kim — keep in mind 🧠

Lightweight cross-platform reminder daemon for developers.
No UI. Config-driven. Runs in the background.

Documentation: https://pratikwayal01.github.io/kim/

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Install

Linux / macOS

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pratikwayal01/kim/main/install.sh | bash

Windows (PowerShell — installs, fixes PATH, sets up autostart)

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -c "irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pratikwayal01/kim/main/install.ps1 | iex"

pip (all platforms — PATH must be configured manually on Windows, see below)

pip install --break-system-packages kim-reminder

Windows + pip: After pip install, run this once to add kim to your PATH:

$p = python -c "import sysconfig; print(sysconfig.get_path('scripts','nt_user'))"
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("PATH",$env:PATH+";"+$p,"User")
$env:PATH += ";$p"

Then kim --version should work. Open a new terminal for the change to persist.

That's it. kim starts automatically on login.

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Usage

kim start          Start the daemon
kim stop           Stop the daemon
kim status         Show running reminders
kim list           List all reminders from config  (shows index #)
kim logs           Tail the log file
kim edit           Open config in $EDITOR
kim add            Add a new reminder
kim remove         Remove a reminder  (by name or index)
kim enable         Enable a reminder
kim disable        Disable a reminder
kim update         Update a reminder
kim remind         Fire a one-shot reminder after a delay or at a time
kim interactive    Enter interactive mode (-i)
kim self-update    Check for and install updates
kim uninstall      Uninstall kim completely
kim export         Export reminders to file
kim import         Import reminders from file
kim validate       Validate config file
kim slack          Slack notification settings
kim completion     Generate shell completions
kim sound                          # show current config + format notes
kim sound --set ~/sounds/bell.mp3  # set custom file (validates on set)
kim sound --clear                  # revert to system default
kim sound --test                   # play it immediately
kim sound --enable / --disable     # toggle sound on/off

Interval reminders

kim add "drink water" -I 30m          # every 30 minutes
kim add "drink water" --every 30m     # same — --every is an alias for -I
kim add "stretch" --every 1h

Daily at a fixed time

kim add standup --at 10:00                        # every day at 10:00 local time
kim add standup --at 10:00 --tz Asia/Kolkata      # with explicit timezone

One-shot reminders

# Relative
kim remind "standup call" in 10m
kim remind "take a break" in 1h
kim remind "check the oven" in 25m
kim remind "deploy window opens" in 2h 30m

# Absolute — fire at a specific time
kim remind "standup" at 10:00
kim remind "standup" at tomorrow 9am
kim remind "call" at friday 2pm
kim remind "deploy" at 2026-04-07 14:30 --tz America/New_York

# Urgency (default: normal)
kim remind "wake up!" in 5m --urgency critical

Fires once, runs in the background, frees your terminal immediately.

Persistent — one-shot reminders survive daemon restarts and system reboots. Stored in ~/.kim/oneshots.json and loaded automatically when the daemon starts. Expired reminders are cleaned up on next startup.

Removing reminders

Both recurring and one-shot reminders can be removed by name or index:

# Recurring — by name or index shown in `kim list`
kim remove water
kim remove 2          # remove 2nd reminder by index

# One-shot — by index or message substring (from `kim list -o`)
kim remove 1 -o       # cancel 1st pending one-shot
kim remove "standup" -o

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Config — ~/.kim/config.json

{
  "reminders": [
    {
      "name": "eye-break",
      "interval": "30m",
      "title": "👁️ Eye Break",
      "message": "Look 20 feet away for 20 seconds. Blink slowly.",
      "urgency": "critical",
      "enabled": true
    },
    {
      "name": "water",
      "interval": "1h",
      "title": "💧 Drink Water",
      "message": "Stay hydrated.",
      "urgency": "normal",
      "enabled": true
    }
  ],
  "sound": true
}

Field	Values	Description
name	string	Unique identifier
interval	number or string ("30m", "1h", "1d")	How often to fire
title	string	Notification heading
message	string	Notification body
urgency	low / normal / critical	Notification priority
enabled	true / false	Toggle without deleting
sound	true / false	(top-level) Play sound globally
slack	object	(top-level) Slack settings

Per-Reminder Overrides

Each reminder can override global sound and Slack settings:

{
  "reminders": [
    {
      "name": "standup",
      "interval": "30m",
      "sound_file": "~/sounds/urgent.wav",
      "slack": {
        "enabled": true,
        "webhook_url": "https://hooks.slack.com/services/...",
        "channel": "#standup-alerts"
      }
    }
  ],
  "sound": true,
  "slack": {
    "enabled": true,
    "webhook_url": "https://hooks.slack.com/services/...",
    "channel": "#general"
  }
}

Or via CLI:

kim add standup -I 30m --sound-file ~/sounds/urgent.wav --slack-channel "#standup"

Slack Integration

{
  "reminders": [...],
  "sound": true,
  "slack": {
    "enabled": true,
    "webhook_url": "https://hooks.slack.com/services/your-webhook-id",
    "bot_token": "xoxb-your-bot-token",
    "channel": "#general"
  }
}

Use a Webhook or a Bot Token — not both. Test with kim slack --test.

---

How it works

Platform	Autostart	Notifications
Linux	systemd user service	notify-send
macOS	launchd agent	osascript
Windows	Task Scheduler	PowerShell toast

• Pure Python stdlib — no pip installs
• Zero config — works out of the box, creates default config on first run
• All reminders run on a single heapq scheduler thread — memory stays flat (~0.02 MB) regardless of how many reminders you have
• Logs at ~/.kim/kim.log, PID at ~/.kim/kim.pid

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Why kim?

Tool	Pure stdlib	CLI-first	Zero config	One-shot	Recurring	Cross-platform	Slack	Config-driven	Interactive	Self-update	Export/Import
kim	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅	✅
Remind	❌	✅	✅	✅	✅	⚠️	❌	⚠️	❌	❌	❌
Cron	✅	✅	❌	⚠️	✅	⚠️	❌	✅	❌	❌	⚠️
macOS Reminders	❌	❌	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌
Google Calendar	❌	❌	❌	✅	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌	⚠️

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Uninstall

kim uninstall

If kim is broken or the above doesn't work, use the standalone uninstaller:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pratikwayal01/kim/main/uninstall.sh | bash

Last resort — manually remove all kim files:

# Stop daemon
[ -f ~/.kim/kim.pid ] && kill $(cat ~/.kim/kim.pid) 2>/dev/null; true
# Remove binary, package, and data
rm -f ~/.local/bin/kim
rm -rf ~/.kim
# Remove autostart (Linux)
systemctl --user disable --now kim.service 2>/dev/null; true
rm -f ~/.config/systemd/user/kim.service
# Remove pip metadata if installed via pip
pip uninstall kim-reminder -y 2>/dev/null; true

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Start small. Keep it in mind.