~/ugurcandede/apps TapLock

TapLock v1.10.0

Hands off.
On purpose.

Lock the keyboard and trackpad for a while, or let a quiet overlay tell you it is time for a break. From the menu bar. No root required.

Download
A Mac desktop under TapLock's lock screen, counting down from 13 seconds

Highlights

Five things to know.

Relax mode

Break reminders that cover the screen. Never your input.

30 s
→ ∞

Lock mode

Seconds to an hour, or until you say so.

0

No root

User space only. One permission, no kernel extension.

⌘⌥⌃L

Emergency cancel

Hold for three seconds. It always works.

Also on
a PC.

Windows

Relax mode, ported. One executable.

Lock mode

Nothing gets through.4

Cleaning the keyboard. Handing the Mac to a toddler. A cat on the desk. Pick a duration and TapLock blocks keyboard, trackpad and mouse while everything on screen keeps running.

Presets from

30 sec

to an hour, or indefinitely

Safety unlock after

5 min

when no end time is set

Hold ⌘⌥⌃L for

3 sec

to cancel, whatever the timer says

The menu: 15 seconds, presets from 30 seconds to 10 minutes The menu set to indefinite

5, 4, 3…

Five presets in the menu, 30 seconds to 10 minutes. Or set your own, up to an hour.

No end time at all. An indefinite lock still lets go after five minutes, so you are never stuck.

Set a delay and a visible countdown runs before the lock starts, so you can put the Mac down first.

Keyboard only

Block the keys. Keep the pointer.

Wipe the keys, still scroll.

Overlay

Any colour, any opacity.

Presets in Settings, or your own.

−100%

Dimming and sound

Brightness to minimum. Restored after.

Sound cues at start and end, or silence.

Relax mode

Work. Breathe. Repeat.

Work for an interval, then a quiet overlay asks you to step away. It covers the display for the length of the break and never blocks your keyboard or mouse.

Presets

25 / 5

45 / 10 and 50 / 10 too, or any rhythm

Themes

3

Breathing, Minimal, Mini

Input hooks

0

An ordinary window. A key always reaches you.

Breathing theme: the display dims and a soft circle pulses Minimal theme: a frosted card in the middle of the screen Mini theme: a small bar at the top

Breathing dims the whole display and pulses a soft circle for the length of the break.

Minimal is a frosted card in the middle of the screen. Nothing else changes.

Mini is a small bar at the top. Keep working if you must, but you will know.

Rhythm

25 / 5. 45 / 10. Or your own.

Your last setup is saved and restored.

Countdown

You always know when the next break is.

A sound plays shortly before. Or silence.

Settings

Theme, colour, opacity, sound.

Advanced

Breaks on your working hours.

Working days and hours, quiet hours, fixed times. Mac and Windows.

Never blocks
your input.

By design

A break you can always skip.

Inside

No root. No drivers.
One permission.

TapLock runs entirely in user space. A session-level CGEvent tap blocks input; signal handlers restore it on exit, whatever happens. The only thing it asks for is Accessibility.

Kernel extensions

0

No driver. No admin password.

Permissions

1

Accessibility. Nothing else.

Written in

Swift 6

SwiftUI and AppKit. Source available.

BlockingSession-level CGEvent tap. Keyboard, trackpad, mouse, gestures.
Cancel⌘⌥⌃L held for three seconds. A system shortcut, outside the tap.
BrightnessDimmed during a lock, restored on exit by a signal handler.
PermissionAccessibility. Asked once, for the event tap.
ConfigOne file, shared with the CLI and the Windows port.
EngineTapLockCore. The app and the CLI are two front ends.

Also a command line.

The engine ships on its own as taplock, with a flag for every option. A Raycast shortcut, a cron job, a shell alias.

CLI on GitHub →
[taplock]
# lock for two minutes
$ taplock 2m

# a five-minute break every 45 minutes, minimal theme
$ taplock relax --every 45m --break 5m --theme minimal

# stop the breaks
$ taplock relax --cancel

for Windows.

Relax mode, on a PC.1

One executable in the notification area. No installer, no administrator rights. Same config, posture reminder and statistics as the Mac app.

Download →

The Windows panel: interval, break, presets, start

taplock › for windows

Fits in with Windows.

Posture reminder

Sit up. Halfway through, every time.

Statistics

Sessions, break time and skip rate, by period.

🔔 / 🔕

Sound cues

Your sound scheme, or silence.

☀︎ / ☾

Follows your theme

Light and dark, switched live.

Same files
as the Mac.

Shared with macOS

Carry your config and history between machines.

HKCU

Launch at login

One registry key. Removed when you turn it off.

One file. Nothing to install.

Files

1

TapLock.exe, about 45 MB, nothing to extract

Admin rights

0

At install or at run. Launch at login is one HKCU key

Input hooks

0

Always-on-top windows, nothing more

Windows 10 1809 (build 17763) or later, 64-bit. The file is unsigned, so SmartScreen may stop it the first time: More info, then Run anyway.

