A native macOS menu bar app for day planning, time tracking, and reflection. Built with SwiftUI and SwiftData.
Telos helps knowledge workers start each day with a clear plan, focus on one task at a time, and review what got done—all without accounts, sync setup, or leaving the menu bar.
- Auto-creates a plan for each calendar day with morning and end-of-day reminders
- Tasks and one level of subtasks, grouped by Eisenhower quadrant (Do first / Schedule / Delegate / Later)
- Drag-and-drop reordering within quadrants
- Rolls incomplete tasks forward; archive tasks you no longer need
- Move tasks from past days into today
- One active task timer at a time (countdown: 15 / 25 / 45 min, or open-ended count-up)
- Time spent recorded per task and subtask
- Menu bar shows the current task and elapsed or remaining time
- Quick-add tasks and notes without opening the main window
- Recent notes at a glance
- Pause, resume, stop, or complete the active timer from the dropdown
- Daily usage streak
- Retrospectives by day, week, month, or quarter (completed vs. incomplete, time spent, notes)
- Multi-day Challenges with per-day progress
- Project hub with Kanban boards and linked day tasks
- Goals for longer-horizon outcomes
- Future inbox for tasks not yet scheduled to a day
- Standalone notes in the app and from the menu bar
- CSV export of tasks and notes
- Local-first: all data stays on your Mac (SwiftData). No account or cloud required.
- Automatic local backups with optional iCloud mirror; manual backup and restore in Settings
- macOS 14.0 (Sonoma) or later
- Xcode 15 or later (to build from source)
# Debug build
xcodebuild -scheme Telos -configuration Debug build
# Release build
xcodebuild -scheme Telos -destination 'platform=macOS' -configuration Release buildopen Telos.xcodeproj
# Product → Run (⌘R)After a Debug build, launch the .app from DerivedData:
open ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/Telos-*/Build/Products/Debug/Telos.appTo browse build artifacts (Debug/Release products, logs, intermediates):
open ~/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/On first launch, macOS may prompt for notification permission (morning and end-of-day reminders).
Download Telos-1.0.0.dmg (and future versions) from GitHub Releases.
- Open the DMG and drag Telos to Applications
- Open Telos from Applications (or Spotlight)
On first launch, macOS may prompt for notification permission (morning and end-of-day reminders).
Community builds from GitHub are not notarized yet, so Gatekeeper may refuse the first launch. You can allow Telos safely as follows.
Option A — Right-click Open (simplest)
- In Finder, open Applications
- Control-click (or right-click) Telos
- Choose Open
- In the dialog, click Open again
You only need to do this once.
Option B — Privacy & Security
Use this if double-clicking shows a block message and there is no Open in the right-click menu:
- Try to open Telos once (macOS will block it)
- Open System Settings → Privacy & Security
- Scroll to the Security section at the bottom
- Next to the message about Telos being blocked, click Open Anyway
- Confirm with your password or Touch ID, then click Open in the final prompt
If Open Anyway does not appear, use Option A, or ensure you attempted to launch Telos at least once before checking Settings.
An official Mac App Store release will not require these steps.
To build a specific tag from source:
git checkout v1.0.0 # exampleWhen an official Mac App Store build ships, release tags will align with App Store version numbers where possible.
Telos/
├── TelosApp.swift App entry, SwiftData container, environments
├── ContentView.swift Main window, sidebar navigation, day view
├── MenuBarView.swift Menu bar dropdown (timer, quick-add, notes)
├── StatusBarController.swift Menu bar extra lifecycle
├── Models/ SwiftData models (PlanDay, PlanTask, PlanNote, Project, Challenge, …)
├── Services/ DayStore, TimerStore, StreakStore, ExportService, backup helpers
└── Views/ Task rows, notes, retrospectives, project hub, settings, goals, …
Design notes and the original product spec live in docs/PRD-day-planning-app-ralph-tui.md.
See CONTRIBUTING.md.