SwingBy for Mac

Less clock. More flow.

A little company for your focus. A desk mascot for your Mac.

Version 1.3 (build 14) · macOS 15.0 or later · 4.4 MB · signed and notarised by Apple.

Free to use. Pro is a one-time upgrade for your own timer lengths.

On the hour, and not much else

A monkey climbs down a rope at the edge of your screen, tells you the time, and climbs away again. About seven seconds. Then he tucks himself back up at the top, small and out of the way, until he has something else to say.

SwingBy at the right edge of a Mac-style desktop, announcing 3:00 beside your work — Down the rope, a word, and away again.

The character peeking from the Mac desktop edge with Time, 25 min and Mute controls — Hover him and the things you actually want are one click away.

A focus timer beside a Mac workspace, with Pause, Add 5 minutes and Stop controls — During a focus session he holds the clock up and climbs as it runs down.

He knows when to stay put

This is the part that decides whether a mascot is charming on day 30 or unbearable on day 3. He stays up the rope, and posts a silent notification instead, whenever:

You are on a call

Your camera or microphone is in use. He reads the hardware state and never opens either himself.

You are presenting

Zoom, Teams, Keynote, PowerPoint, Webex and friends are frontmost.

You are in fullscreen

If you would rather he waited. Your choice.

You asked for quiet

Mute for fifteen minutes, an hour, this evening or tomorrow. There is a hotkey.

And if you ever wonder why he did not appear, every decision is logged. Open Console.app and filter on com.nexaitech.swingby.

Reminders, in plain language

Choose Add reminder... from the menu bar, then type 4pm standup, in 25m stretch, or 9:30am weekdays yoga. Saved reminders have clear edit and delete actions. Undo one you just added, or snooze one that just went off.

A Pomodoro you can change your mind about

Nothing you start here is a one-way door. Pause it, resume it, add five minutes, stop it, skip the break, end the break early, or take back a session that was counted by mistake. The rope is the progress bar. Finish a session and see the current time, a gentle stretch nudge, and clear controls to continue, take a break or start a new session. Name what you are focusing on and mark it accomplished when it is done. The menu bar keeps the countdown visible while running, then shows Done until you acknowledge it.

SwingBy's new sidebar settings with Focus selected, showing Pro focus and break lengths alongside finishing controls — Clear sections, readable controls, and room to adjust your focus and break lengths.

Your companion, out of the way

Option-drag the monkey to move it. Keep the usual downward pull for the time. Positions are remembered per display, and empty corner space stays available for notifications.

Need every click to reach the app underneath? Turn on Mascot › Click-through mascot. Customize fur, rope and banner colors, separate opacity and rope thickness in Preferences › Appearance. Hidden parts never take clicks.

Appearance settings with separate opacity sliders and color pickers for monkey, rope and banners — Movement and style are free. Restore defaults without changing your session.

Small steps. Clearer next steps.

A few useful tools, not another task manager. Your goals, notes and history stay on your Mac.

A shortcut back to work

Press ⌃⌥Space to start focus, capture a reminder, pause or resume. No menu hunting.

Just five minutes

Choose one small step. Then keep going, mark it done or stop for now. Nothing starts automatically.

Where was I?

Leave an optional next-step note when you pause. Pick up your place when you return; saved focus restores paused.

Three priorities for today

Choose what matters and focus on one thing. A finished timer never checks a task off for you.

A little perspective

Reflect on outcomes and when sessions finished. No scores, streak penalties or guilt.

Room before a meeting

Optional calendar suggestions fit focus before your next busy event. Availability is checked again when you choose Start.

SwingBy Today, showing three sample priorities with Focus, Just 5m and Mark done controls — Your priorities, with accomplishment kept separate from time spent.

SwingBy suggesting a 20-minute focus window before a sample calendar commitment, with an explicit Start button — Actual native windows with sample data. Calendar access is off until you opt in.

Free to focus. Pro once.

Feature	Free	Pro · one-time
Hourly visits, reminders, quiet rules, celebration	Yes	Yes
Manual focus lengths	25 or 5 minutes	1–90 minutes
Next-step notes, Today, reflection, calendar suggestions	Yes	Yes
Breaks	5 minutes	1–30 minutes
Wordmark on the timer board	Shown	Hidden

One payment, no subscription. The free version never expires. Pricing and direct-purchase availability are shown on the Pro page. Mac App Store purchases use the price Apple displays. No accounts, analytics or sync.

Get SwingBy

Download directly

Open the notarised disk image, drag SwingBy to Applications, then open SwingBy. Look for the climber in your menu bar, not the Dock.

Download the .dmg

SHA‑256
91767a660ed351b0a4fe2a0d70051071c7214af093bf03f8bfe7e61cecb7ff85

Or from the Mac App Store

Coming shortly - the first version is with Apple for review. Buying Pro there is a normal in-app purchase.

Questions?