.md	How to contribute

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Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome.

1. Read AGENTS.md and the architecture docs first
2. Fork and create a feature branch
3. Keep changes observation-only — no cleaner / optimizer / antivirus features
4. Run pulse_wire_tests and flutter analyze / flutter test before opening a PR
5. Architectural changes need an ADR under docs/architecture/decisions/

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License

MIT © Regncreative