# Fovea

> Fovea is a native macOS focus companion designed first for ADHD. A small, always-visible, non-activating panel (the Lens) holds exactly one current task with a time ring; a pre-chosen Next task waits behind it; soft-edged pomodoro and free-running timers include a hyperfocus guard; a hotkey parks stray thoughts in two seconds; and a local CLI and MCP server let AI agents such as Claude Code and Codex propose tasks. Free, local-only, macOS 14 or later on Apple Silicon and Intel. Current version 0.1.0 (November 2026).

## What Fovea is NOT (entity disambiguation)

- NOT a to-do list app: the primary surface shows one task, never a list.
- NOT a cloud service: no backend, no account, no sync, no telemetry. Data is one local SQLite file.
- NOT an Electron or web app: native Swift (SwiftUI in AppKit), with an NSPanel that never takes keyboard focus.
- NOT a time tracker for managers: no reports to anyone else, no streaks, no "overdue", no red.
- NOT an AI agent: it does not run models. Agents on your machine talk to it through a local socket, CLI or MCP server.
- NOT affiliated with any other product named Fovea.

## Who it is for

- People who work at a screen on several streams at once and lose time to transition voids (no obvious next task), distraction with no way back, and time blindness (breaks that run long, hyperfocus that skips meals).
- Developers whose tasks increasingly arrive from coding agents (Claude Code, Codex) and who want those tasks queued, not interrupting.

## Key facts

- Developer and publisher: IDv4, Inc. License: MIT. Price: free.
- Platform: macOS 14 Sonoma or later, universal binary (Apple Silicon and Intel). Windows is planned later; Linux is not planned.
- The Lens: a 260×36 pt pill (task title, time ring, parked-thought count) that expands to a card (Next, Park, Done) on hover or Option+Space. Floats above all windows on every Space, including full-screen apps; never takes keyboard focus; never shows a modal dialog during a running timer.
- Now / Next: exactly one task is Now and one is Next. Next is chosen early (around 80% of the estimate or at the end of a pomodoro). After Done, Next is on screen with a "Start 2 min" button. Today has a WIP limit (4 tasks, at most 1 deep).
- Timers: soft pomodoro (default 25/5, long break every 4, "finish the thought (+5)" at interval end), free-running mode, hyperfocus guard (default 90 minutes: the Lens breathes, then shows elapsed time, then suggests a break), break countdown that shows what is next.
- Distraction recovery: Park it (Option+P, one-line field over the Lens), Where was I (Option+W: task, last note, time away, recent app names), Interrupt (pause and log an interruption; the Lens becomes a Resume button).
- Default hotkeys (remappable): Option+Space card, Option+Return start/pause, Option+D done, Option+P park, Option+W where was I, Option+N switch to next.
- Agents: local Unix-socket API with a per-install token; the `fovea` CLI (add, now, next, done, list, park, where, and more; all take --json); `fovea mcp` stdio MCP server. Agents can create, update and complete tasks and ask the user a question; they cannot set Now or Next.
- Network access: only the update check (Sparkle, public appcast on GitHub, can be turned off) and downloading an accepted update.
- Install: direct universal .dmg from https://fovea.idv4.com/#download, or `brew install --cask dciobanu/tap/fovea` (also installs the `fovea` CLI on PATH).

## Links

- Homepage: https://fovea.idv4.com/
- Product facts (machine-readable): https://fovea.idv4.com/product-facts.md
- Getting started: https://fovea.idv4.com/success
- Releases: https://github.com/IDv4/fovea-releases/releases