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vladelaina/Catime

A tiny, pure C Windows countdown and Pomodoro timer that lives in the system tray with customizable animated icons.

Open-source alternative to:Tomato Timer

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What is it?

Catime is a Windows desktop timer written in pure C, distributed as a roughly 995KB executable. It supports clock display, countdown, stopwatch and Pomodoro modes, shown in a transparent on-screen window that can be dragged, resized and set to adjust opacity.

The tray icon is the main customization point. It accepts GIF, WebP, ANI, PNG and JPG files as animated or static icons, and can display live CPU usage, memory usage, battery level and Caps Lock status. Plugins can feed text into the display by writing to an output.txt file that Catime reads in real time.

The project is installable through GitHub Releases, Scoop or Winget, and can be built from source with MinGW and CMake. Settings are stored in a config.ini file under the user's LocalAppData folder.

Key features

  • 01Clock, countdown, stopwatch and Pomodoro modes in one app.
  • 02Tray icon supports GIF, WebP, ANI, PNG and JPG animations.
  • 03Tray can show live CPU, memory, battery and Caps Lock status.
  • 04Transparent floating display that can be dragged, resized and adjusted for opacity.
  • 05Plugins can display custom text by writing to output.txt.
  • 06Written in pure C with a roughly 995KB executable size.

Use cases

  • Running a Pomodoro work and break cycle while using a Windows PC.
  • Keeping a countdown visible on screen during presentations or meetings.
  • Showing system resource usage in the tray without a heavy monitoring app.
  • Displaying custom plugin output, such as a status line, on the desktop.

Quick start

  1. 1

    Download the latest release from GitHub Releases

  2. 2

    Install with Scoop

    scoop bucket add extras scoop install catime
  3. 3

    Or install with Winget

    winget install --id VladElaina.Catime

Things to know

  • Windows only; it is a pure C Windows application.
  • Building from source requires MinGW and CMake.

Topics

#timer#pomodoro#windows#system-tray#time-management#clock#efficiency#efficiency-tool#pomodoro-technique#pomodoro-timer

FAQ

What is Catime?
A tiny, pure C Windows countdown and Pomodoro timer that lives in the system tray with customizable animated icons. Catime is a Windows desktop timer written in pure C, distributed as a roughly 995KB executable. It supports clock display, countdown, stopwatch and Pomodoro modes, shown in a transparent on-screen window that can be dragged, resized and set to adjust opacity.
Is Catime free to use? What license does it have?
Catime is open source under the Apache-2.0 license. Check the license terms before using it in commercial products.
Is Catime still maintained?
Actively maintained. The last commit to Catime was on Oct 16, 2026.
What can I use Catime for?
Running a Pomodoro work and break cycle while using a Windows PC. Keeping a countdown visible on screen during presentations or meetings. Showing system resource usage in the tray without a heavy monitoring app. Displaying custom plugin output, such as a status line, on the desktop.
How do I install Catime?
Download the latest release from GitHub Releases Install with Scoop: scoop bucket add extras scoop install catime Or install with Winget: winget install --id VladElaina.Catime
Where can I get Catime?
The source code and installation instructions are on GitHub: https://github.com/vladelaina/Catime

Summary generated by AI from the project's README. GitHub stats refresh daily.

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