CLI Timer

A dead simple and customizable, easy to setup/use timer and stopwatch that runs in your terminal.

Install

Install globally (this is all you need):

npm i -g bash-timer
# or
bun add -g bash-timer

Then use commands anywhere:

timer 5 min
stopwatch

Usage

Stopwatch

To use the stopwatch, simply run the following command:

stopwatch

Timer

To use the timer, run the following command with the desired duration:

timer <number> <hr/hrs/min/sec> [<number> <hr/hrs/min/sec> ...]

For example:

timer 5 min 2 sec

By default, timer and stopwatch output is centered in the terminal.

Update CLI Timer

To update globally and verify you are on latest:

timer update

timer update auto-detects whether your current install came from Bun, npm, or pnpm, runs the matching global update command, then checks your installed version against npm latest.

Controls

• p or Spacebar: Pause/Resume
• r: Restart
• f: Random style/font
• q, e or Ctrl+C: Exit

Font Styles

You can view and set the ASCII font style used for the timer and stopwatch display.

To list all available fonts:

timer style

This is instant and lists all figlet fonts. timer style --all is supported as an explicit alias.

To list only timer-compatible fonts (fonts that render 01:23:45 visibly):

timer style --compatible

To set a random font:

timer style random

To set your preferred font:

timer style <font>

Replace <font> with any font name from the list shown by timer style. If a font is missing native timer digits, CLI Timer now substitutes close glyphs so the display stays stylized instead of falling back to plain text.

Settings UI

Open interactive settings UI:

timer settings

timer settings ships with prebuilt Bubble Tea binaries for:

• Linux x64 / arm64
• macOS x64 / arm64
• Windows x64 / arm64

If your platform is unsupported, it falls back to running the Go source (go run) when Go is installed.

This launches a Bubble Tea based screen where you can change:

• Font
• Center display
• Show header
• Show controls
• Tick rate (50-1000 ms)
• Completion message
• System notification on completion (default On)
• Completion sound/alarm on completion (default Off)
• Pause key / pause alt key
• Restart key
• Style key
• Exit key / exit alt key

When completion sound/alarm is enabled, it plays 5 terminal bell beeps.

Controls in settings UI:

• Enter: select/toggle
• Ctrl+S: save and exit
• /: filter fonts in font picker
• /: filter keys in key picker
• Esc/q: back/cancel

Note for macOS: If system notifications are inconsistent with built-in AppleScript notifications, install terminal-notifier (brew install terminal-notifier) for improved reliability.

Notification notes by platform:

• Windows: notifications depend on OS notification permissions and whether your desktop session allows toasts/balloons.
• Linux: notifications require a running desktop notification daemon (notify-send talks to that daemon over D-Bus).