Swaybles

Tiny charms that hang from the top of your Mac screen, swing with real rope physics, and cheer you on. A gentle focus buddy, made for ADHD brains. Free and open source.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/83c76ddd-3cf0-400b-ad3a-4ef0acb147b8

• Fidget toy: flick a charm with your cursor, drag it, let it swing.
• Focus timer: tap Timer Ghost (or use the menu bar). When you finish, every charm does a happy wiggle.
• Make the most of the next 90 days: pick one goal; Banner Bat shows "Day 12 / 90". It's a calendar, not a streak, so nothing ever resets.
• Private by design: 100% offline. No data collected, ever — see Privacy.

Install (no tech skills needed)

⬇ Download Swaybles — Mac, macOS 14 or newer.

1. Double-click the downloaded Swaybles.zip.
2. Drag Swaybles into your Applications folder.
3. First launch only: macOS will say it "could not verify" the app (we haven't paid Apple for notarization — the code is all public, right here). Open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down, click Open Anyway, and confirm.
4. Look up! The charms hang from the top of your screen, and Swaybles lives in the menu bar (top-right).

Privacy

Swaybles collects no data. None.

• It never connects to the internet. There is no networking code in the app — no analytics, no crash reporting, no update checks, no "phoning home". You can block it with a firewall and nothing changes.
• No account, no sign-up, no license key. Download it and it's yours.
• It can't see what you're doing. Swaybles never reads your screen, your windows, your keystrokes or your files. The only things it knows are: the current time, the focus timer you start, and how long the mouse and keyboard have been idle (so the charms can doze while you're away).
• Your photos stay home. A photo you hang as a charm is copied into the app's own folder on your Mac and never leaves it.
• Everything is stored locally (your settings, goal and focus wins) and deleted with the app.

Don't take our word for it — this is the entire source code, right here in this repo.

Run it from source (Mac, macOS 14+)

You need Xcode (free, Mac App Store).

cd mac
swift run Swaybles      # or: open Package.swift, then ⌘R in Xcode
swift test              # or ⌘U in Xcode

Swaybles lives in the menu bar (✨). Open Swaybles Studio from there (⌘,) to pick charms, set your 90-day goal and choose a rope.

Make a download

mac/scripts/make-app.sh     # → mac/dist/Swaybles-<version>.zip

Without a paid Apple Developer account the app isn't notarized, so the first launch is right-click → Open.

Adding charms

Art comes from Imagine Art using the template in docs/ART.md. Save the PNG to art/raw/<pack>/<id>.png, add the charm to tools/packs.json, then:

npm install          # once
npm run charms <pack>
npm run charms:review <pack>

Repo map

Code: MIT. Charm images: see ART-LICENSE.