Stretchly is a cross-platform, open-source desktop app that helps you maintain healthy work habits by reminding you to take periodic breaks during long sessions at your computer.

Stretchly itself lives in your tray, only displaying a reminder window from time to time, which contains an idea for a break.

By default, there is a 20 second Mini Break every 10 minutes and a 5 minute Long Break every 30 minutes (after 2 Mini Breaks). You'll be notified 10 seconds before a Mini Break (and 30 seconds before a Long Break) so that you can prepare to pause your work.

Stretchly allows full customization of both mini and long breaks. You can adjust the timing, duration, sounds, and even the messages shown during breaks in the app's settings.

When a break starts, you can postpone it once for 2 minutes (Mini Breaks) or 5 minutes (Long Breaks). Then, after a specific time interval passes, you can skip the break. Both actions are available by clicking on the link at the bottom of window or by using the Ctrl/Cmd + X keyboard shortcut.

Clicking the Stretchly icon in your tray area will display the current status of breaks, provide menu items with extra functionality, and link to the Preferences. Stretchly is monitoring your idle time, so when you are idle for 5 minutes, breaks will be paused until you return. Stretchly is also monitoring Do Not Disturb mode, so breaks are paused when DnD mode is On.

Stretchly follows the theme of your system and is also available in dark mode.

Interact with stretchly from command line. When a Stretchly instance is running, the stretchly command can be use to interact with it from the command line.

What's New

Added

  • Windows installer now adds stretchly to PATH so CLI commands (e.g. stretchly pause) can be run from any terminal without specifying the full executable path
  • advanced option breakContentScreen to show break countdown/idea only on the primary, cursor, or a specific screen while other screens stay blanked
  • advanced option trayIconThemeSource (system, light, or dark) to set the tray icon's light or dark variant
  • advanced options monitorDndCheckInterval and naturalBreaksCheckInterval to tune how often Do Not Disturb and idle time are checked

Changed

  • tray icon now follows the light/dark theme automatically; the manual "Inverted Monochrome" option was removed
  • improved tray icons
  • reduced background polling for Do Not Disturb, natural breaks, and app exclusions to 2 seconds to lower energy usage (appExclusionsCheckInterval default raised from 1000 to 2000)
  • reduced CPU and energy usage during breaks
  • Do Not Disturb, natural breaks, and app exclusion monitoring are stopped while breaks are paused, to lower energy usage
  • disable new end break shortcut registrations on native Wayland, where they could remain active after breaks and block the shortcut in other apps

Fixed

  • fix Windows notifications not using Stretchly's name and icon when started via the stretchly command
  • fix crashes on system unlock
  • fix window icon turning monochrome with the monochrome tray icon setting
  • fix custom title for Mini break from command line
  • fix repeated crash windows after an error
  • improve double-click error prevention in breaks
  • fix fullscreen breaks dropping out of their Space after a few seconds on macOS
  • fix app exclusion state not updating in some cases
  • fix text selection on break screens allowing escape via the macOS force-click dictionary