I was tired of losing hours to my phone.
Built by Raj Patel (Princeton). The focus app I wished existed.
I'd look around in lecture and everyone was doomscrolling. The people who actually tried to study had the same loop: work for five minutes, doom-scroll for twenty, then complain that they were "cooked." The reach had become automatic — for all of us.
The apps that promised to help me made me angrier. Brute-force blocking didn't work — I'd just turn it off or find another browser. Gamification felt childish. Screen Time made me feel guilty without changing anything.
What was missing
I didn't need another wall. I needed a moment of friction — a beat between the reflex and the scroll. Long enough to remember what I was actually trying to do.
So I built Kael on top of Apple's Screen Time API and put Claude in the loop. When you reach for Instagram, Kael asks why. Your reason goes to Claude, which weighs it against the mode you're in, your schedule, your deadlines, and the morning briefing it drafted for your day. A thoughtful reason gets you a time-limited grant. A reflex gets you a 20-word reflection prompt.
How Kael actually decides
The thing I'm proudest of: Kael doesn't use usage-count heuristics. It doesn't count your approvals per hour or detect "spirals" or add post-grant traps. Instead, four modes — Night, Ease, Balanced, and Focus — switch automatically based on your calendar, deadlines, location, and time of day. Claude's strictness adjusts to whichever mode you're in. The intelligence lives in context, not in rules.
Where I'm going
Kael runs on iPhone and Mac today — same intercept, same Claude reasoning, the iOS version built around the Screen Time API and the Mac version adapted for the desktop drift pattern (the "just one tab" problem that eats whole afternoons).
This summer, Kael is coming to Windows and Android. Same loop, same reasoning, every device a person actually uses.
I'm also partnering with companies and schools — giving them more efficient monitoring and productivity at a fraction of the price of the legacy tools they replace. Kael takes over the per-student, per-employee authorization tickets so teachers can teach and managers can manage.
Get in touch
I read every email. Pitch me, push back, or just say hi —admin@trykael.com.
Try Kael for yourself.
free download. 2 months of Pro on us.