Hands Off

Toddler-proof keyboard & mouse lock for Linux.

A small child grabs the laptop and starts mashing keys and dragging the mouse into your open apps. Hands Off lets you instantly freeze the keyboard (and optionally the mouse) with a hot-key, then unlock it with a secret word or a click on the tray icon.

It grabs input at the kernel level with evdev (EVIOCGRAB), so the lock works the same under X11 and Wayland — no other application receives the events while a lock is active.

How it works

• Activate the lock: press Num-pad * + - together (they sit next to each other and are almost never pressed together by accident). A notification confirms Hands Off ON, and the tray icon turns red.
• Unlock: type the secret word — quit by default. Because the keyboard is grabbed, the word never leaks into any application. If the mouse isn't locked, you can also left-click the tray icon.

Both unlock methods are toggleable in Settings — handy when an older child has figured out the tray-click and you want to leave only the typed word.

Settings

Right-click the tray icon → Settings… (stored in ~/.config/handsoff/config.json):

Setting	Default	Notes
Unlock word	quit	Typed to release the lock
Unlock by typing the word	on
Unlock by clicking the tray icon	on	Only usable when the mouse is not locked
Also lock the mouse	on	Full lockdown; use the typed word to unlock
Show notifications	on

Activation keys and combo/sequence mode are configurable in the JSON file (activation_keys, activation_mode).

Install (Debian / Ubuntu / KDE)

./build-deb.sh
sudo dpkg -i dist/handsoff_*.deb
sudo apt-get -f install      # pull deps if needed

The package installs a launcher, an app-menu entry, and an autostart entry so Hands Off runs on login.

Permissions

Grabbing input devices requires membership in the input group. The package's post-install step adds the installing user automatically; log out and back in for it to take effect. To do it manually:

sudo usermod -aG input "$USER"

Run from source

uv venv .venv && source .venv/bin/activate
uv pip install -r requirements.txt
python -m handsoff

(You still need to be in the input group.)

License

MIT — see LICENSE.