What exists, what is next
This page separates what is built, what still has to be checked on real Macs, and what is only planned. It says what is not done as plainly as what is.
Status as of 2026-10-15. Version: 1.0 (not yet released). Hedroom is not released. Code and tests exist for everything under "Built", and much of it has only been run against fake Macs so far. Timing depends on things outside the code (signing accounts, beta testers), so the windows below are the original plan and will move. Release notes will be on the changelog.
Where we are
Six phases, in order. A phase ends with a check that includes something observed on a real Mac, not only passing tests.
Make 1.0 safe and honest
DoneFixes from an independent code and behaviour audit: Hedroom never signals Apple processes hiding inside a third-party app, paused apps cannot stay frozen after a crash, cleanup goes through the same safety checks as any other action, deletions need your permission each time, public copy matches the code.
Finish the 1.0 features
In progressEvery 1.0 screen and flow is built: error states, receipt detail and Put back, library updates, the weekly report, the Today screen, an accessibility pass with zero findings left in the audit rig, and all text in a string catalog (English only for 1.0).
Check it on real Macs
Not startedEverything above is tested with fake Mac sources. This phase repeats the risky parts on real hardware and records the results.
Release engineering
Waiting on accountsBuild, sign, notarize, staple, package the DMG, publish the update feed, and prove an update from one build to the next. The scripts are written and tested in dry-run mode.
Private beta, then launch
Not startedA beta with real Macs, thresholds tuned from what they show, the launch bar below, then 1.0. The beta channel, feedback bundle and invite flow are written.
After 1.0
In progressThe tools listed under "Built" are written and tested. Each ships in the release shown, once it has been checked on a real Mac.
Timeline
The original plan, in weeks. It has not been re-baselined, so treat it as an order of work and not as promised dates.
| Milestone | Planned window | Output | Status today |
|---|---|---|---|
| Validate | Weeks 1 to 2 | Landing page and waitlist, four technical spikes on real hardware, a go or no-go review | Open |
| Core engine | Weeks 3 to 5 | Readings, sampler, database, overhead test | Built |
| Detect and act | Weeks 6 to 8 | Leak and runaway detection, safety gate, controller, rules | Built |
| Receipts, storage, app shell | Weeks 9 to 10 | All 1.0 screens, licensing, release pipeline | Built, except the signed release pipeline |
| Private beta | Weeks 11 to 12 | Two beta builds, threshold tuning | Not started |
| Launch 1.0 | Week 13 | Benchmark, site, launch posts | Not started |
| 1.1 | About 4 weeks after 1.0 | Startup items, Display advisor | Built, not checked on real hardware |
| 1.2 | About 6 weeks after 1.1 | Per-app energy, browser companion | Built, not checked on real hardware |
| 1.3 | About 6 weeks after 1.2 | Admin helper, power profiles, fan curves | Built, not checked on a signed build |
| macOS check | June 2027, then each year | Re-test readings and fixes on each new macOS beta | Planned |
| Later | After 1.3 | Localization, a paid 2.0 | Planned |
Built
Written and covered by automated tests, using fake Mac sources where real hardware is needed. "Built" does not mean "verified on every Mac". The tag is the release each one is planned to ship in. The code exists today, and the order can change.
Core diagnosis
Planned for 1.0
Memory pressure, swap, CPU, thermals, battery and storage. Per-app baselines, leak and runaway-CPU detection, plain-words process explanations.
Fixes with consent
Planned for 1.0
Relaunch, efficiency cores, pause, with a safety check that refuses Apple processes, the app in front, calls and backups. Tests cover every refusal path.
Receipts
Planned for 1.0
Before and after readings with an honest verdict, including "No measurable effect."
Rules
Planned for 1.0
Standing instructions that go through the same safety checks as a click. All templates ship off.
Storage cleanup
Planned for 1.0
Scan, review, move to the Trash, Put back. Nothing is deleted without permission each time.
Weekly report
Planned for 1.0
A plain summary of last week made on your Mac, with PDF export.
Process library
Planned for 1.0
Plain words for the names in Activity Monitor, refreshed about once a week from a signed list.
Startup items
Planned for 1.1
List, cost per item, turn off or on without deleting, next-login receipt.
Display advisor
Planned for 1.1
WindowServer reading, tips from what it reads, Try it with a 15-second undo.
Energy per app
Planned for 1.2
Watts per app, with measured numbers kept apart from labelled estimates.
Browser companion
Planned for 1.2
Tab sleep for Chrome, Edge, Brave, Arc and Firefox through a native messaging host.
Helper, power and fans
Planned for 1.3
A small admin helper, battery profiles, battery health and MacBook Pro fan curves.
Local AI headroom
Later
Check whether a model fits in memory, and raise the GPU memory limit on bigger Macs.
Recently finished
- Windows open no longer cost 25 to 50% of a core. With Today open it now measures 0.5% and 71 MB on one M3 Pro (decision D38).
- Local AI headroom, power profiles, fan-curve screen and the admin helper written and tested against fakes.
- Browser companion and its native host written. Tab titles and URLs have no field in the message format, and a test fails if one is added.
- Per-app energy, startup items and the display advisor written and tested. Weekly report and library updates finished.
- Independent audit fixes: Apple processes inside third-party apps are never signalled, paused apps cannot stay frozen, and a test-run guard stops tests from touching anything outside their own sandbox.
- Overhead measured with every window closed: 0.27% of a core at the 5-second cadence, 29 MB, 0.45 wakeups a second.
Before launch
These come first. Version 1.0 is not released until they are done.