Under the hood

One tick. Nothing hooked.

A single 1 Hz tick drives the whole session against monotonic deadlines. A deadline more than 30 seconds overdue means the laptop was asleep, so the interval restarts instead of firing a break hours late.

Timer

1 Hz

Against monotonic deadlines

Overdue means asleep after

30 sec

The interval restarts instead of firing late

Written in

Python

PySide6 and Pillow, packaged as one .exe

Where it differs from the Mac.

Where the port does not match the original, it is on purpose.

Lock modeNot ported1
ConfigSame files and schema as the Mac app
Tray iconCountdown lives in the tooltip
Mini themeNever takes focus, so no Esc
BreathingCovers every display
SoundsTwo per cycle, not three
SettingsSaved on every change
Week startsMonday, ISO 8601

Three builds

Pick your TapLock.

>_

TapLock CLI

Command line tool

Download 
$ brew tap ugurcandede/tap
$ brew install taplock
Lock
Keyboard, trackpad, mouse
Relax
Breathing, Minimal, Mini
Scriptable
A flag for every option

TapLock

Menu bar app3

Download 
$ brew tap ugurcandede/tap
$ brew install --cask taplock-app
Lock
Keyboard, trackpad, mouse
Relax
Breathing, Minimal, Mini
Schedule
Working days and hours
Posture, stats
Nudges and statistics
Menu bar
Presets, countdown, settings

TapLock for Windows

Notification area app

Download 
TapLock.exe, no installer
Lock mode
Not ported, on purpose1
Relax
Breathing, Minimal, Mini
Schedule
Working days and hours
Posture, stats
Nudges and statistics

Anonymous usage stats can be switched off in Settings.2

Specifications

What it needs. What it does.

RequiresmacOS 13 Ventura or later, Apple silicon or Intel
PermissionAccessibility
Written inSwift 6, SwiftUI and AppKit
BlockingSession-level CGEvent tap
Cancel⌘⌥⌃L held for 3 seconds
Durations30 s to 1 h in the app, any length from the CLI; indefinite with 5 min safety
ThemesBreathing, Minimal, Mini
InstallHomebrew cask or .app
EngineTapLockCore, shared with the CLI
LicenseSource available

FAQ

Questions, answered.

Read the guide →

Why does TapLock need Accessibility permission?

TapLock uses a CGEvent tap to intercept and block keyboard, trackpad, and mouse events at the system level. macOS requires Accessibility permission for any app that monitors or modifies input events. TapLock does not log, record, or transmit any input data.

Is my input data collected or sent anywhere?

Your input, never. TapLock blocks events locally and discards them — no keystrokes or mouse movements are recorded or transmitted.

The only thing it sends is one anonymous ping per day to Google Analytics: a random install id, the app version and which mode you last used (lock or relax). No keystrokes, no input data, no device names. Turn it off any time by unchecking send anonymous usage stats in settings.

Why is the cursor still visible during lock?

The cursor remains visible but non-functional — all clicks and movements are blocked by the CGEvent tap. Hiding the cursor caused restoration issues on some macOS versions, so we chose reliability over aesthetics.

Do 3-finger gestures still work?

TapLock blocks gesture events (types 29/30/31), but macOS processes some multi-finger gestures at a lower level before they become CGEvents. Some system gestures like Mission Control may still trigger.

Does it support multiple monitors?

Currently, the overlay is displayed on the main screen only. Multi-monitor support is planned for a future release. Input blocking works system-wide regardless of which screen is active.

What happens if I revoke Accessibility permission during a lock?

The CGEvent tap will stop receiving events, effectively ending the lock. The overlay will remain until the session timer expires. We recommend not changing permissions during an active session.

Is there a Windows version?

Relax mode has one: TapLock for Windows, a single executable that lives in the notification area. Lock mode is not ported — blocking input on Windows means hooking the input stack, and the port deliberately stays in user space, with no driver and no admin rights. Both builds read and write the same config and event log, so those files can move between machines.

Can I run both CLI and App at the same time?

They share the same TapLockCore library but run as separate processes. Only one lock session can be active at a time — the CLI uses a PID file to prevent multiple instances.

How do I uninstall?
# CLI
$ brew uninstall taplock

# App
$ brew uninstall --cask taplock-app

# Or manually delete TapLock.app from Applications

Then remove TapLock from System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility.

Build fails with “no such module ‘Testing’”

The test suite uses Swift Testing framework, which requires Xcode (not just Command Line Tools). Tests run in CI where Xcode is available. You can still build without running tests:

$ swift build -c release
Build fails with “swift-tools-version 6.0”

You need Swift 6.0+. Check your version:

$ swift --version

Update via Xcode or install the latest Swift toolchain from swift.org.

From taplock-app/docs/faq.md

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