Desktop app·macOS · Windows · Linux

Perchboard

A floating focus timer for your daily tasks — a large countdown that floats above every other window.

Local-only · offline · no accounts · free & open source
Live theme
Platforms
mac · win · linux
Built with
Electron · React · TS
Price
Free
Updates
Auto (GitHub)

Built to disappear until you need it.

Every behavior serves one goal — keep the time in front of you without ever getting in your way.

The overlay

Floats above everything

A frameless, always-on-top window that stays visible over fullscreen apps and every Space. Transparent when collapsed — just digits — with clicks passing through, and it never steals focus.

Daily queue

Plan the day in time-boxes

An ordered list of tasks, each with a whole-minute budget. Reorder, edit, and check them off as you work down the list.

One task at a time

You drive; it waits for you

Drift-free timing you control — pause, skip, or finish early. An amber heads-up warns before the end, then at zero it dings, notifies you by name, and holds at 00:00 rather than silently moving on.

Rest breaks

Actually step away

A break prompt after every task with its own adjustable timer — plus an optional auto-start to roll into the next block, and an end-of-day “you crushed it 🎉”.

Personalize

Make the overlay yours

Eleven themes plus a full custom-color builder, any system font, and a size slider from 70% to 180% — with a built-in Help tab and everything remembered across restarts.

Desktop citizen

Lives in your menu bar

The tray icon is home base — closing hides there instead of quitting. Single-instance and multi-monitor aware, it keeps everything in one local file and resumes the active timer after a restart.

Plus the small stuff
  • Drag the digits to reposition anywhere
  • Auto H:MM:SS for hour-plus tasks
  • 15 / 25 / 45 / 60 quick presets
  • Reorder, edit, delete & clear completed
  • “X of Y done” progress bar
  • Restart a finished task with more minutes
  • Recovers timers that elapsed while away
  • Mute toggle & volume control
  • Optional soft warning chime
  • Break length seeded from your default
  • HSL + hex custom-color builder
  • Menu-bar-only or Dock / taskbar mode
  • Launch at login (optional)
  • Multi-monitor clamp back on-screen
System-wide

Global hotkeys

Show / Hidereveal the overlay
T
Startbegin the next task
S
Stoppause / resume
E

On Windows & Linux, ⌘ maps to Ctrl. Click any shortcut in Settings and press a new combination to rebind — at least one modifier required.

11 themes · light → dark

Pick a mood, or build your own

Tap any theme to preview it on the overlay above — plus a full custom-color builder in the app.

Get Perchboard

One codebase, three platforms. Packaged installers, delivered with auto-update.

macOS
Perchboard.dmg · Apple Silicon & Intel
Download .dmgIntel build ↓
Windows
Perchboard-Setup.exe · NSIS installer
Download .exe
🐧 Linux
Perchboard.AppImage · x86-64
Download .AppImage
Heads-up:Builds aren't code-signed yet, so macOS Gatekeeper or Windows SmartScreen may warn on first launch — right-click → Open on macOS, or “More info → Run anyway” on Windows. Signing certificates are on the way.