Teams Status Keeper

Keeps Microsoft Teams (or any presence-tracking app) from marking you as "Away" by nudging the mouse cursor when the machine has been idle long enough to trigger an idle timeout.

Real user movement always wins: the script never fires while the user is actively using the mouse, and any synthetic sweep aborts the moment the cursor leaves the position the script just commanded.

Requirements

• Bun >= 1.0.0
• macOS, Linux, or Windows (relies on @nut-tree-fork/nut-js for cross-platform mouse + screen control)
• On macOS: Accessibility permission for the terminal running Bun (System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility)

Install

./install.sh

The installer verifies bun is on PATH and runs bun install. It does not auto-install Bun; if Bun is missing it prints a hard error pointing at https://bun.sh.

Run

bun run start

Or directly:

bun run src/move.ts

Or install it as a global move command via Bun's bin-linking:

bun link
move

bun link registers the bin.move entry from package.json (./src/move.ts, which carries #!/usr/bin/env bun) as an executable on your PATH.

Stop with Ctrl+C. If SIGINT arrives mid-sweep, the cursor stays at whichever step was last commanded — by design.

Usage

Usage: move [options]

Options:
  -h, --help                      Show this help and exit.
  -v, --version                   Print version and exit.
  -m, --move-interval <seconds>   Idle time before a sweep fires. Default: 240.
  -c, --check-interval <seconds>  Cursor poll cadence. Default: 10.
  -d, --step-delay <ms>           Pause between synthetic steps. Default: 50.
  -n, --step-count <pixels>       Steps per sweep. Default: 250.
  -V, --verbose                   Log every sweep, interrupt, and bounds event
                                  (default prints only the startup banner).

Run bun run src/move.ts --help for the full text.

All flags are wired. Numeric overrides are layered onto the defaults via resolveConfig in src/config.ts; time-valued inputs (-m, -c) are expressed in seconds at the CLI boundary and converted to milliseconds internally.

Logging is quiet by default: only the startup banner ("Teams Status Keeper started…") and any error from an unhandled rejection print on a default run. -V / --verbose opens up per-sweep, user-interrupt, and out-of-bounds events.

Invalid input (unknown flag, missing value, non-positive number) prints an error to stderr and exits with code 2.

How it works

The source lives under src/, split into an entry point plus three logic modules:

• src/move.ts is a thin entry point: parses args, dispatches --help / --version, resolves the runtime config, and calls runKeeper(config, verbose).
• src/cli.ts owns argument parsing, validation, and help/version output.
• src/config.ts exports the Config type, DEFAULT_CONFIG, and the resolveConfig overlay function.
• src/keeper.ts owns the synthetic-activity sweep and the idle-watch loop.

Defaults live in src/config.ts as DEFAULT_CONFIG:

Field	Default	CLI flag	Purpose
moveInterval	4 * 60_000	-m, --move-interval	Idle time (ms) required before a synthetic sweep fires.
checkInterval	10_000	-c, --check-interval	How often (ms) the main loop polls the cursor for real activity.
stepDelay	50	-d, --step-delay	Pause (ms) between individual synthetic steps in a sweep.
stepCount	250	-n, --step-count	Pixel-steps per sweep.

-m and -c are accepted in seconds at the CLI; resolveConfig converts to milliseconds before handing the resolved Config to runKeeper.

Main loop (runKeeper)

1. Print the startup banner (unconditional).
2. Snapshot lastPos and lastActivity = now.
3. Every config.checkInterval:
   • If the cursor moved since the last check, the user is active — reset lastActivity and lastPos, continue.
   • Otherwise, if now - lastActivity >= config.moveInterval, call simulateActivity and reset the idleness clock.

Synthetic sweep (simulateActivity)

1. Read the starting position and current screen dimensions.
2. Pick a horizontal direction (dx = +1 if there's room to the right, else -1) so the sweep stays on-screen. Vertical is dy = 0 for now.
3. For each of config.stepCount steps:
   • Compute and bounds-check the next target.
   • Move the cursor there, sleep config.stepDelay.
   • Re-read the cursor. If it isn't where we put it, the user moved it — log (when --verbose) and return early without snapping back.
4. On a clean full sweep, restore the cursor to its starting position so the next idle-check sees "no movement" and doesn't misread the synthetic activity as real user input.

Why mouse.config.autoDelayMs = 0

nut.js inserts a 100ms delay after every action by default. With two mouse calls per step that would silently more-than-double the duration of a sweep. The script controls cadence itself via config.stepDelay, so the implicit delay is disabled at module load (a side effect of importing keeper.ts).

Files

File	Purpose
src/move.ts	CLI entry point: parses args, dispatches help/version, starts the loop.
src/cli.ts	Argument parsing, validation, and help/version output.
src/config.ts	Config type, DEFAULT_CONFIG, and resolveConfig overlay.
src/keeper.ts	Synthetic-activity sweep and idle-watch loop.
install.sh	Bootstrap: verify Bun, bun install, print macOS permission hint.
package.json	Bun project manifest. Single runtime dep: @nut-tree-fork/nut-js.
tsconfig.json	Strict TypeScript config tuned for Bun (ESNext, bundler resolution).
bun.lock	Bun's lockfile. Commit this.
LICENSE	GPLv3 license text.
CHANGES.md	History of the post-port review fixes.
MouseMover.java	Original Java source, kept for reference.

License

GPL-3.0-only. See LICENSE.