Updated 5 October 2026

User Guide

Everything NotchDude can do, and how to use it. NotchDude lives in your MacBook's notch: hover over it and your music, clipboard, calendar, messages, focus timer, files, and AI limits are right there.

Getting started

Requirements

• macOS 14 Sonoma or later, on a Mac with Apple silicon.
• A MacBook with a notch is ideal. Macs without one, and external displays, get a floating pill at the top of the screen instead.

Install

1. Download NotchDude and open the disk image.
2. Drag NotchDude into your Applications folder, then open it.
3. NotchDude runs from the menu bar (look for the smiley icon). It has no Dock icon unless Settings is open.

The welcome tour

The first time you open NotchDude, a short welcome walks you through it:

1. Welcome: hover over the little MacBook to see how the notch opens. Your real notch works the same way.
2. What's inside: a quick look at Now Playing, AI Usage, Clipboard, Focus, and the File Shelf.
3. Allow access: turn on Calendar, Music, live Claude limits, Camera, and Full Disk Access for Messages. Each is optional and you can choose Allow All or skip any of them.
4. Make it yours: turn the File Shelf and Launch at login on or off.
5. You're all set: choose Open My Notch to start.

You can watch it again anytime from the menu bar icon › Show Welcome.

Using the notch

Open and close

• Hover: rest the pointer on the notch and it opens. Moving the pointer to the very top edge of the screen counts too.
• Click: click the notch to open it.
• Close: move the pointer away and it closes after a moment, click anywhere outside it, or press Esc.
• Pin: click the pin at the top left of the open panel to keep it open while you work elsewhere. Click it again to unpin.
• From the menu bar: choose Show NotchDude from the menu bar icon. Opened this way, the panel stays open until you press Esc or choose Collapse.

The panel also stays open while you're typing in it, for example writing a note, while one of its menus is open, and while VoiceOver is on.

Make the closed notch yours

When nothing else is going on, the closed notch shows NotchDude's logo on the left and your battery on the right. Change either side in Settings › Appearance › Closed notch: pick Left side or Right side (or click that side of the preview) and choose what it shows.

• Left side: NotchDude's logo, a symbol, an emoji, your own image, or nothing. Add a short message beside it, up to 16 characters, and the notch widens just enough to fit.
• Right side: the battery, the battery icon alone, the time, the date, the date and time, your next event today, a countdown to your next note reminder, or nothing. Whatever you pick, a low battery still takes its place, except with None.
• Colour: give the symbol and message, and the right side, any colour, including your own from the rainbow swatch.

Music, the Focus timer, coding agents, and other activities still take over the notch while they're happening.

Make it bigger

Move the pointer near either bottom corner of the open panel and a grip appears. Drag it to make the panel wider and taller. It stays centred under the notch and remembers its size. Double-click the grip to go back to the standard size.

Widgets use the extra room: Home's tiles grow, the File Shelf becomes a grid, the Calendar list gets wider, and larger panels switch to roomier layouts.

Switch widgets

The tab bar just below the panel shows every widget you've turned on. Click one, or press ⌘1 to ⌘9 to jump to the first nine. Hover a tab to see its name and shortcut. Drag a tab sideways to reorder the tabs, or drag it up onto Home to add it there.

Edit the tab bar: hold a tab, as you would a Home tile. The tabs jiggle; use the minus on a tab to remove it, the + button to add a removed widget back, and Done when you're finished. You can also turn widgets on and off in Settings › Widgets.

The ··· menu

The ··· button at the top right of the panel gives you quick controls, in groups:

• Your plan (trial time left, Pro, or Upgrade to Pro…)
• Keep Mac Awake: for 30 minutes, 1 or 2 hours, or until you turn it off
• Options: Expand on Hover, File Shelf, and Launch at Login
• Settings…, and Customize for Appearance and Widgets
• Help: What's New, this Guide, Help & Feedback, and Check for Updates
• Collapse and Quit NotchDude

What’s New and other app windows

Choose Help › What’s New in the notch’s ··· menu, or Help › What’s New from the menu bar menu. It opens the feature summary for your installed release series, with screenshots and the latest fixes. The content is bundled with the app, so it works offline; links to the full story open in your browser.

Settings, What’s New, and browser setup open above the notch, so the panel cannot cover their content while it's open. Once the notch closes they behave like any other window, so Spotlight and other apps can cover them. What’s New follows light and dark appearance, and you can resize its window.

