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Pomotroid
MITA simple and configurable Pomodoro timer built with Electron.
Open-source alternative to — compare it against:
Overview
Overview
Pomotroid is a simple and configurable Pomodoro timer. It aims to provide a visually-pleasing and reliable way to track productivity using the Pomodoro Technique.
Built with Tauri 2, Rust, and Svelte 5.
Features
- Configurable timer — customise work duration, break durations, and the number of rounds per long break
- Statistics — daily, weekly, and all-time session history with charts and a 52-week heatmap
- 38 bundled themes — including Dracula, Nord, Tokyo Night, Catppuccin, Gruvbox, Rose Piné, and more; auto-switches with your OS light/dark preference
- Custom themes — drop a JSON file into the themes folder; applied instantly without a restart
- Localization — 8 languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Turkish, and Portuguese; auto-detects OS language
- Global shortcuts — control the timer from anywhere, even when the window is hidden
- Custom audio — replace the built-in alert sounds with your own files
- Tick sounds — optional ticking during work and break rounds, independently toggleable
- Dynamic tray icon — progress arc updates in real time; reflects round type and pause state
- Minimise / close to tray — keep Pomotroid running in the background
- Desktop notifications — native OS alerts on round transitions
- Compact mode — a minimal set of controls appears when the window is resized small
- Always on top — optionally keep the timer above other windows
- WebSocket server — opt-in local server for stream overlays and external integrations
- Diagnostic logging — rotating log file with a one-click shortcut to the log folder
Statistics
Pomotroid tracks every completed session and surfaces the data across three views: a daily summary with an hourly breakdown, a weekly bar chart with streak tracking, and an all-time 52-week heatmap.
Themes
Pomotroid ships with 38 themes and supports fully custom themes with live hot-reload.
See THEMES.md for the full theme list and instructions on creating your own.
Install
Download
Download the latest release from the releases page.
Available for Windows (installer + standalone exe), macOS (universal DMG), and Linux (.deb + AppImage).
Note: Pomotroid is currently unsigned. Depending on your OS security settings you may see a warning on first launch — this is expected and can be safely dismissed.
Linux notes
System tray on GNOME: GNOME does not display tray icons by default. To use the tray icon feature (Settings → System → Show in System Tray), install the AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support extension, then log out and back in. On Fedora: sudo dnf install gnome-shell-extension-appindicator. On Debian/Ubuntu it is pre-installed. Other desktop environments (KDE Plasma, XFCE, Cinnamon, MATE) support tray icons natively with no extra steps.
Homebrew (macOS)
brew install --cask pomotroid
The Homebrew cask is maintained separately and may lag behind the latest release. Check the releases page for the most current version.
Custom Themes
Pomotroid supports user-created themes with automatic hot-reload — no restart required. See THEMES.md for directory paths, the full color reference, and a step-by-step guide.
WebSocket API
Pomotroid exposes an optional WebSocket server (disabled by default) for integration with external tools, stream overlays, and automation scripts.
Enable it in Settings → Advanced → WebSocket Server, then connect to ws://127.0.0.1:<port> (default port: 1314).
Messages
Client → Server
| Message | Description |
|---|---|
{ "type": "getState" } | Request the current timer state |
Server → Client
| Event | Payload | Description |
|---|---|---|
state | TimerState object | Response to getState |
roundChange | TimerState object | Fired whenever the timer advances to a new round |
error | { message } | Protocol error |
TimerState fields: elapsed_secs, total_secs, is_running, is_paused, round_type, work_round_number, work_rounds_total.
Development
See CONTRIBUTING.md for full setup instructions, project structure, and the release process.
Quick start
# Install dependencies
npm install
# Run in development mode (hot-reload)
npm run tauri dev
# Build a production release
npm run tauri build
Localization
UI strings live in src/messages/<locale>.json (en, es, fr, de, ja, zh, pt, tr). The compiled output in src/paraglide/ is generated at build time and is not committed to the repository.
During development, the Paraglide Vite plugin compiles messages automatically whenever npm run tauri dev or npm run tauri build is run — no manual step required.
After adding or changing message keys, regenerate the output explicitly so that svelte-check and your editor can pick up the new types:
npm run paraglide:compile
This is also run automatically as part of npm run check.
License
MIT © Christopher Murphy
