macOS menu bar app · free · open source
Pause the keyboard
when your cat walks on it.
Paw Pause lives in your menu bar, watches for the unmistakable pattern of a cat on the keys, and pauses input system-wide before it posts gibberish or fires a shortcut. Type normally; the cat gets clamped.
v1.0 · 250KB · macOS 13 Ventura or later · Apple Silicon & Intel
Why you can trust it on your keyboard
It watches keys. It keeps nothing.
A tool that reads the keyboard should earn that access. Paw Pause is built so it can't betray it — and the whole thing is open source, so you don't have to take my word for it.
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100% on-device
Zero network calls, zero storage, no analytics. Nothing you type ever leaves your Mac — there's nowhere for it to go.
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Codes, not characters
The detector inspects which physical keys fire and how fast — never the letters. It models paws, not passwords.
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Open source (MIT)
Every line is on GitHub. Read it, build it yourself, or audit exactly what it does with the access you grant.
The detection engine
See it work — right here in your browser
The Mac app and this demo run the identical model. Type a sentence (it passes), then hit Simulate cat or mash adjacent keys. Watch the signals light up and the input clamp.
DETECTION ENGINE — LIVEwatching
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INPUT CLAMPED
auto-releases when typing settles
Install
Up and running in a minute
Because Paw Pause needs to watch the keyboard, macOS asks you to grant two permissions the first time. That's the OS protecting you — here's the whole flow.
Download & open
Grab the .dmg, drag Paw Pause to Applications, and launch it. It appears as a paw in your menu bar — no Dock icon, no window.
Turn on Cat Mode
Click the paw, flip Cat Mode armed. macOS will point you to grant access.
Grant Input Monitoring & Accessibility
In System Settings → Privacy & Security, enable Paw Pause under Input Monitoring and Accessibility. These let it watch and pause the keyboard. Relaunch the app.
Done
Type freely. When a cat lands, the keyboard pauses, the paw turns red, and it releases on its own — or press Esc anytime to override.
Good to know
FAQ
“Paw Pause can’t be opened because Apple cannot check it for malware.”
If you see this, the build wasn’t notarized. Right-click the app → Open → Open again to confirm, or go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway. Notarized releases won’t show this at all.
Does it log or send my keystrokes?
No. It runs entirely on your Mac with no network access and no storage. It scores key-press patterns in memory and discards them. The source is public so you can verify this yourself.
Will it block me, the human?
Very rarely, and never for long. Auto-release lifts the clamp the instant typing settles, and Esc always overrides immediately. You can also tune sensitivity in the menu.
Why isn’t it on the Mac App Store?
App Store apps must run sandboxed, and the system-wide keyboard tap Paw Pause needs isn’t allowed in the sandbox. So it ships as a direct, notarized download instead.
How do I uninstall it?
Quit it from the menu, drag Paw Pause from Applications to the Trash, and optionally remove it from System Settings → Privacy & Security → Input Monitoring / Accessibility. No leftovers, no background services.
Is there a version for web apps?
Yes — the same engine ships as a JavaScript library any app or site can embed, on any OS. See the GitHub repo.