IdeasPortfolioJournalAbout
← Back to Ideas
In Progress MVP in development

FocusFlow Timer

Pomodoro timer for developers with GitHub integration. Automatically commit focus sessions as "work logs" and track productivity patterns.

PRODUCT REQUIREMENT DOCUMENT (PRD)

1. Overview & Problem Statement

Developers often struggle to maintain deep work states due to context switching and notifications. Existing Pomodoro timers are generic and disconnected from a developer’s actual workflow (writing code, making commits, reviewing PRs).

Goal: Build a developer-centric focus timer that integrates directly with GitHub, treating focused work sessions as first-class metrics alongside code commits.

2. Target Audience

  • Software engineers working remotely or in distraction-heavy environments.
  • Indie hackers managing multiple side projects.
  • Developers who use GitHub as their primary source of truth for work tracking.

3. Core Features (MVP)

  • Menu Bar Utility: Lives in the macOS/Windows menu bar for quick access. Minimal UI.
  • Configurable Intervals: Standard 25/5 breaks, but fully customizable.
  • GitHub Integration (The differentiator):
    • Authenticate via GitHub OAuth.
    • At the end of a successful focus session, optionally push a “Work Log” commit to a private .focusflow repository.
    • Generates a GitHub contributions graph strictly for deep work hours.
  • Blocker Mode: (Stretch goal) Temporarily block reddit.com, twitter.com, news.ycombinator.com during active focus sessions.

Design Note: The interface should feel native to the OS. Dark mode by default. Heavy use of keyboard shortcuts (e.g., Cmd+Shift+P to start a session).

4. User Flow

  1. User clicks menu bar icon to open the popover.
  2. User types a task intent: “Refactoring the auth middleware” and hits Enter.
  3. Timer starts (25:00 countdown) in the menu bar.
  4. When timer finishes, a native OS notification appears.
  5. Popover prompts: “Did you finish? (Yes/Partially)”
  6. Background process creates a markdown log file and pushes to the user’s connected GitHub repo.

5. Technical Architecture

  • Frontend / Client: Tauri (Rust backend + Svelte frontend). Chosen for tiny footprint and native API access.
  • Authentication: Supabase Auth (for handling GitHub OAuth dance smoothly).
  • GitHub Interop: Octokit REST API wrapper.
  • State Management: XState (useful for modeling the strict states of a Pomodoro timer: idle ↔ working ↔ breaking ↔ paused).

6. Success Metrics for MVP

  • Launch and get 50 active daily users using the app for at least 2 sessions a day.
  • Achieve a 99% success rate on GitHub commit syncs.
  • Keep the application footprint under 50MB of RAM.