Disclosed are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for monitoring the current context of a computing device. In some implementations, a context daemon can collect context information about the computing device. The context information can include current device hardware state information. The context information can include current software state information. The context can be derived or implied from a combination of hardware state information, software state information, or any other type of state information. For example, the derived context can be a user state (e.g., a user activity, sleeping, running, etc.) derived from or implied by hardware or software state information.