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A KITCHEN TIMER, LIVING IN THE MENU BAR

20:00

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Free, for macOS 14 or later — 0.0.2

HOW IT WORKS

The timer is a vessel. The liquid is elapsed time.

5M   10M   25M
20:00
start

Time pools at the bottom, resting. start runs the last duration; a preset word starts its own, immediately.

ENDS AT 9:20
12:41
cancel

The liquid rises once a second — no ticking. Only the crest keeps drifting; the level is the countdown, readable from across the room.

TIME'S UP — 20 MIN
00:00
againdone

Full is the alarm. A notification tells you; again runs it back, done drains the vessel.

HOW TO USE

Three clicks, at most.

  1. 01

    Download and open

    Tempo lives in the menu bar, not the Dock. There is no main window or setup — the timer icon says whether a Session is running.

  2. 02

    Start a Session

    Click the icon, then start — or choose one of three preset words: 5M, 10M, 25M by default. You can edit all three in Tempo Settings.

  3. 03

    Let it flood

    Get on with it. When the vessel is full, a notification tells you, and again runs the same duration back in one word.

FIRST LAUNCH

macOS will warn you once.

Tempo is not yet signed with an Apple Developer ID, so the first time you open it macOS says it cannot check it for malicious software. Getting past that takes one step, and only the first time — updates after it arrive through Sparkle and are signed with Tempo's own key.

On macOS 15 or later
Open Tempo and dismiss the warning. Go to System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to Security, and click Open Anyway beside Tempo. Confirm once more and it opens.
On macOS 14
Control-click Tempo in your Applications folder, choose Open, then click Open in the dialog that follows.

Signing and notarization arrive in a later release, and this step goes with them.

FREE, FOR MACOS 14 OR LATER

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0.0.2 — unsigned for now, so macOS warns on first launch. It updates itself via Sparkle.