Hop!

A tiny macOS menu bar app that reminds you to alternate between sitting and standing. Backed by ergonomic research, local-only, no accounts, no telemetry.

Features

• Menu bar presence — SF Symbol icon changes with current posture (figure.stand / figure.seated.side) and off-hours state (moon.zzz).
• Three modes
  • Follow the science — 30 min stand / 30 min sit, the 1:1 ratio supported by most ergonomic literature.
  • Levels — Beginner (15/45), Intermediate (30/30), Advanced (45/30).
  • Custom — user-defined stand (5–90 min) and sit (5–60 min) with inline safety warnings.
• Per-weekday schedule — enable/disable each day, set work hours + lunch window, mark specific days as "office day" (no notifications).
• Vacations — add date ranges to pause notifications.
• Pause for today — one-click ad-hoc mute until midnight.
• Native notifications with three actions: Switched / Snooze 10 min / Skip this one. Handled even when the app is idle.
• History — local log of every posture transition; Today timeline, Week bar chart (3h/day target line), weekly compliance %, CSV export.
• Launch at login via SMAppService.
• Survives sleep/wake — wall-clock based scheduling; recomputes on wake.

Requirements

• macOS 13 Ventura or later
• Xcode 15 or later with Swift 6 toolchain
• XcodeGen (for project generation)

Build

brew install xcodegen
make install      # generates project, builds, copies to /Applications/Hop.app
open /Applications/Hop.app

Or manually:

xcodegen generate
open Hop.xcodeproj     # then Cmd+R in Xcode

Makefile targets

Target	Purpose
make gen	Regenerate Hop.xcodeproj from project.yml
make build	Compile Debug config via xcodebuild
make test	Run the XCTest suite
make install	Build + copy to /Applications/Hop.app
make run	install then launch
make clean	Remove generated project + DerivedData

Permissions

On first launch the app asks for Notifications. If you miss the prompt or deny it:

• Open System Settings → Notifications, scroll to Hop, toggle "Allow Notifications" on.
• If Hop does not appear in the list (known macOS quirk with ad-hoc signed apps), quit Hop, run tccutil reset All com.bendns.hopapp, then launch again.

When notifications are denied, the popover shows an inline banner with a direct link to System Settings.

Why from /Applications/?

macOS silently denies notifications for ad-hoc signed apps running from DerivedData on recent versions. The make install target copies the bundle to /Applications/ where LaunchServices trusts it and authorization works normally. See the project plan for details.

Data location

• Settings: UserDefaults under key hop.settings.v1
• History: ~/Library/Application Support/Hop/history.json

Clearing data: remove both (Settings from defaults delete com.bendns.hopapp hop.settings.v1) or use History → Reset for just the event log.

Testing

make test

XCTest suite covers:

• ScheduleEvaluator — weekday, work hours, lunch, vacation, pause, global disable (14 cases)
• PostureScheduler — initial state, transitions via notification/manual/snooze/skip, autoStart on day rollover, pause/resume, reschedule on settings change (13 cases)
• SettingsStore — persistence across instances, defaults
• HistoryStore — append, persistence, day filtering

The science

See the Science tab in the app for a plain-language summary. Primary sources:

• Buckley JP, Hedge A, Yates T, et al. (2015). The sedentary office: an expert statement on the growing case for change towards better health and productivity. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 49(21), 1357–1362.
• University of Waterloo CRE-MSD — Position paper on sit-stand workstations.
• Cornell University Ergonomics Web (CUErgo) — micro-break recommendations.

License

Personal project. No license declared yet.

Contributing / Distribution

Currently a personal MVP, not published to Homebrew. Future packaging aims for:

• Developer ID signed + notarized .dmg for zero-Gatekeeper-friction installs
• Homebrew cask formula