Hands Off (Mac)

Hands Off is a macOS menu bar app that detects when your hand approaches your face and nudges you to stop.

demo.mov

What it does

• Runs in the menu bar and monitors when enabled.
• Detects face + hands locally using the webcam.
• Alerts via sound, notification banner, and/or a flashing red screen.
• Automatically reduces detection frequency on battery/low power to conserve CPU and battery.
• Shows simple stats for recent touches.

Privacy

• On-device processing only.
• No video/images are stored or uploaded.

Installation

Recommended: download the latest release DMG from GitHub Releases and drag HandsOff.app to Applications.

Gatekeeper warning (if macOS blocks the app):

• Go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway.

Local development

Build requirements (only needed when building from source):

• macOS 13+
• Xcode + Command Line Tools
• xcodegen (install via Homebrew: brew install xcodegen)

Scripts:

• ./scripts/gen_project.sh — generate the Xcode project
• ./scripts/build.sh DEBUG|RELEASE — build Debug or Release
• ./scripts/run.sh DEBUG|RELEASE — run Debug or Release
• ./scripts/relaunch.sh DEBUG|RELEASE — relaunch Debug or Release
• ./scripts/build_and_run.sh DEBUG|RELEASE — build + relaunch Debug or Release
• ./scripts/test.sh — run tests

Notes

• The app will request camera permission on first run.