downtime-cli

Your build takes 90 seconds.
Your phone takes 20 minutes.

downtime fills the wait with one trivia question at a time, then snaps back the instant your command finishes.

↓ this one is real. press a-d, or click. ↓

$ npm install -g github:lyhjeremy/downtime-cli

then: dt <any command>  ·  e.g.  dt npm run build

How it works

Two letters in front of what you already type

1

Prefix the command

dt npm run build · dt pytest -x · dt claude -p "fix the tests". Output, exit code and behaviour are identical to running it bare, so it is safe anywhere.

2

Under 5 seconds? Invisible.

Longer, and the trivia takes over the screen. Answer with letters, numbers or arrow keys. Flags, maps and landmarks are drawn right in the terminal.

3

It lets go when your task does

The moment the command exits you get one line saying what ran and how long it took, then the full output, untouched. Nothing is ever lost.

Keys

Everything the game understands

adanswer, or 14
Entermove the highlight and pick
nnext question, space works too
q / Escleave the game, command keeps running
Enterreturn, once the task has finished
Ctrl+Ckill the command and everything it started
Compatibility

Made for the agent-wait era

Anything that runs to completion works: builds, tests, installs, deploys, and coding agents in their non-interactive mode. Tools that open their own interface, like bare claude or vim, are the one thing not to wrap.

ToolCommand
Claude Codedt claude -p "refactor the auth module"verified
Codex CLIdt codex exec "fix the failing test"same pattern
Gemini CLIdt gemini -p "explain this repo"same pattern
Aiderdt aider --message "add tests" --yessame pattern
Everything elsedt npm run build · dt cargo build · dt pytestworks
Where
Terminal.app, iTerm2, Alacritty, Kitty, WezTerm, GNOME Terminalfull support
VS Code, Cursor and JetBrains integrated terminalsfull support
tmux and GNU screenfull support
Emacs shells, dumb terminals, CI, pipesskipped, runs as a plain wrapper
Principles

Two promises

Your output is sacred

Everything printed while the game is up is held and replayed in order, on the stream it came from, with the real exit code. Verified against a 40,000-line firehose with zero lines lost.

It will never trap you

No streaks, no daily goals, no notifications, no feed. Bounded questions with a clean finish, so there is nothing to pull you back once your work is ready.