"The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way."
— Marcus Aurelius
A retro-futuristic productivity timer for macOS. Built with Tauri + React, styled after the Pip-Boy aesthetic — dark terminals, green phosphor glow, analog dials, and atomic-age typography.
- 25-minute focus → 10-minute break, auto-cycling
- SVG analog dial with 60-tick gauge + sweep hand
- Countdown updates live in the macOS menu bar (
☢ 24:37) - Warning beeps in the final 5 seconds
- Triple-tone completion sound via Web Audio API
- Session dot tracker + today's pomodoro count
- Free-running stopwatch (HH:MM:SS)
- Lap recording with per-lap split times
- Save completed sessions to local history
- 18 curated quotes — Stoic, Confucian, Existentialist, Absurdist
- Typewriter animation on each new quote
- Auto-cycles every 12 seconds; click dots to jump directly
- Full history stored in localStorage (persists across launches)
- Today's stats: pomodoros completed, total focus time, all-time sessions
- Daily pomodoro counter auto-resets at midnight
- Menu bar presence — live countdown visible without opening the window
- System notifications on focus complete and break complete
- Close → hide to tray (window hides, app keeps running)
- Window geometry persistence — remembers your last position and size
- Download
KILL_SWITCH_0.1.0_aarch64.dmgfrom Releases - Open the DMG and drag
KILL_SWITCH.appto/Applications - First launch: right-click → Open (bypasses Gatekeeper for unsigned apps)
- Allow notifications when macOS prompts
| Tool | Version | Install |
|---|---|---|
| Node.js | ≥ 18 | nodejs.org |
| Rust | ≥ 1.60 | curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh |
| Xcode CLI Tools | any | xcode-select --install |
# 1. Clone
git clone git@github.com:JackSuuu/kill_switch.git
cd kill_switch
# 2. Install JS dependencies
npm install
# 3. Build the macOS app
npm run tauri:build
# 4. Open the app
open src-tauri/target/release/bundle/macos/KILL_SWITCH.appThe DMG is also produced at:
src-tauri/target/release/bundle/dmg/KILL_SWITCH_0.1.0_aarch64.dmg
# Hot-reload dev mode (React + Rust simultaneously)
npm run tauri:dev
# Frontend only (browser preview, no native features)
npm run devThe frontend runs at http://localhost:5173. All invoke() calls to Tauri gracefully no-op when running in a plain browser, so the UI is fully previewable without the native wrapper.
- Click ▶ START to begin a 25-minute focus session
- The menu bar shows the live countdown — you can hide the window and keep working
- When the session ends, a macOS notification fires and the break phase begins automatically
- After 10 minutes of break, another notification fires and the cycle resets
- Each completed focus session is logged in the Session Log panel
- Switch to ▷ CHRONO tab in the header
- Click ▶ START to begin counting up
- Click ◎ LAP to record split times while running
- Click ⏹ STOP to pause, then ✦ SAVE to commit the session to history
- Click ↺ RESET to clear and start fresh
| Action | How |
|---|---|
| See live countdown | Look at the ☢ icon — it shows current time remaining |
| Show window | Left-click the menu bar icon |
| Quit app | Right-click → Quit KILL_SWITCH |
| Action | Control |
|---|---|
| Start / Resume | ▶ START / ▶ RESUME |
| Pause | ⏸ PAUSE |
| Skip current phase | ⏭ SKIP |
| Reset timer | ↺ RESET |
| Record lap | ◎ LAP (Chrono only) |
| Save session | ✦ SAVE (Chrono only, after stopping) |
| Clear all history | PURGE in the Session Log panel |
| Hide window | Click the red close button — app lives in menu bar |
kill_switch/
├── src/ # React frontend
│ ├── components/
│ │ ├── AnalogDial.tsx # SVG gauge dial (60 ticks, sweep hand, arc progress)
│ │ ├── PomodoroTimer.tsx # 25/10 min timer + tray + notification hooks
│ │ ├── CountUpTimer.tsx # Stopwatch with lap recording
│ │ ├── QuoteTicker.tsx # Typewriter philosopher quotes
│ │ ├── RobotMascot.tsx # ASCII robot UNIT-K
│ │ └── HistoryPanel.tsx # Session log + daily stats
│ ├── hooks/
│ │ ├── useStorage.ts # localStorage helpers, Web Audio beep
│ │ └── useTauri.ts # Safe invoke() wrapper (browser-compatible)
│ ├── data/quotes.ts # 18 philosopher quotes
│ └── styles/
│ ├── global.css # CSS variables, CRT scanline overlay, glow utilities
│ └── layout.css # Component layout styles
│
├── src-tauri/ # Rust / Tauri backend
│ ├── src/main.rs # Tray, notifications, window geometry persistence
│ ├── tauri.conf.json # Window config, bundle ID, allowlist
│ ├── Cargo.toml
│ └── icons/ # App icons (generated by gen_icons.py)
│
└── gen_icons.py # Pillow script to regenerate all icon sizes
All data is stored locally only:
| Data | Location |
|---|---|
| Session history, stats | localStorage in the app's WebView |
| Window position & size | ~/Library/Application Support/com.killswitch.productivity/window_geometry.json |
No network requests. No analytics. No accounts.
| Layer | Technology |
|---|---|
| Frontend | React 18 + TypeScript + Vite 4 |
| Styling | Pure CSS — custom properties, @keyframes, no UI framework |
| Fonts | VT323 · Share Tech Mono · Bungee (Google Fonts) |
| Native shell | Tauri 1.8 (Rust + macOS WebKit) |
| Notifications | tauri::api::notification |
| Tray | tauri::SystemTray |
| Persistence | localStorage (sessions) + AppData JSON (window geometry) |
| Audio | Web Audio API (OscillatorNode square wave beeps) |
| Icons | Python + Pillow → iconutil → .icns / .ico |
This tool is built on one idea: focused work, clearly tracked, with zero friction.
The retro aesthetic is intentional. Modern productivity apps compete for your attention with gradients, dashboards, and dark patterns. KILL_SWITCH looks like a piece of hardware — a switch you flip. It does one thing and gets out of your way.
"学而不思则罔，思而不学则殆。"
Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.
— 孔子
MIT