Apps
Dayhand for macOS
Dayhand for macOS has Today, quick add from the menu bar or a global shortcut, task details with their change history, the trash, reminders and the morning summary as notifications, and works offline like the phone. It runs on macOS 13 or newer, in English, Polish, German, Spanish, French, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese or Simplified Chinese.
It is built from source and is not signed for other Macs yet: Install. How the app is built and tested: macos/README.md. Signing, notarization and the update feed for a release: macos.md.
Connect, or keep the plan on this Mac
On the first start, connect to your server with a code from dayhand pair: type the server’s address
and the code, or open the dayhand://pair?… link that dayhand pair prints (the Mac hands it to
Dayhand). Not now keeps everything on this Mac until you connect; what you add before is sent then.
Disconnect forgets the sign-in on this Mac and keeps the plan; dayhand revoke <deviceId> ends it
on the server. When the server revokes the Mac, Today says so, and the tasks and waiting changes stay.
The window
A sidebar on the left switches between Today and Trash and lists their tasks; the selected task’s details are on the right.
- Today: overdue (with To today), Now with “where I stopped”, today (timed tasks first, by time) and done today, folded. One click ticks a task off. The context menu makes a task the one you work on now, moves it to today or tomorrow, archives it or moves it to the trash.
- Task details: title, status, “working on it now” with the resume note, the day and time (a date phrase, Today, No day, Remove the time), labels, the checklist and the note. Links are shown. For repeat and reminder editors and read-only agent work, see Mac app features.
- History at the bottom of the details: who changed the task (you in the app, you with
dayhand, or an agent by name) and when, each field from its old value to the new one. It comes from the server; offline, the last copy stays. - Trash: deleted tasks, newest first, with the day each was deleted and the day it goes for good. Restore works offline. The server keeps deleted tasks for 30 days.
Quick add
Quick add is at the top of Today, in the menu bar, and in a floating panel from any app with ⌃⌥N (change the shortcut in Settings). A date phrase at the end of the line sets the day and time: “Call the accountant fri 2pm”, “Pay rent the 1st”, “Plan next week”. The line below the field says what was understood; Keep in title keeps the words as text. Without a phrase, the task is for today. The phrases are English in every language (dates).
Menu bar
The menu bar icon shows how many tasks are open today, with a warning mark when some are overdue. Its menu has quick add and today’s open tasks to tick off without opening the window. Closing the window keeps Dayhand in the menu bar, so reminders keep coming.
Reminders and the morning summary
Reminders and the morning summary are macOS notifications, worked out on the Mac from its copy of the plan with the same rules as the phone, in the time zone of the server’s settings (this Mac’s until a server has sent them). Overdue tasks never ring. The summary is quiet and waits in Notification Center. A reminder’s Done completes the task. Dayhand asks for permission when the first reminder is planned, or from Settings. Editing the summary time and default reminders: Mac notification settings.
Language
Dayhand follows the Mac’s languages. Settings → General → Language picks one of the eight, and the windows change at once; the menus that come with macOS follow after Restart Dayhand.
Updates
The app has an updater (Sparkle) with its own window and Settings → Updates. It works only in a build signed with the project’s release key, and none is published yet: a build you made yourself says “Updates aren’t available in this build” and never checks. Update it by pulling the repository and building again.
How it stays in sync
Every change goes into the Mac’s database and an outbox at once, so the window never waits for the network. Task sync and plan-health refresh rules: Mac sync behavior.
| What | Where |
|---|---|
| Tasks and the outbox | ~/Library/Application Support/Dayhand/dayhand.sqlite |
| The sign-in to the server | the login Keychain, item io.github.maiarowsky.dayhand |
| Preferences (shortcut, window, updates, language) | the defaults domain io.github.maiarowsky.dayhand |
DAYHAND_DATA_DIR=<folder> uses another database (for a second profile or a test),
DAYHAND_CREDENTIALS=memory keeps the sign-in until the app quits, and DAYHAND_LANG=<code> starts it
in a language without changing Settings.
Not on the Mac yet
The remaining features are listed in What is left for parity.
This page is docs/macos-app.md in the repository, where
you can suggest a change.