Your headphones become a focus switch. Put your AirPods in and your Mac turns on your Focus mode, blocks distracting sites and starts a timer in the notch. Take them out: break time, sites come back. Also in the notch: now playing, volume and brightness, your own colors, session history and two tiny buddies that react to everything. Free, private, macOS 14+ on Apple Silicon. Vibe-coded by one person and Claude.
Hi PH 👋
Honest intro: I vibe-coded Cue with Claude. I had free tokens and a habit of opening YouTube "for one second", so this happened.
The idea is small: your headphones are the focus switch.
- Put your AirPods in → Cue turns on your Focus mode (Do Not Disturb by default), blocks the sites you picked and starts a timer in the notch.
- Take them out → break. The sites come back and the buddies take a nap.
Other stuff that crept in: now playing, volume and brightness in the notch, your own notch colors, a session history, and two little buddies that react to pretty much everything. No notch? Cue draws a small floating pill instead.
Limits, so nobody is surprised:
- Apple Silicon, macOS 14+.
- Wear detection needs AirPods Pro, AirPods 3/4 or AirPods Max. Other headphones work on connect/disconnect instead.
- It is not notarized (that needs a paid developer account), so macOS asks you to click "Open Anyway" once. The site shows the steps.
- Free, closed source, made by one person plus an AI. Bugs are possible, feedback is very welcome.
Privacy: no accounts, no analytics. Cue only goes online for the feedback button and two one-time anonymous setup pings ("opened", "ready") so I know if anyone got it working. Nothing else leaves your Mac.
Would love to hear what breaks 🙏
the wear detection being the trigger instead of a button is the whole product honestly, that's the part that makes it actually stick versus just another focus app you forget exists. how does it handle the case where you take one AirPod out to talk to someone for 20 seconds, does that count as "break" and kill the focus session, or is there a grace window before it decides you've actually left
Using your AirPods as a focus switch is such a natural trigger that I am surprised it is not everywhere, since putting them in is already the cue that work is starting. Blocking sites and starting the timer automatically removes the friction of setting it up each time. The little buddies in the notch are a fun touch. Does it work with other Bluetooth headphones or just AirPods?
I would recommend to upload also EN demo video for EN version of the website. There is a higher chance to cover bigger market :)
Love the idea of making focus time this simple. No need to keep turning things on and off manually.
About Cue on Product Hunt
“Put your AirPods in, your Mac starts focusing”
Cue launched on Product Hunt on October 10th, 2026 and earned 130 upvotes and 5 comments, placing #5 on the daily leaderboard. Your headphones become a focus switch. Put your AirPods in and your Mac turns on your Focus mode, blocks distracting sites and starts a timer in the notch. Take them out: break time, sites come back. Also in the notch: now playing, volume and brightness, your own colors, session history and two tiny buddies that react to everything. Free, private, macOS 14+ on Apple Silicon. Vibe-coded by one person and Claude.
Cue was featured in Mac (103.8k followers), Productivity (662.7k followers) and Menu Bar Apps (12.3k followers) on Product Hunt. Together, these topics include over 180.6k products, making this a competitive space to launch in.
Who hunted Cue?
Cue was hunted by Brandon Ta. A “hunter” on Product Hunt is the community member who submits a product to the platform — uploading the images, the link, and tagging the makers behind it. Hunters typically write the first comment explaining why a product is worth attention, and their followers are notified the moment they post. Around 79% of featured launches on Product Hunt are self-hunted by their makers, but a well-known hunter still acts as a signal of quality to the rest of the community. See the full all-time top hunters leaderboard to discover who is shaping the Product Hunt ecosystem.
Want to see how Cue stacked up against nearby launches in real time? Check out the live launch dashboard for upvote speed charts, proximity comparisons, and more analytics.
Brandon Ta