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 three timekeeping modes.

• Countdown — run a timer for a set duration.
• Stopwatch — count up from zero.
• Pomodoro — customizable work/break cycles.

Only one timer runs at a time. Starting a new timer replaces the current timer.

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. 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, the context menu, or the notification window.

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.

Pomodoro

A Pomodoro session runs a set of work and break cycles: typically three 25-minute work cycles with 5-minute breaks, followed by a final 25-minute work cycle with a 15-minute break. Use the defaults or configure the intervals however you want.

Start a Pomodoro session like this:

• Type p, pom, pomo, or pomodoro into the Tock popover and press Return.
• Click Pomodoro in the context menu.
• Use the configurable keyboard shortcut.

Defaults:

• Work interval — 25 minutes.
• Short break — 5 minutes.
• Long break — 15 minutes.
• Cycles per set — 4 work cycles.
• Loop continuously — off.

If looping is enabled, a new set starts automatically after the long break. If not enabled, a Pomodoro set can be repeated from the popover, the context menu, or the notification window upon completion.

Context menu

Access controls by right-clicking the menu bar icon. Inside you can:

• Open the popover.
• Start a stopwatch timer.
• Start a Pomodoro session.
• Pause a timer.
• Clear a timer.
• Repeat the last completed timer or Pomodoro session (only visible when a timer has finished).
• Access Settings.
• Access the About Tock panel.
• Quit Tock.

Settings

Behavior

• Launch Tock at login — start Tock automatically when you sign in.
• Show notifications — enable notification banners for timer completion and Pomodoro phase changes.
• Notification tone — choose the alert sound.
• Play tone — control how many times the alert plays.
• Tone volume — control alert loudness.
• Default unit — unit of time used when none is entered in the popover.

Appearance

• Icon size — adjust menu bar icon size.
• Button size — adjust control button size in popover.
• Button brightness — adjust control button contrast in popover.

Pomodoro

• Work interval — set Pomodoro work interval in minutes, 480 max.
• Short break — set Pomodoro short break duration in minutes, 480 max.
• Long break — set Pomodoro long break duration in minutes, 480 max.
• Cycles per set — set number of Pomodoro work cycles before the long break, 100 max.
• Loop continuously — start a new Pomodoro set automatically after the previous one finishes.
• Restore defaults — restore the default Pomodoro settings.

Keyboard shortcuts

• 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.
• Start Pomodoro — configure the global shortcut to start a Pomodoro session.

Keyboard shortcuts

All shortcuts are configurable in Settings. These are the defaults.

• Open Tock — ⌃⌥⌘T
• Pause/resume — ⌃⌥⌘P
• Clear timer — ⌃⌥⌘X
• Start Pomodoro — ⌃⌥⌘M

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, and feature requests

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

Privacy

The Tock macOS app does not collect, store, or share personal data. There are no app accounts, analytics, or tracking features. Website analytics are separate and are documented in the privacy policy.