Eyes-closed mode with stronger audio cues

[marekkowalczyk]

Problem

Sessions often work best with eyes closed (pre-sleep, low vision, face-down phone/laptop). Today the product is TUI-first: phase labels and progress bars carry the pacing. Audio exists (afplay system sounds, mute toggle) but is thin for eyes-closed use — easy to lose the inhale/exhale boundary without looking, and easy to react late when the only cue is the phase-change itself.

Scope

In:

• An opt-in eyes-closed / audio-first mode for the CLI (flag and/or preset hook — exact surface TBD in implementation).
• Stronger phase cues so inhale ↔ exhale is unmistakable by ear: distinct inhale vs exhale sounds, and/or opt-in spoken IN/OUT via macOS say (same non-blocking Popen pattern as afplay / caffeinate).
• An anticipatory pre-beep shortly before the actual IN/OUT cue (lead time TBD; short enough not to feel like a third phase). Pre-beep = “get ready”; phase cue = “now.” That split is the load-bearing UX for eyes-closed pacing.
• Keep the same safety envelope (no retention, cycle ≥ 8s, continuous in–out). Pre-beeps must not introduce a hold, pause phase, or any retention prompt.
• Document how to enable it; q / Ctrl+C / finally terminal restore unchanged.

Out:

• Session-end “reward” chime — #36.
• Rewriting the TUI into a second visual chrome.
• Night quieter defaults (#18) and night dimmer TUI (#17) — coordinate volume defaults but don’t merge scope.
• iPhone app (#34) — separate product; this issue is CLI-only.
• Non-macOS TTS stacks as a hard requirement (Linux/Windows remain soft-fail / community).

Proposal (starting point)

• Opt-in flag (name TBD, e.g. --eyes-closed / --audio-first) that assumes the user is not watching the screen.
• Optionally suppress or simplify visual urgency (dimmer labels, less progress chrome) while keeping enough state for sighted debugging.
• Cue stack per phase boundary: pre-beep → (brief gap) → distinct IN or OUT cue (sound and/or say); non-blocking; must not stretch wall-clock phase timing into an unintended hold.
• Interact cleanly with s mute and --no-sound (pre-beep and phase cues both silenced).

Acceptance

• Opt-in path exists; default bare/--preset behaviour unchanged when not enabled.
• With eyes closed, the user can hear both a short “ready” cue and a clear “now” IN/OUT cue at each phase boundary (manual macOS smoke).
• Pre-beep does not add retention, a named hold phase, or a cycle shorter than the safety floor.
• Mute / --no-sound silence pre-beep and phase cues; spoken path (if shipped) respects mute.
• Safety rejections and terminal restore unchanged.
• README notes the mode and that it is audio-oriented.

Constraints

Single-file, stdlib, macOS primary; no threading; audio must not block the render loop.

Related

• Session completion chime: #36
• iPhone idea: #34
• Night quieter audio: #18
• Night dimmer TUI: #17
• Spec safety: no retention, cycle ≥ 8s, graceful exit (breathe-cli-spec.md §2).

[marekkowalczyk]

Refined from session notes: anticipatory pre-beep before the IN/OUT cue is now in scope. Session-end reward sound split to #36 (one concern).