How do I end a break early?

Click 提前结束 (End early), type SKIP, and confirm. Paste is disabled.

Why did no break appear during a meeting?

Meeting mode suppresses the overlay while still counting active time. When the meeting ends, the break starts if you are over the limit.

What happens if I leave my Mac for ten minutes?

XiaoQi treats it as a natural break and resets the current work stretch to zero.

How breaks and meeting mode work

XiaoQi only starts a break after real active time. When the break starts, the screen stays covered until the countdown ends or you deliberately skip.

How active time is counted

Every second with keyboard or mouse activity counts toward the work limit.
After 120 seconds without activity (adjustable), counting pauses and keeps the accumulated time.
After 10 minutes without activity, XiaoQi treats it as a natural break and resets the work stretch to zero.
A manual pause freezes the accumulated time. The idle rule does not clear it; Continue resumes from the same point.
Meeting mode keeps counting active time even when the overlay is suppressed.

The break overlay

Every connected display is covered. The main display is black; secondary displays are dimmed to about 80%.
Dock, menu bar, and other windows are hidden.
The main display shows a large countdown, a cat, and a random quote.
If you switch away, XiaoQi activates again and brings the overlay back within about a second.
Esc does not close the overlay.

Ending a break early

Click 提前结束 (End early) at the bottom of the overlay.
Type SKIP in the input panel.
Confirm.

The check is case-insensitive and paste is disabled. Skipping closes the overlay and resets the work stretch; the skip is recorded locally without penalty.

Completing a break

When the countdown reaches zero, XiaoQi shows a two-second “rest complete” state, closes the overlay, resets the work time, increments today’s break count, and updates your streak.

Watchdog safety

If the countdown or overlay window misbehaves, a watchdog closes every overlay at rest duration + 60 seconds and restores the normal state. The event is written to the local log. You are not trapped permanently.

Meeting mode

Choose 会议模式 (Meeting mode) from the menu and pick 30, 60, or 120 minutes.

No overlay appears during the meeting.
Active time keeps accumulating.
When the meeting ends, if you are already past the work limit, the break starts immediately.
Use 结束会议 (End meeting) to end it early.

This is for meetings, demos, recordings, and interviews where a full-screen break would be disruptive.

Honest limits

This is not a system lock. Force Quit, restart, and power off still work.
Cmd+Tab may briefly switch away; XiaoQi pulls itself back within about a second.
Full-screen apps and hot-plugging external displays have not been fully verified in every setup.
The rest countdown does not pause when the Mac sleeps or locks; a work stretch resets after ten minutes of sleep or lock.