Open the menu bar item and choose Settings. The Settings window is one list of sections.
Breaks
| Setting | Default | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Every | 20 min | 1 to 240 min |
| Break length | 20 sec | 10 to 600 sec |
| Snoozes per break | 2 | 0 to 10 |
| Long break every | never | 0 to 20 breaks |
| Long break length | 5 min | 30 sec to 60 min |
The long break length appears only when Long break every is not “never”. A long break replaces every nth regular break.
Two timings are not in the Settings window. The heads-up pill appears 60 seconds before a break. A 30-second cooldown follows each break. See scheduling.
Office hours
Limit to office hours is off by default. When you turn it on, GazeKeeper shows an active window (09:00 to 17:00 by default) and a toggle for each weekday (Monday to Friday by default). A window that crosses midnight works. With no day selected, every day is active. See scheduling for what happens outside the window.
Calendar
Offer breaks before meetings is off by default. See scheduling.
Break overlay
- Background: blurred desktop (default), a solid colour, or an image you choose. If the image is missing, the overlay falls back to blur.
- Allow Esc to skip: off by default.
- Chime when a break ends: on by default.
- Messages: the text on the break screen. You can keep up to 12 messages of up to 200 characters each. GazeKeeper shows them in order, one per break. Long breaks use a separate built-in list that you cannot edit.
- Take a break now starts a break immediately.
Appearance
Accent is GazeKeeper teal (default) or your system accent colour.
Wellness
Nudges are on by default. They are small notes at the bottom of the screen that disappear after four seconds. They are not system notifications.
| Setting | Default |
|---|---|
| Posture nudge | 30 min |
| Blink nudge | 5 min |
| Quiet hours | off |
| Weekly digest | off |
Quiet hours, when on, silence nudges between two times. The window is 22:00 to 08:00 until you change it. Nudges also wait while a break or heads-up is on screen, while you are typing, and while a detector holds the schedule. You can write your own posture and blink text.
The weekly digest is a note on Monday at 09:00 that sums up the previous week. If that week had no breaks, or the app was not running on Monday, GazeKeeper shows nothing.
Smart pause
Four toggles, all on by default: camera in use, microphone in use, screen being shared, and an app in fullscreen. Away counts as a break after is 1 minute by default. App rules lets you add a running app and mark it Pause or Ignore. See detectors.
Shortcuts
| Action | Default shortcut |
|---|---|
| Start break now | ⌘⌥B |
| Pause / resume | ⌘⌥P |
| Snooze 5 minutes | none |
Click a row to record a different shortcut.
General
- Launch at login: off by default.
- Show time in menu bar: on by default. When off, the menu bar shows the ring only.
The menu bar item
The menu shows the countdown and these actions:
- Start Break Now
- Snooze: 5, 10 or 15 minutes. It shows how many snoozes are left.
- Pause: 30 minutes, 1 hour, until tomorrow, or indefinitely.
- Skip Next Break: cancels the upcoming break and starts the interval again.
- Settings, Dashboard, Show Welcome, Check for Updates and Quit.
If a detector holds the schedule, the menu says why.
Advanced
Reveal stats & settings folder opens the data folder in Finder. Replay onboarding shows the welcome window the next time GazeKeeper starts. To open it now, choose Show Welcome in the menu bar item.