Configuration

Curfew keeps configuration deliberately small: schedule, grace periods, override behavior, rules, allowlist entries, and retention.

File locations

  • Config file: ~/.config/curfew/config.toml
  • Runtime state: ~/.local/state/curfew/runtime.json
  • History database: ~/.local/share/curfew/history.db
curfew storage
~/.config/curfew/
└── config.toml
~/.local/state/curfew/
└── runtime.json
~/.local/share/curfew/
└── history.db

Schedule

The schedule section defines your timezone, default quiet hours, and optional weekday overrides.

  • timezone = "auto" uses the machine's local timezone
  • schedule.default is the baseline bedtime and wake pair
  • schedule.overrides.<weekday> lets you loosen or tighten specific days

Curfew evaluates sessions in local wall-clock time and supports quiet hours that cross midnight.

Grace and hard stop

The grace section controls how the night ramps up:

  • warning_window starts the early warning period before bedtime
  • hard_stop_after defines a stricter wall-clock cutoff later in the night
  • snooze_max_per_night limits how often you can ask for more time
  • snooze_duration sets the default duration for curfew snooze

Override friction

override.preset supports:

  • soft
  • medium
  • hard
  • custom

The built-in options map the warning, curfew, and hard-stop tiers to different friction profiles. Custom mode lets you define each tier directly with actions such as allow, prompt, wait, passphrase, math, combined, or block.

If you want the smallest mental overhead, start with medium. It keeps the warning tier gentle, adds a passphrase during curfew, and blocks after the hard stop.

Rules and allowlist

The rules section decides what Curfew cares about after hours:

  • default_action sets the fallback when no rule matches
  • [[rules.rule]] entries are evaluated in order
  • first match wins

allowlist.always is checked before any rule matching. That is where you keep harmless commands like ls, cd, man, curfew, or clear.

Logging

logging.retain_days controls how long Curfew keeps long-term history before purging older data.

Example config

[schedule]
timezone = "auto"
 
[schedule.default]
bedtime = "23:00"
wake = "07:00"
 
[schedule.overrides.friday]
bedtime = "00:00"
wake = "09:00"
 
[schedule.overrides.saturday]
bedtime = "00:00"
wake = "09:00"
 
[grace]
warning_window = "30m"
hard_stop_after = "01:00"
snooze_max_per_night = 2
snooze_duration = "15m"
 
[override]
preset = "medium"
method = "passphrase"
passphrase = "i am choosing to break my own rule"
wait_seconds = 60
math_difficulty = "medium"
 
[rules]
default_action = "allow"
 
[[rules.rule]]
pattern = "claude"
action = "block"
 
[[rules.rule]]
pattern = "git push*"
action = "warn"
 
[[rules.rule]]
pattern = "terraform apply*"
action = "block"
 
[allowlist]
always = ["ls", "cd", "cat", "less", "man", "tldr", "curfew", "exit", "clear"]
 
[logging]
retain_days = 90
Commands