Docs

Overview

Tock is a super-minimal menu bar timer for macOS. It’s keyboard-driven, supports natural-language input, and intentionally focuses on a single active timer to keep the interface uncluttered. Tock uses macOS system colors and adapts automatically to light or dark mode. Shortcuts, notifications, and appearance are configurable.

Tock is free, open source, and does not track or collect data.

Installation

Requires macOS 14 or later.

App Store

Download Tock from the Mac App Store. Updates are installed automatically by Apple, depending on your App Store settings.

Direct download (DMG)

This version is downloaded from the Tock website and does not update automatically.

1. Go to the Tock homepage and choose Direct download.
2. Open Tock.dmg.
3. Drag Tock to your Applications folder.
4. Launch Tock. It appears in the menu bar.
5. macOS may prompt you to add Tock to your login items. You can change this later in Tock Settings or System Settings → General → Login Items & Extensions.

Basic usage

Tock supports two timekeeping modes.

• Countdown — run a timer for a set duration.
• Stopwatch — count up from zero.

Countdown

Start a timer by typing a duration into the Tock popover. Tock accepts flexible, natural inputs like these:

• 10, 10m, 10 min → 10-minute timer.
• 1h 30m, 1.5 hours → 1-hour 30-minute timer.
• 45s, 45 seconds, :45 → 45-second timer.
• You can also count down to a specific time: 6:15 am, 615a.

Press Return to start. The active timer replaces any existing one. Duration timers count down to zero, then play a configurable tone and optionally show a desktop notification.

Finished timers can be repeated or cleared from the popover or the notification.

Stopwatch

Start a stopwatch in a few ways:

• Click the play button in the Tock popover.
• Click Stopwatch in the context menu.
• Type sw or stopwatch into the Tock popover and press Return.

Stopwatch timers count up indefinitely until paused or cleared.

Context menu

• Access controls by right-clicking the menu bar icon.
• Start a stopwatch timer.
• Pause or clear a timer.
• Repeat the last timer (option visible when a timer has finished).
• Access Settings.
• Access the About Tock panel.
• Quit Tock.

Settings

• Launch Tock at Login — start Tock automatically when you sign in.
• Show Notifications — enable notification banners for timer completion.
• Notification Tone — choose the alert sound.
• Play Tone — control how many times the alert plays.
• Volume — control alert loudness.
• Default Unit — unit of time used when none is entered.
• Icon Size — adjust menu bar icon size.
• Button Size — adjust control button size.
• Button Brightness — adjust control button contrast.
• Open Tock — configure the global shortcut to open the popover.
• Pause/Resume — configure the global shortcut to toggle the active timer.
• Clear Timer — configure the global shortcut to stop and clear the timer.

Keyboard shortcuts

All shortcuts are configurable in Settings.

• Open Tock — ⌃⌥⌘T
• Pause/Resume — ⌃⌥⌘P
• Clear Timer — ⌃⌥⌘X

Support this project

Enjoying Tock? A quick rating or review on the Mac App Store helps a lot.

• Buy Me a Coffee
• Cash App
• PayPal
• Venmo

Bugs & crashes

If you run into a bug or unexpected behavior, please open an issue on GitHub and include your macOS version, Tock version, and any relevant details.

Privacy

Tock does not collect, store, or share personal data. There are no accounts, analytics, or tracking. For details, see the privacy policy.