Fully local focus timer that lives in the system tray

Vadim — Sat, 31 Oct 2026 19:04:27 +0000

Hi everyone,

I wanted a focus timer that felt quiet and trustworthy.

Most of the ones I tried either needed an account, synced to the cloud, or lived in a browser tab I kept losing.

So I built Tempura.

It’s a small desktop app (Windows, macOS, Linux) that:

Lives in the system tray
Keeps the countdown accurate even if the window is closed or the computer sleeps
Stores everything locally in SQLite — no accounts, no cloud, no tracking
Comes with several focus rhythms (Classic 25/5, Sprint 15/3, Deep 50/10, 52/17, Ultradian, Flowtime, etc.) plus custom ones

I made it because I like tools that stay out of the way and respect my privacy. The whole session lives on my machine, and closing the window just hides it — quitting is a deliberate choice from the tray.

It’s free, MIT licensed, and still early (v0.1).

If a calm, local-first timer sounds useful to you, you can try it here:

https://vcostin.github.io/tempura/

I’d love to hear what you think — whether the idea resonates, or if there’s something that would make it more helpful for the way you work.

Thanks for reading.

DEV Community: Vadim

Fully local focus timer that lives in the system tray