First launch
Open PacedMind for the first time, find your way around the window and the sidebar, and set up areas, projects and work hours.
Open PacedMind: on Windows from the Start Menu or its desktop shortcut, on macOS from Applications, Launchpad or Spotlight. The window shows Starting PacedMind… while the app's server starts.
The first time, the window then shows the sign-in screen. Select Continue without an account to use PacedMind on this computer: your data stays on it (see Where your data lives), and from then on PacedMind opens Today directly. Signing in is for PacedMind Cloud, which keeps the data in an account for all your computers; see Accounts and Cloud.
The window
The window has three parts:
- The header, across the top: Go back and Go forward buttons (Alt+Left and Alt+Right on Windows, ⌘+[ and ⌘+] on macOS), the PacedMind wordmark, which returns to Today, and Sign in toward the right end, which opens the sign-in screen. The window's own buttons sit in the header too: minimize, maximize and close at its right end on Windows, the close, minimize and zoom buttons at its left end on macOS.
- The sidebar, on the left.
- The main panel, which shows the selected view. Opening a task adds its details panel on the right.
Pages refresh on their own when data changes elsewhere, for example when an agent reports progress over MCP.
The sidebar
From top to bottom:
| Element | What it does |
|---|---|
| Search (Ctrl+K, on macOS ⌘+K) | Opens the command menu to find tasks, projects and pages. See Search and the command menu. |
| Pen button (C) | Opens quick add for a new task. See Quick add. |
| Inbox | Tasks without an area or project. The number counts the open ones. |
| Today | What's overdue, due today or planned for today. The number counts those open tasks. |
| Upcoming | The next 14 days, and project target dates. |
| Calendar | Month and week views, with auto-planned focus time in the week. |
| Timeline | Areas, projects and tasks as bars over time. |
| Projects | All areas and projects with their progress. |
| Roadmap | Project dates and the order of a project's tasks. |
| Sessions | Claude Code and Codex sessions. The number counts finished sessions that wait for review. |
| Areas & projects | Each area is a group heading with its projects indented below it. Projects show a progress ring and their target date. The arrow collapses the group; + adds a project to that area. |
| Settings | The account, computers and data, the theme, work hours and how you work, and this computer: its agents, how sessions start, project folders and the MCP server. |
| Sun or moon button | Switches between the dark and the light theme. |
Right-click an area or a project, or use its … button, for its menu: rename, change the color, open its tasks, and more. Drag area headings to reorder whole groups, or use Move up and Move down in their menus. Drag projects within their area to change their order, and Ctrl-click them (on macOS ⌘-click) to select several at once. See Areas and projects.
Drag the sidebar's right edge to make it wider, for long project names, or narrower; double-click the edge to go back to the usual width. Ctrl+B (on macOS ⌘+B) hides the sidebar, and pressing it again brings it back. While it's hidden, move the pointer to the window's left edge and the sidebar slides out over the page; it goes away when the pointer leaves it. The width and whether it's hidden are kept in this browser, or this computer's app.
Bring your projects over
The first time PacedMind opens, it looks for the folders you already work in with Claude Code and Codex on this computer, and offers them in a window, Bring your projects over. A folder both agents used is listed once, with both marks. Tick the ones to keep, choose their area under Add to, and select Add … projects: each becomes a project with that folder, and the agent that worked there last as its default agent. A folder marked Existing project is a copy of a project you already have, from its git repository or its name, and joins that project instead. See Projects on several computers.
Not now closes the window; it doesn't open by itself again. Import from Claude and Codex in Settings → Projects opens it any time. When PacedMind finds nothing new to bring over, the window doesn't appear. See Import projects.
What the first start contains
A new installation starts with five areas and nothing else:
| Area | Key |
|---|---|
| Work | WRK |
| Personal | PER |
| Health | HLT |
| Learning | LRN |
| Dev | DEV |
Rename, recolor or delete them, and add others. Task keys come from the area key: the first task in Work is WRK-1.
Closing the window
Closing the window doesn't quit PacedMind. It keeps running, so agents can still report back and PacedMind can notify when a session finishes: on Windows in the notification area (the tray), on macOS in the menu bar, with its icon in the Dock. The first time, a notification says so: PacedMind is still running.
| Windows | macOS | |
|---|---|---|
| Open the window again | Click the tray icon, or open PacedMind from the Start Menu. | Click the Dock icon, or select Open PacedMind in the menu bar icon's menu. |
| Quit | Right-click the tray icon and select Quit PacedMind. | Select Quit PacedMind in the menu bar icon's menu, or press ⌘+Q. |
| Start PacedMind when you sign in | Right-click the tray icon and select Start with Windows. | Select Open at Login in the menu bar icon's menu. |
Started that way, PacedMind opens in the tray or the menu bar, without a window. See Desktop app for the tray, the menu bar, notifications and the window.
First steps
- Adjust the areas. Keep the ones that fit, rename the others, and add areas from the + next to Areas & projects in the sidebar. See Areas and projects.
- Create a project. Use the + next to its area in the sidebar. Give it a target date on the Projects page.
- Add tasks. Press C anywhere and type, for example, Send invoice to Acme friday 10:00 !high #finance. See Quick add.
- Set the work hours. In Settings → Planning, set the focus hours, the break and the work days. The auto-planner fills that time with tasks. See Work hours and days.
- Prepare agent work (optional). In Settings → Projects, give a code project its folder and default agent, or import them, then open a task and select Start with Claude Code. See Agent sessions.
- Connect the agents' own sessions (optional). In Settings → MCP server, under Connect your agents, select Connect for Claude Code and Codex, so sessions in their desktop apps, and sessions you start yourself, report back to PacedMind. See MCP server.
- Say how you work (optional). In Settings → How you work, note when you do deep work, how far ahead to set deadlines or which agent takes which kind of task. Agents follow it when they plan and write tasks for you. See How you work.
Explore with sample data
Settings → Data → Load sample data replaces everything with an example workspace: projects in each area, tasks with dates and sub-tasks, weekly activities, and a project of agent tasks that wait for each other, with a finished session. Start empty goes back to the five default areas.
Both ask for confirmation and replace all areas, projects, tasks, activities and sessions. They can't be undone. Settings, including work hours and the MCP access token, and your preferences stay as they are.
Install PacedMind
Download and install PacedMind on Windows or macOS for the current user, update it, uninstall it, or build it from its source code.
Where your data lives
The files PacedMind keeps on the computer, including the images in agents' reports, who can reach its server, and how to back up, move or reset the data.