Help

Getting Started

Ennui opens to a single ambient scene filling your screen. There is no setup, no account, nothing to configure. The scene plays at 60 frames per second, drawn entirely from math — no images, no video.

After a few seconds, the scene picker appears briefly near the bottom of the window, then fades away. You can bring it back at any time.

Controls

Keyboard

← →	Previous / next scene
Space	Show the scene picker
H	Toggle the haiku overlay
?	Toggle the about panel
S	Toggle peer sync (local network sharing)

Mouse & Trackpad

Click	Scene-specific interaction — a ripple, a firefly, a splash, a glow. Every scene responds differently.
Double-click	Show the scene picker
Triple-click	Toggle haiku
Hover near bottom	Reveal the scene picker

Scene Picker

The picker is a row of small orbs near the bottom of the window. Each orb represents a scene, tinted to match its palette. Click an orb to switch. Scenes crossfade over two seconds.

When you hover over an orb, that scene begins warming up in the background so the transition feels instant. After each switch, the neighboring scenes are also preloaded for arrow-key navigation.

Haiku

Press H to show a haiku. If your Mac supports on-device AI (Apple Intelligence), the haiku is generated live — a new poem each time, written for the scene you are watching. If on-device AI is not available, Ennui falls back to hand-written haiku.

Haiku appear in thin serif text at low opacity, floating over the scene without competing with it. They are 5–7–5 syllables, always warm and concrete.

Peer Sync

Press S to toggle local-network sharing. When enabled, Ennui uses Bonjour to find other copies of Ennui on your local network. Connected Macs will switch scenes together.

A consent dialog appears before any connection is made. Display names are anonymous. No data leaves your local network. All communication is encrypted via MultipeerConnectivity.

All 30 Scenes

Each scene is entirely procedural — generated from code and math, with no image assets. They are listed here alphabetically.

• Ancient Ruins Stone ruins bathed in soft aurora light with fireflies drifting between the columns. Tap to release fireflies
• Art Deco LA A golden-hour Los Angeles boulevard with streamline moderne buildings, palm trees, and a vintage red streetcar. Tap to sweep a searchlight across the sky
• Aurora Borealis Northern lights dancing in green and violet over a frozen lake. Pine trees in silhouette, a distant cabin with a warm window, chimney smoke rising. Tap to send a solar flare through the aurora
• Celestial Scroll Hall A moonlit Chinese study hall with calligraphy scrolls, ink stones, and glowing characters drifting upward. Tap to release glowing characters from a scroll
• Conservatory Rain falling on greenhouse windows. Plants sway gently inside, steam rises from warm earth. Tap to make it rain harder
• Cosmic Drift Gentle nebulae and twinkling stars drifting through warm cosmic space. Tap to send a ripple through the stars
• Deep Ocean Bioluminescent creatures glowing softly in the deep ocean darkness. Tap to attract bioluminescent creatures
• Desert Starscape Warm desert dunes beneath a vast starry sky on a quiet night. Tap to send a ripple across the dunes
• Enchanted Archives A wild magical library where books fly open and paper birds soar between the shelves. Tap to scatter paper birds
• Floating Kingdom A sky kingdom floating above an ocean of clouds, with crystalline spires, waterfalls cascading into mist, and motes of ancient energy drifting upward. Tap to send a pulse of magical energy rippling outward
• Forgotten Library An infinite twilight library with towering bookshelves, candlelight pools, moonlit arched windows, and floating golden letters drifting upward like embers. Tap to open a book and release glowing letters
• Greeting the Day A city waking up at sunrise. Buildings grow toward the light as morning spreads across the skyline. Tap to grow a new building
• Jeonju Night A quiet Korean neighbourhood at night in the 1990s. Warm window light, tile roofs, a corner shop. Tap to toggle a window light
• Late Night Rerun Falling asleep to late-night TV reruns in a cosy 1990s bedroom. CRT glow, lava lamp, posters on the wall. Tap to change the channel
• Lush Ruins Ancient moss-covered temple ruins in a tropical jungle. Waterfalls tumble down stone steps, vines creep over carved walls. Tap to release butterflies
• Medieval Village A peaceful medieval village settling down for the night under moonlight. Thatched roofs, a church spire, lanterns glowing. Tap to snuff a candle
• Midnight Motel A quiet motel room in 1968 America. Neon vacancy sign bleeding through thin curtains, wood paneling, a warm lamp, and headlights sweeping across the ceiling. Tap to send headlights sweeping across the ceiling
• Minnesota Small Town A calm summer evening in a tiny Minnesota prairie town. A steeple, a water tower, a grain elevator, a diner with a flickering neon sign, and fireflies on Main Street. Tap to send a firefly drifting across the scene
• Mystify Glowing lines bouncing across a dark screen, leaving phosphor trails — like a Windows 95 screensaver, dreaming. Tap to launch an extra ribbon of light
• Night Train A gentle night train journey through moonlit countryside. Telegraph poles drift past, fields roll by. Tap to light a window
• Ontario Countryside A warm summer evening settling over the rural countryside of southern Ontario in the early 1990s. Golden wheat, an old red barn, a gravel road, fireflies in the blue hour. Tap to send a gust of wind through the wheat
• Paper Lantern Festival Warm paper lanterns rising into twilight over a dark lake, each with a flickering inner flame. Golden reflections on the water, fireflies, silhouetted reeds. Tap to release a lantern with a gentle message
• Quiet Meal Two friends sharing a quiet meal, seen through a restaurant window on a rainy evening. Tap to send a raindrop down the glass
• Rainy Day Bright flowers thriving in gentle rain, puddles forming in a cheerful cartoon world. Cel-shaded, warm despite the weather. Tap for a splash
• Retro Garden A peaceful pixel-art garden with flowers, butterflies, and soft dappled sunlight. Tap to plant a flower
• Retro PS1 A nostalgic low-poly nighttime scene with a glowing cabin and fireflies. PlayStation 1 aesthetic — affine texture warping and all. Tap to scatter fireflies
• Salt Lamp The warm amber glow of a Himalayan salt lamp breathing gently in a dim room. Tap to brighten the glow
• Shimizu Evening A quiet Japanese residential neighbourhood on a rainy evening. A peaked wooden house, a concrete block wall, a corner shop with a striped awning, utility poles, and warm yellow windows glowing through the rain. Tap to send a splash rippling through a puddle
• Urban Dreamscape A dreamy cel-shaded city blending world capitals at night. Neon reflections in wet streets, soft rain. Tap to send a ripple through the puddles
• Voyager Nebula Drifting through a magnificent nebula of swirling teal and magenta. Stellar nurseries glow in the distance. Tap to pulse the nebula

