A scratchpad that appears when you go idle. Closes only when you click ✕.
Stop typing or moving your mouse for a few seconds — IdleNote fades in at the corner of your screen. Read it, write in it, edit freely. Click ✕ when you're done. It saves and disappears.
No hotkey to remember. No window to hunt for. Just your thoughts, surfacing exactly when your hands stop.
→ Latest Release — grab IdleNote.exe for Windows. No Python, no install. Just run.
Linux users: see Running from source below.
| What you do | What happens |
|---|---|
| Go idle (keyboard + mouse both still) | Note fades in |
| Move mouse or type — outside the note | Note stays open — interact freely |
| Click ✕ top-right | Note closes and saves |
| Drag the title bar | Reposition; place is remembered |
| Drag ⠿ grip (bottom-right) | Resize the window |
| Right-click inside note | Cut / Copy / Paste / Clear all |
| Tray icon left-click | Open note manually anytime |
| Tray icon right-click | Settings / Quit |
Open via tray icon → right-click → Settings
| Setting | Default | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Keyboard idle threshold | 5 s | 2–30 s |
| Mouse idle threshold | 8 s | 2–30 s |
| Opacity | 95% | 40–100% |
| Run on startup | ✓ on | toggle |
Keyboard and mouse thresholds are independent — both must be idle before the note appears.
Requirements
pip install pynput pystray pillowOn Linux, also make sure python3-tk is installed:
sudo apt install python3-tk # Debian/Ubuntu
sudo dnf install python3-tkinter # FedoraRun
python idlenote.pyWindows
build_exe.batProduces dist\IdleNote.exe. No Python required to run the output.
Linux
bash build_exe_linux.shProduces dist/idlenote.
- All notes saved to
~/.idlenote/notes.txt— plain text, open in any editor - Live word and character count shown in the footer
- Auto-saves 600ms after you stop typing
- Single instance — launching twice does nothing
- Autostart enabled on first launch; toggle off in Settings any time
| Platform | Status |
|---|---|
| Windows 10 / 11 | ✓ Full support |
| Linux (X11) | ✓ Full support |
| Linux (Wayland) | ⚠ Needs XWayland for global idle detection |
| macOS | Not tested |
GNU General Public License v3.0
Free to use, modify, and distribute. If you build on this, your version must also be open source under GPL 3.0.
Issues and PRs welcome. Keep it minimal — the whole point of this tool is that it stays out of your way.