bide · a calm break & eye-care reminder for macOS
Every twenty minutes, the screen goes quiet.
A menu-bar break timer built on 20-20-20. When it is time to rest, it dims the screen to near-black, gives you a slow breathing cue and a countdown, then gets out of the way.
brew install --cask bearforgelabs/tap/bide
no account · no permissions · 100% on-device · macOS 13+
The 3 p.m. eyes
You have been staring at this screen for hours. Your eyes have been asking for a break the whole time.
Most timers answer by flashing a bright banner mid-sentence. So you dismiss it. Then you dismiss the next one. Then you turn the whole thing off, and forget you turned it off.
A reminder you learn to ignore was never a reminder.
Eye strain is quiet and it adds up. bide is built to be the break you actually keep on.
How it works
Two timers. One rhythm.
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Look away
Every 20 minutes, a 20-second look-away break. Focus on something far off and let your eyes relax. That is the "20-20-20" part.
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Rest
Every hour, a longer break, five minutes by default. Stand up, stretch, look out a window.
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No stacking, no drift
A long rest resets the look-away clock, so the two never pile up. And every break reschedules from the moment it ends, so bide never fires a burst to catch up after your Mac sleeps.
20-20-20 is the guideline eye doctors reach for. bide just keeps it, quietly.
Smart Pause
It knows when to hold.
bide watches the room, not you. When now is a bad time for a break, it quietly waits and picks the moment back up later.
A break holds automatically when…
- you are on a call, any app using the mic or camera, detected without listening in
- an app is fullscreen, a film, a keynote, a game
- you have added the app to your exclusions
- the screen is locked or the display has gone to sleep
- you have stepped away and the Mac is idle
The break screen
Near-black, on purpose.
A break should not be one more bright thing to stare at. When one lands, bide dims the screen to a low-luminance, near-black overlay, as dark as you like, with a slow breathing cue, a live countdown, and a quiet prompt. It covers every display and rebuilds cleanly if you plug or unplug a monitor mid-break.
A longer rest can guide you
- look far away
- blink slowly
- stand and stretch
- roll your shoulders
- hydrate
A short paced sequence instead of a single prompt, so the rest is actually restorative. Reduce-Motion aware.
Pick a strength, per break
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Gentle
a small HUD in the corner that never blocks you
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Dismissible
a full-screen break you can skip whenever
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Strict
runs to completion; Skip and Cmd-Q are held until it is done
Never mid-thought. A heads-up warning and a typing guard wait for a natural pause, so a break never lands in the middle of a keystroke.
Make it yours
Fifteen themes. Or your own.
Follow System is the default: bide matches your Mac's light or dark appearance and keeps the near-black break screen exactly as designed. Want a look of your own? A chosen theme colors every surface, the break screen, the floating HUDs, the accent. Build your own in the custom editor with per-role colors and a copyable share code. Long breaks can even carry their own theme, distinct from your look-away breaks.
If your editor has a theme, bide probably speaks it.
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Follow System -
Tokyo Night -
Catppuccin -
Gruvbox -
Solarized -
Nord -
Dracula -
Kanagawa -
Monokai Pro -
Synthwave -
Glass Dark -
Glass Light
Control
Yours to steer.
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Menu-bar countdowns
See both timers at a glance, the next look-away and the next long rest. Enable or disable either one inline, take a break now, or nudge a single upcoming break earlier or later. Your recurring schedule stays put.
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Pause for…
Pause 15 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour, the rest of the day, or indefinitely, and bide resumes on its own. No more turning it off and forgetting.
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Working hours
Run only on the days and within the window you choose, so bide is quiet in the evening and on a day off.
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Shortcuts
Take a Break, Pause, Resume, Snooze, and a next-break query, all exposed to the Shortcuts app as App Intents.
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Global hotkeys
Record any key combination for take-a-break, pause, or open-settings. Still no permission required.
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Quick-start presets
Gentle, 20-20-20, or Strict focus in a single tap, with a live preview of the break.
Privacy
It does not watch you.
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No permissions
bide never requests Accessibility, Screen Recording, microphone, or camera. Every signal it reads is metadata only: idle time, window bounds, the frontmost app's id, lock and sleep events. Never your keystrokes, never window titles, never screen contents.
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All local
Your settings and your stats stay on your Mac. Nothing syncs, nothing is uploaded, there is no account.
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Off by default
The update check and anonymous diagnostics are both opt-in and both off until you turn them on. Turned on, the update check reads one thing, the latest version tag, so it can tell you a newer build exists. Nothing else ever leaves your Mac.
The only time bide reaches a server is the single call that activates your license. After that, it works offline.
Stats
See how you are doing. Only you.
bide keeps a quiet record of the basics: breaks taken and skipped, a day streak, weekly adherence, and a 14-day chart. Export any of it to CSV whenever you want. All of it is stored on your Mac, and none of it goes anywhere else.
No breaks logged yet. Your first look-away starts the streak.
Why bide
Most timers count minutes. bide rests your eyes.
| A fixed-timer app | bide | |
|---|---|---|
| Timing | fires on a clock, mid-sentence | waits for a natural pause, never mid-keystroke |
| The break | a bright banner you dismiss | a near-black screen that actually rests your eyes |
| On a call | interrupts it | holds automatically, along with fullscreen and idle |
| Permissions | notifications, sometimes accessibility | asks for nothing |
| Cadence | one flat interval | two tiers that never stack or drift |
| Price | a monthly subscription | $7.99, once |
Same idea. A calmer execution.
Pricing
One price. Own it forever.
bide, unlocked
everything, one time
14-day free trial no card to start
- One-time purchase
- One license, up to 3 Macs
- Works offline after activation
- Free updates
- macOS 13+ · Ventura
- Not a subscription
then $7.99, once. That is it.
Get bide
One line. Then your eyes get their breaks back.
brew install --cask bearforgelabs/tap/bide
- Run the command
- bide appears in your menu bar nothing to grant
- Pick a preset and you are resting
bide is ad-hoc signed today, so the cask clears the quarantine flag for you, and it just opens. No account, no telemetry.
14 days free. Then $7.99, once.
Prefer a direct download? Grab the .app. On macOS 15+ you will use System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway.
Questions
The honest answers.
Will it nag me?
No. bide waits for a natural pause before a break lands, never mid-keystroke, and holds on its own during calls, fullscreen apps, and while you are away. You can pause it for a set time, or set working hours so it stays quiet in the evening and on weekends. It is built to be the reminder you keep on, not the one you switch off.
Does it need any permissions? Does it watch my screen?
None, and no. bide never asks for Accessibility, Screen Recording, microphone, or camera. It reads only metadata, idle time, window bounds, the frontmost app's id, lock and sleep events, and never your keystrokes, window titles, or screen contents.
Won't I just hit Skip every time?
That is the usual trap, so bide lets you choose a strength for each break. Keep the light ones gentle and skippable, and set the ones that matter to strict, where Skip and Cmd-Q are held until the break finishes. The near-black screen is also an easy minute to sit through, not another bright thing you want to escape.
Is it a subscription?
No. bide is $7.99, paid once. One license activates up to 3 Macs, and updates are free.
How many Macs does one license cover?
Up to three. One purchase, three Macs, activated whenever you like.
Does it work offline?
Yes. bide reaches a server exactly once, to activate your license. After that it runs entirely offline. It needs macOS 13, Ventura, or later, and it lives in the menu bar rather than the Dock.
now
Give your eyes the break they keep asking for.
14-day free trial. Then $7.99, once. No account, no permissions, no subscription.
brew install --cask bearforgelabs/tap/bide