Display

Ennui uses Metal GPU compositing and extended dynamic range. On Macs with XDR displays (MacBook Pro, Pro Display XDR), some scenes will produce highlights brighter than standard white — auroras glow, salt lamps breathe with real warmth, and lanterns carry extra light.

The app renders in the Display P3 colour space. No settings are needed; it adapts automatically.

Troubleshooting

“Ennui can’t be opened because it is from an unidentified developer”

Right-click the app and choose Open. macOS will ask once for confirmation. After that, it opens normally. Or from Terminal:

xattr -cr /Applications/Ennui.app

The app won’t launch at all

Ennui requires macOS 26.0 (Tahoe) and Apple Silicon. It will not run on Intel Macs or earlier macOS versions.

Scenes stutter or drop frames

Close other GPU-heavy applications. Ennui targets 60 fps and is very light, but resource contention can cause drops. Make sure your Mac is plugged in or set to high-performance mode if on battery.

Haiku does not generate

On-device AI haiku requires Apple Intelligence to be enabled on your Mac. If it is not available, Ennui automatically falls back to hand-written haiku — you will still see a poem.

Peer sync does not find other Macs

Both Macs must be on the same local network, both running Ennui with sharing enabled (S). The first time you enable sharing, a consent dialog appears — both users must accept. If the connection still fails, check that your firewall allows Bonjour traffic.

Privacy

Ennui collects no data whatsoever. No analytics, no telemetry, no crash reports, no network requests, no cookies, no accounts. The app requires no internet connection and makes no outbound connections of any kind.

The only network feature is optional peer sync, which uses encrypted local-network Bonjour and never leaves your LAN. Your usage is entirely private. There is nothing to opt out of because there is nothing to opt into.

Building from Source

If you prefer to build Ennui yourself:

git clone https://github.com/plzupgradealex/ennui.git
cd ennui
xcodebuild -project Ennui.xcodeproj -scheme Ennui -configuration Release build

Requires Xcode 18 with command-line tools. The first build takes about a minute.