Release engineering
- A signed and notarized build. Signed with a Developer ID with the Hardened Runtime, notarized by Apple, stapled, in a DMG, with signed updates tested from one build to the next. Until then there is no download.
- Separate signing keys. One for the app's updates and one for the process library, so a problem with one cannot sign the other.
- The payments setup. Stripe products and prices for the 1, 2 and 5 Mac plans, the free trial, the billing portal and refund settings, tested in Stripe's test mode first.
- Domain and services. The domain, the waitlist and feedback services, the license and checkout service on our own server, a verified sending domain for email, and the support, privacy and security mailboxes. None of these is deployed yet, and the license service is still being built.
- A rehearsed hotfix path, so a bad release can be replaced quickly.
Beta and launch
- A private beta with real Macs. The plan is 50 to 100 testers, at least 30% of them on 8 GB Macs. They get weekly beta builds and an in-app way to send feedback, with a diagnostics file only if they tick it. Detection thresholds are tuned from what those Macs show, through the process library, without a new app release.
- Benchmark runs on 8 GB and 16 GB Macs. The tests so far ran on one 18 GB M3 Pro. The public benchmark report waits for the other runs. See benchmark.
- Launch material. Real screenshots, the benchmark page, six reviewed guides, a press kit, and a support inbox with an FAQ. The guides, the press kit and the FAQ are drafted.
- The final prices. The prices shown today are planned prices, and Pro will be a subscription.
- The browser extension in the browser stores. The listings go live with launch.
Checked on real Macs
Most of Hedroom is tested against fakes, which is the right way to test it but proves nothing about a real Mac. Before launch these are run on real hardware, and what they show is recorded in the project's decision log:
- Pause and priority on real apps. Does pausing and lowering priority work on apps like Slack, Chrome's helpers, Dropbox, Docker Desktop and Spotify, from the signed build? Does a paused app resume when you click it in the Dock?
- Readings against Activity Monitor. Per-app memory within 5% of Activity Monitor, and energy readings without admin rights.
- Notifications, live. All eight categories and their buttons, Focus modes, and the path where notifications are turned off. The Time-Sensitive entitlement for critical alerts.
- Calls and backups. Detection of an active call and of a running backup, because Hedroom refuses to touch those apps.
- A first run on a clean account. Download, Gatekeeper, onboarding, permissions and the login item, on a Mac that has never seen Hedroom.
- Storage cleanup on a real home folder. Review mode only first, then one safe category, with Put back.
- The helper, on a signed build. The approval flow, fan control on each MacBook Pro model, and the GPU limit.
- A live display-mode change. Including the 15-second undo and recovery if Hedroom quits during it.
- A device matrix. An 8 GB MacBook Air M1, a 16 GB Mac, and a MacBook Pro with an external 4K display. macOS 15, 26 and 27. Light and dark, Reduce Motion, and a full VoiceOver walk of every screen.
Anything these find is fixed and the audit is re-run, with a second review of anything that touches safety.
The launch bar
Two gates, with numbers we set before seeing any data. Hedroom does not move past one until it meets them.
Beta-ready Not started
- No known data-loss bugs, and 100% branch coverage on cleanup tests.
- Overhead budgets met: under 0.5% of a core on average, under 80 MB.
- Every 1.0 screen built in light and dark.
- A notarized DMG installs on a clean Mac, and an update from the previous build works.
Launch-ready Not started
- At least half of beta testers get a receipt with a measurable effect in their first week.
- No more than 10% of leak notifications answered "Never touch".
- At least 99.5% of sessions without a crash.
- Benchmark data collected and reviewed, including 8 GB and 16 GB Macs.
After 1.0
Planned. Order and timing are not fixed.
- 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3. Startup items and the display advisor, then per-app energy and the browser companion, then the helper, power profiles and fan curves. The code for all of them exists. Each is checked on real hardware before it ships. The helper gets a separate security review first.
- Local AI headroom. Built, and planned to ship after 1.3.
- A paid 2.0. Planned, at a discount for owners of 1.x. Version 1.x keeps working.
- Languages. Hedroom is English only. Every string is already in a string catalog. German, Japanese, French and Spanish are the first candidates, and the first three languages are not chosen yet.
- An App Store edition. A sandboxed edition with fewer features is under evaluation. A test on one Mac showed that the sandbox blocks pausing other apps, per-app energy and fan control, so it would be a smaller product, with a "Get full Hedroom" link and a purchase through the App Store. Scope, price and whether the two editions share a purchase are undecided. No work has started.
- Optional usage statistics. If they are added, they will be opt-in and without personal data. Version 1.0 collects none, and crash reports stay local.
- Checks against each new macOS. Every year when the betas arrive, Hedroom's readings and fixes are re-tested, starting with a check around June 2027.
- Every release. A changelog, the update feed, and a regression run that confirms receipts still say what they should.
- More of the process library. The signed list of plain-words explanations grows, and refreshes about once a week without a new app release.
- Fixes from the beta. Whatever real Macs show that we did not expect goes here.
Shape the roadmap
The waitlist asks three short questions, and the answers decide what gets built first. Beta testers send feedback from inside the app. Questions or a request: contact.
Not planned
Things Hedroom is built not to be. We do not plan to add them.
- A button that claims to free memory or make the Mac faster, or any percentage we did not measure.
- Antivirus or malware scanning.
- Intel Mac support.
- Windows or other platforms.
- A cloud account, sync, or telemetry that is on by default.
- Safari tab sleep, because Safari extensions cannot do it.
Not in 1.0, and no commitment either way: a full app uninstaller beyond leftovers from apps you already deleted, and a duplicate-photo finder.