Your desktop is loud. Zenwright makes it quiet — one click, and everything else melts away.
How a session feels
You click the leaf.
The toggle in your menu bar begins a session — 15, 25, 45, or 60 minutes, your choice.
The world recedes.
Every other app hides. A soft, synthesized wash of sound rises. Nothing pings, nothing pulls.
A chime returns you.
When the session ends, a gentle tone sounds and your apps come back — exactly as you left them.
Nothing extra
Focus sessions, timed
A live countdown ticks in the menu bar — 15 to 60 minutes, or end it yourself whenever you like.
Hides your other apps
One call to hide everything else; each app is restored when the session ends. Nothing is ever lost.
Ambient sound, made in code
A soft brown-noise loop synthesized at runtime — no audio files, no downloads, nothing to configure.
Gentle endings
A two-tone chime, also synthesized, marks the end of a session. No alarms. No startle.
Honest limits
Zenwright does not toggle macOS Do Not Disturb — Apple provides no public API for that. It creates the quiet around you instead.
Private by construction
No account, no analytics, no network. Everything runs locally on your Mac.
Built like the OS, because it lives in it.
Real hiding, not dimming
Zenwright calls NSWorkspace.hideOtherApplications() — the same hiding macOS itself performs. It remembers exactly which apps it hid, and unhide()s each one when the session ends. Nothing ever closes; nothing is ever lost.
Sound synthesized in code
The ambient wash is brown noise computed sample by sample, wrapped in a hand-built WAV header, and looped with AVAudioPlayer. The end chime is two decaying sine tones. Zero audio files in the bundle, zero downloads.
Native, not wrapped
Pure Swift and SwiftUI with a MenuBarExtra scene, and LSUIElement so it never touches your Dock. Launches in a blink, sips memory, and renders like a first-party macOS citizen.
Open & hackable
The full Xcode project ships with the download — seven Swift files and a README. Want a pomodoro preset, a different chime, or a wilder leaf? Fork it, build it, make it yours.
Take it with you
The full source — the Xcode project, Swift files, and icon — is yours to build and keep.
Download for MacZenwright 1.0 · macOS 13+ · Swift 5. Open Zenwright.xcodeproj in Xcode, choose your signing team, and press ⌘R. Free, forever — no account, no tracking.
Free.
Zenwright is free — no tiers, no trials, no subscriptions. Calm shouldn't have a paywall.
Questions
Does Zenwright turn on Do Not Disturb?
No. Apple provides no public API for toggling Focus or Do Not Disturb, so Zenwright doesn't touch it. Instead it creates quiet the honest way: it hides your other apps and plays soft ambient sound, so distractions are out of sight and out of earshot.
What happens to my apps during a session?
Every other app is hidden when the session starts and restored when it ends — exactly as you left them. Ending a session early brings everything back immediately.
What is the ambient sound?
A soft brown-noise loop synthesized in code at runtime — there are no bundled audio files. You can turn it off in Settings if you prefer silence.
Is Zenwright free?
Yes. No tiers, no trials, no subscriptions, no account, and no analytics.
What do I need to run it?
macOS 13 (Ventura) or later. The download is the full Xcode project — open it, choose your signing team, and press ⌘R.
Does it spy on me?
No. Zenwright has no network code, no analytics, and no account system. Everything happens locally on your Mac.