Stretchly: the Electron break reminder that takes over your screen

The problem: you will not stop on your own

Reminder apps fail in two directions. Timid ones post a notification you dismiss without leaving the keyboard, so nothing changes. Aggressive ones interrupt mid-thought and get uninstalled within a week. Stretchly sits deliberately on the aggressive side: it is built around the idea that a break only counts if it costs you something. The app schedules two kinds of interruption, named in its own vocabulary as mini breaks and long breaks, and shows a window when one is due. The README describes it plainly as "a cross-platform Electron app that reminds you to take breaks when working on your computer." That is the whole product. There is no activity tracking, no health dashboard, no team reporting. The target user is a single person at a desk who wants a timer that is hard to ignore, on macOS, Windows or Linux, installed from a package manager rather than a website.

How the break cycle actually runs

Stretchly is an Electron app; package.json points main at app/main.js, so the main process owns the scheduling and the windows. The repository layout separates app/, which holds the running application, from test/ and vitest.config.ts, which hold the Vitest suite. The timing model is two nested intervals: mini breaks recur on a short cycle, and long breaks arrive after a set number of mini breaks. Both are configurable, and the README splits settings into Preferences and Advanced Preferences, which is a hint about how the project expects you to use it. The ordinary Preferences screen covers the common knobs; Advanced Preferences exposes the rest, including things a normal user would rather not touch. Breaks are not pure timers. On Linux the README notes that idle-time monitoring on Wayland needs the user added to the input group, which means the app reads system idle state and can react to whether you are already away from the machine. That is a meaningful design choice: the app would rather not interrupt a break you are already taking. The trade-off is platform coupling. Idle detection behaves differently across the three operating systems, and the README points Linux users at Electron's own tray documentation for the platform-specific quirks of the tray icon rather than documenting them itself.

Installing Stretchly and taking the first break

On macOS the README recommends the project's own Homebrew tap. Note the fully qualified name: a bare stretchly cask exists in the default homebrew/cask tap, but the README says it is deprecated and scheduled to be disabled on September 1, 2026, because the app is unsigned and fails Homebrew's Gatekeeper check.

brew install --cask hovancik/stretchly/stretchly

After installation, launch Stretchly from Applications. Because the app is not signed, macOS Gatekeeper may show an unidentified developer warning on first launch. The README's route is System Settings > Privacy & Security, then Open Anyway next to the Stretchly alert. On Apple Silicon there is a command-line alternative:

sudo xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Stretchly.app

On Windows, two package managers are documented. Chocolatey:

choco install stretchly

Or winget, with the exact identifier from the README:

winget install -e --id Stretchly.Stretchly

On Linux, the README points at the GitHub Releases page for portable builds and installers, and lists Flathub and the Snap Store as the store options. Once the app is running, the first real configuration is the break cycle itself: open Preferences, set how often mini breaks appear and how many mini breaks precede a long break, then leave the app in the tray. The next scheduled break should appear as a window on its own; that window is the product working as intended, not a bug.

Where Stretchly gets in the way

The macOS signing situation is the clearest limitation, and the README is unusually honest about the reason: the app is not signed because of the cost and because the maintainer does not own a supported Apple device. The practical result is that every macOS user performs a Gatekeeper workaround, and the Homebrew cask in the default tap is being retired over exactly this. For an individual that is a two-minute annoyance. For a managed fleet it is a blocker, because the workaround is a manual per-machine action or a quarantine-removal command run with sudo. Linux has its own friction. The README documents that Stretchly may not start without adjusting kernel settings, specifically kernel.unprivileged_userns_clone and kernel.apparmor_restrict_unprivileged_userns, and that these need to be written to a sysctl file to survive a reboot. It also notes that Natural breaks may require the libxss-dev package. Those are Electron packaging constraints rather than Stretchly bugs, but the user experiences them as installation problems. There is no mobile client documented, so a phone-based reminder is out of scope. And the interruption model is the point: if a full-screen break window during a call or a screen share would be unacceptable, Stretchly is the wrong tool, not a tool that needs tuning.

Stretchly against Workrave and browser reminders

The obvious comparison is Workrave, which people search for alongside Stretchly. Workrave is a long-standing break and rest reminder aimed at repetitive strain injury prevention, and it is a native desktop application rather than an Electron one. The difference in approach matters for packaging: a native build does not carry a Chromium runtime, and it does not inherit Electron's Linux sandbox and tray behaviour, which is where a large share of Stretchly's documented Linux caveats come from. The counterweight is reach. Stretchly ships installers and portable builds for macOS, Windows and Linux from one codebase, and the README lists Chocolatey, winget, the Microsoft Store, Flathub and the Snap Store as distribution channels. A browser extension is the other common alternative, and it is a different category of tool: it can only interrupt you inside the browser, so an editor, a terminal or a video call is untouched. Stretchly's overlay does not care which application has focus. That is the trade you are making when you pick it.

Licence, maintenance and the cost of upgrading

Stretchly is BSD-2-Clause. That is a permissive licence, and the repository carries a single LICENSE file at the top level. The practical implication for a company is that redistributing or bundling the app is permitted under BSD-2-Clause terms, but this is not legal advice and the licence text is the authority. Maintenance is a solo effort. The last push to the trunk branch was on 2026-08-14, and the releases track closely behind: v1.22.0 on 2026-07-17 and v1.22.1 on 2026-08-13. The cadence is real but the bus factor is one, which is worth weighing if you plan to depend on it. Upgrade cost is low on Windows and Linux, where choco upgrade stretchly or a fresh installer does the work. On macOS the README is explicit that you should quit Stretchly before running brew upgrade --cask hovancik/stretchly/stretchly, because the running app holds the bundle being replaced. Building from source is a separate path: the README requires Node.js, ideally the version pinned in package.json, and the repository includes an .nvmrc. The Dockerfile and docker-compose.yml in the repository target snapcraft for Snap packaging, not general application use, so they are not a shortcut to running the app in a container.

Who should install it, and what to check first

Stretchly fits a developer or writer who works long sessions on one machine, wants breaks enforced rather than suggested, and is comfortable with package managers. It also fits anyone already using Alfred or Raycast on macOS, since the README points at a community Alfred Workflow and a Raycast extension for controlling the app. It fits poorly in managed corporate environments, where the unsigned macOS build turns every install into a manual exception, and it does not serve anyone who needs reminders on a phone. If your objection is that a break window would appear at a bad moment, look at Advanced Preferences before giving up: the README separates those from the ordinary settings for a reason. Verify three things before committing: that your macOS version is Monterey (12) or later per the README, that your Linux distribution tolerates the userns and apparmor sysctl changes if the app fails to start, and that you are installing the fully qualified hovancik/stretchly/stretchly cask rather than the deprecated bare name.

Editorial conclusion

Adopt Stretchly if you want scheduled microbreaks with a full-screen overlay you cannot click away, and you accept an unsigned macOS build and a single maintainer. Skip it if you need a signed enterprise-deployable app, a mobile client, or a browser-only reminder. Before installing, check the fully qualified Homebrew cask name hovancik/stretchly/stretchly, since the bare stretchly cask is scheduled to be disabled on September 1, 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. hovancik/stretchly on GitHub
2. License: BSD-2-Clause
3. Project website
4. README
5. Releases