Nudge — interval journaling for focus

A periodic spotlight popup for Windows that asks you "what are you doing?" and "is it bullshit?". Answers are written to an append-only NDJSON journal.

How it works

1. Nudge sits in the system tray, the timer ticks.
2. Timer expires → a spotlight popup appears in the center of the screen (always on top, like Spotlight / Claude quick chat).
3. The user answers → Enter → the popup hides, the timer restarts.
4. Answers are appended to journal-rust.ndjson.

Popup

Minimalist window in the center of the screen, on top of all other windows. Opens focused on the first field.

Fields (Tab to switch)

#	Field (Russian product copy — the actual questions)	Type	Description
1	Что я делаю?	text	Free-form input, focused on open
2	Не хуйню ли я делаю?	text	Free-form input, reflection
3	Следующий nudge через	number (min)	Pre-filled with the current interval (default 10 min)

• Enter — save and close
• Esc — close without saving (the timer still restarts)

Journal

NDJSON file (journal-rust.ndjson), append-only, one JSON record per line:

{"schema_version":1,"event_type":"submitted","entry_id":"01JS1S8R5W4Y4S4M8Q6A8X7R2V","captured_at":"2026-04-08T14:30:00.000+03:00","implementation":"rust","trigger_source":"timer","doing":"writing requirements","bullshit":"no","next_interval_minutes":10}
{"schema_version":1,"event_type":"submitted","entry_id":"01JS1S9FDRW4K4M7R4F5R9A5A2","captured_at":"2026-04-08T14:40:00.000+03:00","implementation":"rust","trigger_source":"timer","doing":"got sucked into YouTube","bullshit":"yes","next_interval_minutes":5}

Full contract: docs/journal-spec.md

Tray

• Tray icon — a daisy that drops petals as the next nudge approaches (this is the time-remaining indicator, see docs/design-spec.md §5).
• Tooltip: ~N min (rounded up, refreshed once per minute); now after the timer expires.
• Left click: open the popup (does not affect the timer).
• Right click: context menu — Show Nudge, Settings, Quit.

Stack

• Rust (native, no web engines).
• GUI: eframe / egui (glow renderer, transparent window).
• Goal: minimal footprint (~10-20 MB RAM), instant startup, single binary.

Defaults

• Interval: 10 minutes — field default_interval_minutes in config.json, any positive number (integer or decimal).
• Journal: %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Nudge\journal-rust.ndjson
• Hotkey: Ctrl+Shift+Space — opens the popup manually from any focused window. Field hotkey in %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Nudge\config.json. Format: modifiers (Ctrl, Alt, Shift, Win) + one key joined by +, e.g. Alt+J or Ctrl+F12.
• Launch with Windows: field autostart (bool) — kept in sync with HKCU\…\Run\Nudge; see docs/design-spec.md §9.

Settings

The settings window opens from the tray menu (Settings) and edits the same config.json (hotkey, interval, autostart). Edits are picked up by the running app immediately via a file watcher. Full contract: docs/design-spec.md §9.

Development: the Electron prototype

This repo holds two implementations of the same spec. Alongside the Rust app lives electron/ — the prototyping harness where new features and design changes are tried first, because Electron is fast to build and easy to inspect visually. The outcome is captured in the shared spec under docs/, the contract both implementations follow, and then ported to Rust. The released product is the Rust binary only; the Electron app is a workbench, fully rewritable from the spec.