Cooldown

Cooldown is on from the start. Each reminder is a card like any other notice, with buttons to act on it or put it off.

Copy handoff prompt copies a prompt that asks your agent for a handoff note: what’s done, what’s next, and any open questions. Paste it into the session, so tomorrow starts where you left off.

The schedule applies on your work days, Monday to Friday unless you change them. No reminder shows while a microphone or camera is on, as on a call or a recording, while a full-screen app is in front, or while an agent needs an answer. It waits and shows once you’re done.

1. Start one

   Select Take a break on a reminder. To take one any time, press ⌘T with the panel open, or select ⌘T break in its footer.

2. Pick a kind

   Before you go, choose what kind of break it is. Each kind sets its length and the tips Burnstate shows.

3. Say where you were

   Type a line under where were you?, like fixing tax rounding in totals.ts. Burnstate shows it again when you’re back.

4. Hand off a task

   Optional. Each idle session is listed with its project and the app it runs in. Select a session to write it a task, or pick tests, review or docs. Select the same one again to take it back. You can give tasks to several sessions at once.

5. Go

   Select Start break, or press ↩, and step away from the keyboard.

Nothing is sent unless a session has a task. Sessions in Terminal, iTerm or tmux get theirs typed in as the break starts, after you allow Burnstate to type into that app once. For other apps, like Warp or an editor, select copy & open and paste it yourself. If a task can’t be typed in, it stays on your clipboard and the welcome back says so.

Check Sleep the display once I’ve stepped away to turn the screen off 15 seconds after you leave. Your Mac and your agents keep running. Meals check it for you.

The ring around Ember fills only while you’re away. Touch the mouse or the keyboard and the clock pauses, the line under it reads paused while you’re here, and Ember peeks up from the bottom of the screen to say so.

• Cards wait quietly. Notices that can wait are held until you’re back. The line under the tip counts them.
• An agent that needs you comes through. Its card shows and Ember tells you, but the clock keeps counting. Answer it now or when you’re back.
• Nothing nags at the end. When the time is up, the screen says break’s done. no rush and waits for you.

To end early, select End break early or press esc. Ember asks Rested already? first, and peeks from the corner too. Select I’m back or press esc again to end the break, or press ↩ to keep resting. A break you end early still counts, and reminders wait 15 minutes before asking again.

The break locks the Mac until it ends: the Dock and the menu bar hide, ⌘Tab does nothing, and other apps can’t come forward. Force Quit still works. To turn the lock off, see How firm. With more than one display, the break covers all of them, and the others show where it is.

Your first move after a break brings up the welcome back: how long you were away, the line you left yourself, what each agent did meanwhile, and the cards that waited. A session you handed a task to says whether it finished, is still on it or needs you. Select Show held cards to see them now, or Back to work to let them go.

Open the Cooldown pane of settings. At the top, [today] draws your day from 06:00 to 02:00: the time at the keyboard, the breaks you took, the meal windows and the evening’s two marks, with your longest stretch without a break under it.

Choose how hard Cooldown leans when you don’t act on a reminder.

Evening reminders stay a notification, whichever you pick. A reminder plays the notification sound, and a break chimes as it starts and ends. Set both under General › sound.

While a break runs, lock the Mac during breaks hides the Dock and the menu bar and turns off ⌘Tab. Other apps can’t come forward until the break ends. Force Quit still works. It’s on by default; turn it off in Settings › Cooldown.