Fixed-time breaks with Stretchly on Windows

Stretchly counts down from the moment it starts. If you launch it at 9:03, your breaks land at 9:13, 9:23, 9:33. Share a calendar with anyone and those times mean nothing. A break at 9:00, 9:10, 9:20 — on the clock — is a different thing.

This is a known gap. None of the 22 active forks implement it either.

Here is how to add it on Windows without touching Stretchly’s source.

How it works

Windows Task Scheduler fires a task at every clock-aligned N-minute boundary. The task calls stretchly mini — Stretchly’s own CLI — which triggers a break in the already-running app.

stretchly-fixed-break.ps1 — the task payload. Checks if Stretchly is running; calls stretchly mini if so, exits silently if not. Closing Stretchly is your pause mechanism.

Setup

schtasks /Create /SC MINUTE /MO 10 /TN "StretchlyFixedBreaks" `
  /TR "\"C:\Program Files\PowerShell\7\pwsh.exe\" -NonInteractive -WindowStyle Hidden -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File \"%USERPROFILE%\tools\stretchly-fixed-break.ps1\"" `
  /ST 00:00 /F

/SC MINUTE /MO 10 /ST 00:00 fires every 10 minutes starting from midnight — clock-aligned by construction. Survives reboots without any trigger window expiry.

Change the interval (replace 10 with 5, 15, 20, or 30):

schtasks /Create /SC MINUTE /MO 5 /TN "StretchlyFixedBreaks" /TR "..." /ST 00:00 /F

Verify:

schtasks /Query /TN "StretchlyFixedBreaks" /FO LIST

Remove:

schtasks /Delete /TN "StretchlyFixedBreaks" /F

One thing to know about pause

Pausing breaks in Stretchly does not suppress these scheduled breaks. The stretchly mini CLI calls skipToMicrobreak() directly, without checking breakPlanner.isPaused. The tray UI hides the skip option when paused — the CLI does not have that guard (app/main.js, v1.18.1).

Closing Stretchly is the actual suppression mechanism. The task payload checks Get-Process Stretchly and exits silently if nothing is running, so the break is a no-op when the app is closed.

Enable Launch at login in Stretchly Preferences so it is always running when you are logged in. Closing it then acts as a manual pause for both its internal timer and the scheduled breaks.

Disable Stretchly’s own mini-break timer

Stretchly’s internal timer runs independently. Without disabling it, you get two break sources. Go to Preferences → Mini Breaks and turn mini-breaks off. Leave long breaks on Stretchly’s internal schedule if you want them on a different cadence.

Script is in this gist.