How to use Kamae

Getting started

Install. Open the downloaded file and drag Kamae to Applications, then open it. Kamae lives in the menu bar at the top right (a small round icon), not in the Dock.
Start. Click the icon and press Start. Allow camera access when macOS asks.
Set your baseline. Sit the way you want to sit and press Use this posture as baseline. Kamae watches for three seconds and remembers your good posture.
Work as usual. From now on, glance at the menu bar now and then.

Tip: turn on Settings → General → Open at login so Kamae starts by itself every day.

The menu bar colors

Green — good posture.
Yellow — drifting (about 60% of the way to your limit).
Red — slumped, leaning in, or tilted past your limit.
Gray — stopped, paused or away.

The color follows the majority of the last 60 seconds, so a quick stretch or a sip of coffee won't flip it. Kamae compares three things with your baseline: how far your neck has dropped, how close you are to the screen, and how tilted your shoulders are. Settings → Posture check shows all three live.

Notifications

Posture: if you stay red for a few minutes (3 minutes on Gentle), you get one gentle notification. After that Kamae waits a while before it nudges you again.
Stand up: every 45 minutes of sitting, Kamae reminds you to stand for a minute.

Both can be turned off in Settings → General → Notifications. Focus modes silence notifications; the menu bar color still updates.

Strictness

In Settings → General → Strictness:

Gentle (default) — build the habit first. Notifies after 3 minutes.
Normal — for weeks 2–3 onward. Notifies after 2 minutes.
Strict — for experienced users or short focused sessions. Notifies after 1 minute.

Open Details (numbers) to tune every number yourself.

Leaving your desk

When nobody is in view for 60 seconds, Kamae marks you as away, pauses, and resets the sitting timer. When you come back after 5 minutes or more, it offers to take your baseline again — useful if you moved your chair or laptop.

Camera

By default Kamae opens the camera for about one second every 30 seconds; the camera light is on only then. While you're slumped it checks every 10 seconds, and on battery it checks half as often.
Frames are analyzed on your Mac and thrown away. Nothing is saved or uploaded.
The built-in camera works well. With an external display, put a camera in front of you; an iPhone as Continuity Camera works even with your MacBook closed.
No camera? Kamae still runs as a sitting timer and reminds you to stand.

Routine

Kamae comes with a short list of stretches and exercises. In Settings → Routine, change the reps, sets and days, or add your own. Tick them off from the menu bar popover; Kamae counts your streak.

Weekly report

Every Monday morning, Kamae summarizes last week: good posture %, the change from the week before, how often you stood up, and your routine days. See it any time in Settings → Report. You can save the numbers as an image to share — it never contains a photo of you.

License

The first 14 days are a free trial with every feature. After that, monitoring pauses until you enter a license key. Your data stays.
After buying, find the key in the receipt email and paste it in Settings → License.
One key works on 2 Macs. To move it to another Mac, press Deactivate this Mac on the old one first.
Your purchase includes a year of updates; the version you have keeps working after that.

Updates

Kamae checks for new versions and lets you know. Choose Restart to update. You can see your version and check manually in Settings → General → Updates.

Troubleshooting

I can't find the menu bar icon

On MacBooks with a notch, a full menu bar hides new icons behind the notch. Press ⌘⌥K to open Kamae's popover, or open Kamae again from Spotlight to bring up Settings. Removing a few menu bar apps (or using a menu bar manager) makes room.

The camera doesn't start

Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Camera and turn Kamae on. If another app is using the camera, close it and press Start again.

It says I'm slumped when I'm not

Take your baseline again (Recalibrate in the popover) — especially after moving your laptop, display or chair. If it still feels too strict, choose Gentle.

Uninstalling

Quit Kamae, move it from Applications to the Trash, and delete the folder ~/Library/Application Support/Kamae. That removes everything; we keep no copy.

Still stuck?

Email [email protected] or use Settings → Feedback.