pester

pester is a reminder daemon that keeps reminding you until you mark things done.

It sends native desktop notifications at configured daily times and keeps sending them at a repeat interval until you explicitly mark the reminder done for the current day.

It is designed for reminders that should not be easy to ignore:

pester add winddown --time 22:00 --every 5m --title "Wind down" --message "No exciting stuff now."
pester done winddown

Install

Linux and macOS:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aloglu/pester/main/install.sh | sh

The installers detect the operating system and CPU architecture, download the matching GitHub Release artifact, verify its checksum, install pester for the current user, install the background service, and start it.

For Windows, see the Windows section below.

Examples

Add a bedtime wind-down reminder:

pester add winddown --time 22:00 --every 5m --title "Wind down" --message "No exciting stuff now."

By default, reminders repeat from their scheduled time until local midnight. For reminders late in the day, make the reminder window explicit:

pester add winddown --time 23:50 --every 5m --until 03:00 --title "Wind down" --message "No exciting stuff now."
pester add stretch --time 14:00 --every 10m --for 1h --title "Stretch" --message "Stand up and stretch."
pester add meds --time 09:00 --every 5m --max 3 --title "Medication" --message "Take morning medication."

Add medication reminders:

pester add meds-afternoon --time 14:00 --every 5m --title "Medication" --message "Take afternoon medication."
pester add meds-evening --time 20:00 --every 5m --title "Medication" --message "Take evening medication."

Mark one reminder done for today:

pester done winddown

Mark every reminder done for today:

pester done --all

Mark a reminder not done for today:

pester undone winddown

Change a reminder:

pester set winddown --time 23:00
pester set winddown --every 10m
pester set winddown --until 03:00
pester set winddown --clear-until
pester set winddown --message "Start winding down."

Temporarily disable or re-enable reminders:

pester disable winddown
pester enable winddown
pester disable --all
pester enable --all

Show reminders and inspect system status:

pester show --all
pester show winddown
pester system status --verbose

Show the installed version:

pester version

If a newer release is available, pester version tells you and suggests pester update.

Update to the latest release:

pester update

Send a test notification:

pester test winddown

Confirmation

pester requires full-word confirmations. Single-letter confirmations such as y and n are not accepted.

Commands that mark reminders done use yes by default:

Mark "winddown" done for today?
Type yes or no:

You can set a custom confirmation phrase for done commands:

pester confirm set

pester will prompt for the phrase interactively. This avoids shell quoting issues for punctuation, apostrophes, or quotation marks.

You can also pass the phrase directly with --phrase:

pester confirm set --phrase "I am a lazy person who shouldn't cancel their reminders."

After that, pester done <id> and pester done --all require the exact phrase instead of yes. The typed confirmation does not need surrounding quotes.

Set a phrase for a specific reminder:

pester confirm set meds
pester confirm set meds --phrase "I took my medication."

Reminder-specific phrases override the global phrase. Show or reset phrases:

pester confirm show
pester confirm show meds
pester confirm reset
pester confirm reset meds

Resetting the phrase requires confirmation.

Commands

pester add <id> --time HH:MM --every 5m --title <title> --message <message> [--until HH:MM] [--for 2h] [--max 3]
pester set <id> [--time HH:MM] [--every 10m] [--until HH:MM] [--for 2h] [--max 3] [--clear-until] [--clear-for] [--clear-max] [--title <title>] [--message <message>]
pester remove <id> | --all
pester show <id> | --all
pester test <id> | --all
pester done <id> | --all
pester undone <id> | --all
pester enable <id> | --all
pester disable <id> | --all
pester confirm set [<id>] [--phrase <phrase>]
pester confirm show [<id>]
pester confirm reset [<id>]
pester version
pester update
pester system status [--verbose]
pester system install
pester system uninstall [--delete-data]
pester system daemon

Reminder ids may contain ASCII letters, numbers, hyphens, and underscores. Names used by pester commands and subcommands are reserved and cannot be used as reminder ids.

Times are local 24-hour wall-clock times in HH:MM format. By default, a reminder can notify from its scheduled time until local midnight. --until sets an explicit end time; if the end time is earlier than the scheduled time, the reminder window continues past midnight into the next day. --for sets a duration shorter than 24 hours. --max limits the number of notifications in one reminder window and can be combined with --until or --for.

A reminder marked done is done only for the current reminder window. For a window that crosses midnight, such as --time 23:50 --until 03:00, marking it done after midnight stops the reminder until the next 23:50 window.

Platform Behavior

Linux

pester uses the Freedesktop notification service over the user D-Bus session. It does not shell out to notify-send.

The installer creates a user-level systemd service:

~/.config/systemd/user/pester.service

The binary is installed to:

~/.local/bin/pester

Desktop environments such as GNOME, KDE Plasma, XFCE, and Cinnamon usually provide a notification service. Minimal window manager setups may need a notification daemon such as dunst or mako.

macOS

pester uses the UserNotifications framework.

pester currently ships for Apple Silicon macOS only.

The installer installs:

~/.local/bin/pester
~/Applications/pester.app
~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.aloglu.pester.plist

The LaunchAgent runs the executable inside pester.app so macOS has a stable app identity for notification permissions.

Windows

Warning

As of April 25, 2026, Windows support has ended with v0.1.8. main and releases after v0.1.8 are not intended for Windows. The last supported installer command is:

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/aloglu/pester/v0.1.8/install.ps1 | iex

The v0.1.8 Windows build uses Windows Toast notifications.

The installer installs:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\pester\pester.exe
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\pester\pesterd.exe

It also creates:

Login startup: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\pester
Start Menu shortcut: pester
AppUserModelID: com.aloglu.pester

The Start Menu shortcut gives the unpackaged desktop app a stable Toast notification identity.

WSL

pester is designed to send notifications through the operating system's native notification system. Running the Linux build inside WSL does not automatically provide access to Windows Toast notifications. Unless the WSL environment has a working Freedesktop notification bridge, pester system status --verbose may report notifications as unavailable.

For Windows notifications, install and run the Windows build of pester from PowerShell.

Troubleshooting

Run:

pester system status --verbose

system status --verbose reports:

• config path
• state path
• current binary path
• notification backend status
• background service status
• platform-specific install details

If notifications are unavailable on Linux, check that a user D-Bus session and a Freedesktop notification service are running.

If notifications are unavailable on macOS, check System Settings -> Notifications and look for pester.

If notifications are unavailable on Windows v0.1.8, check Focus / Do Not Disturb, notification settings, and whether the pester Start Menu shortcut exists.

If pester is not found after installation, ensure ~/.local/bin is in PATH on Linux/macOS. The background service uses absolute paths and does not depend on shell PATH.

Uninstall

Remove pester but keep reminders and state:

pester system uninstall

Remove pester and delete all reminders/state:

pester system uninstall --delete-data

system uninstall --delete-data requires typing delete.

Release Artifacts

GitHub Releases provide prebuilt artifacts for:

pester-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
pester-linux-aarch64.tar.gz
pester-macos-aarch64.tar.gz
checksums.txt

Users normally do not download these artifacts manually. The install scripts select the correct artifact automatically.

Windows artifacts remain available on the v0.1.8 release:

pester-windows-x86_64.zip
pester-windows-aarch64.zip

License

Released under the MIT License.