License

NowDoing is unlocked with a signed license key. Verification runs entirely on your Mac — the key is checked against a public key embedded in the app, no request goes out to a server.

Activate your license

On first launch (or whenever no valid license is on file) NowDoing shows a compact activation window with a medallion, a key field and a drop zone. While that window is open, the menu bar icon, the global shortcut, the right-click menu and all external integrations are disabled.

To activate:

1. Get hold of your license key — as text or as a .txt file from the confirmation email.
2. Paste the key into the field or drop the file onto the field directly.
3. Click “Activate” (or press Enter). On success the window closes and the menu bar icon appears.

If verification fails, the reason shows right below the field — bad format, invalid signature, expired, or not valid for this app version.

License tab in settings

An active license is managed under Settings → License. The card shows the medallion and a row of badges at the top, with the license details below.

Badges

Badge	Meaning
Active	License is valid and signature-checked.
Lifetime	License has no expiry date.
N days	Days until expiry. Blue from 31 days onwards, orange below — a hint that a renewal is due.
vX	License is only valid up to a given app major version (e.g. v1). Missing means it covers every version.

Details

• Licensee and Email — the name on the license.
• Issued and (if set) Valid until.
• Max app version — version ceiling, if the license carries one.
• License ID — the UUID you’d quote to support.

Actions

• Edit license opens a second input field on the same card — handy for pasting a fresh key after a renewal.
• Remove license clears the stored key and takes you back to the activation window. Data stays untouched; tracked time and activities don’t get lost.

What’s inside the license

The key is a short string of the form <payload>.<signature>. The payload is Base64URL-encoded JSON with:

Field	Meaning
id	UUID — stable license ID.
name	Licensee (display).
email	Licensee email.
issued	Issue date (ISO 8601).
expires	Expiry date (ISO 8601). When missing, the license is lifetime.
maxVersion	Version ceiling ("1" covers all 1.x versions). Optional.

The signature is Ed25519, verification runs through macOS’s CryptoKit APIs.

When a license stops being valid

Three reasons:

• Expiry. When expires is in the past, the license expires. NowDoing re-checks hourly and on every gated access — so it also catches a license that expires mid-session or a clock that was manually rolled back.
• Version cap exceeded. If the license carries maxVersion, it only applies to that major line. Updating the app to a higher major locks it again until you enter a new license.
• Bad signature. The license was modified, corrupted or forged. Those keys land directly in the “License invalid” card with the reason as a subtitle.

In all three cases the app behaves as if no license was installed: the activation window comes up, and the menu bar icon’s right-click menu only shows “Enter license…” alongside About and Quit.

What’s blocked while locked

While no valid license is active, these paths are off-limits:

• Left-click on the menu bar icon (goes straight to the activation window).
• The global prompt hotkey and the ⌃⌥⌘1–9 pinned quick-picks.
• Right-click menu except “Enter license…”, “About NowDoing” and “Quit”.
• VS Code branch switches via the HTTP API (answer 401).
• Commands from Shortcuts and AppleScript (licenseLocked error).
• macOS Services menu.

Data and settings stay untouched throughout. As soon as a valid license is on file, every path opens up again.

Where the key is stored

The entered key lives in the app’s UserDefaults (~/Library/Containers/app.nowdoing/Data/Library/Preferences/). It’s re-verified at every launch and once an hour in the background. The app never sends the key over the network — verification is a pure offline operation.