Focus,gently.
A Mac focus app that asks instead of forces. State what you want to do. Drift, and a soft moment of friction asks you back.
They lock
you out.
Most focus apps treat you like an addict. Hard blocks. Earn-back-your-time timers. Punishment for the moment you drift.
Intent asks
you back.
A soft full-screen overlay, a single question, three honest choices. No lockout. No shame. You stay in control, with a moment of friction to think.
Focus tools that lock you out treat you like an addict. Intent treats you like an adult who occasionally drifts and wants a soft tap on the shoulder.
Four moments.
No friction you didn't ask for.
Name what you're here for.
Open Intent with a keystroke. Type today's focus, plainly. Pro users can pick a saved Mode to pre-fill the allow-list.
Lock in what's allowed.
Apps and sites that fit your intent, split into two columns. Pro can edit. Either way, you start the session knowing what counts as on-task.
Off-plan gets a soft tap.
Switch to something off-list and a full-screen overlay appears. Three honest choices: snap back, fold it in, or admit your plans changed. Never a wall.
Close the loop, kindly.
Stats on the session and a one-sentence prompt. Optional toggle to send a clean summary to your accountability partner.
Not a lock.
A question.
When you drift, Intent fills your screen with one question and three honest choices. Then it gets out of the way.
One click back to what you said you wanted.
Teach the session. This app or site joins the allow-list.
The escape hatch. Intent steps out. No judgment.
Templates that learn how you actually work.
Save a Mode once. Every session in it shapes the allow-list. The tool adapts to you, not the other way around.
Cold Turkey and Freedom say no.
Intent asks.
Your intent
stays on your Mac.
The product is the opposite of shame-based productivity tools. The data handling is too.
Sessions, modes, reflections, history all live in ~/Library/Application Support/Intent on your Mac.
No SDKs that capture text or screen content. Crash reporting is opt-in and strips all user content.
The accountability email is the only outbound user content, and only when you check the box per session.
Your intent text is sent to our backend to generate the allow-list. Nothing else. No screen content, no app history, no telemetry.
Free forever.
Pro once.
No subscription trap. $39 once for everything Pro, with a year of updates. Optional $19/yr after that, only if you want to keep updating.
Try the philosophy. No signup, no card.
Download free- 2 focus sessions per day
- 7-day rolling history
- LLM-generated allow-list (read-only)
- Soft overlay intervention
- Reflection journaling
- Status bar app, Cmd+0 kill switch
Unlimited everything, plus the differentiators.
Get Pro- Unlimited sessions
- Full history, forever
- Editable allow-lists with app and domain pickers
- Modes that learn over time
- Accountability partner email (opt-in)
- Therapist report (30-day PDF export)
- CSV, JSON, PDF session export
Try it for a session.
See if you drift less.
Free forever for the basics.