Keep Mac Awake

Stop your Mac from going to sleep during a download, a long build, or a presentation. In the ··· menu, choose Keep Mac Awake, then 30 Minutes, 1 Hour, 2 Hours, or Until Turned Off. The menu shows when it ends, and a cup appears on the closed notch while it's on. Choose Turn Off to let your Mac sleep again.

More than one display

In Settings › General › Show on, pick Built-in Display (the default), Active Display (the screen you're using), or All Displays PRO. Screens without a notch get a floating pill at the top. The notch works on every Space, including full-screen apps.

Live activities

Even when it's closed, the notch tells you what's happening. When something changes it briefly grows to show it, then tucks away again:

• Battery: when you plug in or unplug, and a warning at 20% and 10% when you're not on power.
• File Shelf: what you just dropped on the notch. Click to see the file actions.

While a coding agent is working PRO, the closed notch shows its app icon, gently pulsing, with how much of its 5-hour limit is used. A cup means Keep Mac Awake is on.

When several things happen at once, a +N badge shows how many are waiting. Click the banner to open the panel.

The sides of the closed notch also show your music artwork while something's playing, the Focus countdown while a session runs, or your battery.

Widgets

Choose which widgets appear in Settings › Widgets. Widgets marked PRO need Pro or the trial.

Home

Your day at a glance, as live tiles: the song that's playing, your next event, the last thing you copied, your Focus timer, your AI limits, and any other widget you add. Click a tile to open that widget.

• Rearrange: drag a tile to a new place. The others flow around it.
• Edit: click the edit button beside ··· at the top right of Home, hold a tile, or right-click a tile and choose Edit Home. The tiles jiggle inside dashed outlines. Use the red minus to remove a tile, or drag a corner to resize it. The tab bar becomes a tray of the widgets that aren't on Home yet.
• Add: while editing, drag a widget up from the tray to put it in that place, or click it to add it at the end. Widgets you've turned off can be added too, which turns them back on. You can also drag a tab from the tab bar up onto Home at any time.
• Done or Cancel: click the checkmark (or press Return, or click an empty part of Home) to keep your changes. Click × or press Esc to put Home back as it was when you started editing.
• More than fits: Home is laid out in pages four tiles across and two down, up to three pages. When a page is full, Home continues to the right; scroll sideways to see the rest. While you edit, the panel widens to show the extra columns.
• Sizes: Small, Wide, Large, or Full (a whole page to itself). Right-click a tile and choose Size to pick one.

Music

See and control what's playing in Spotify, Apple Music, or your browser (see Browser media): artwork, title, artist, play/pause, previous, and next. Press Space to play or pause.

• PRO Scrub to any point in the song, change the volume, shuffle, and repeat (Apple Music can also repeat one song).
• Sound output: click the output button beside the volume (it shows a laptop, headphones, or AirPlay) to switch where sound plays.
• Nothing playing? Use the Spotify or Apple Music button to open your player.
• The first time, macOS asks to let NotchDude control your player. Choose OK, or turn it on later in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Automation.

Browser media

Control YouTube, YouTube Music, and other media sites from Music in the notch, in Safari, Firefox, Chrome, or another Chromium browser such as Arc, Brave, or Edge. It uses the free NotchDude Media extension and needs NotchDude 1.10 or later.

• Set up: choose Connect browser… in Music when nothing is playing, or Connect Browser… in Settings › Music. Pick your browser and follow the three steps.
• Check the connection: Settings › Music lists your browsers as Connected, when it last connected, or Not connected. A browser connects once NotchDude Media has played something in it since the browser opened.
• Safari: the extension comes with NotchDude, so there's nothing to download. Choose Open Safari extension settings, turn on NotchDude Media, and allow it on youtube.com.
• Chrome, Arc, Brave, Edge, and other Chromium browsers: choose Chrome, then Get extension to add NotchDude Media from the Chrome Web Store. NotchDude connects to it by itself and recognises which browser you're using.
• Firefox: choose Firefox, then Get extension to add NotchDude Media from Firefox Add-ons, and allow it on YouTube when Firefox asks. It needs Firefox 140 or later.
• Controls: play/pause, 10-second skips back and forward, previous and next when the site has them, and mute from the speaker button. PRO Scrub to any point and change the volume.
• Several tabs playing? The browser name under the title becomes a menu: choose a tab, or leave it on Automatic to follow whatever is playing. The open button takes you straight to that tab.
• Other sites: YouTube and YouTube Music are always on. On any other site with audio or video, click the NotchDude Media toolbar button and choose Turn on; Turn off removes it again. Sites with unusual custom players may not work.
• Privacy: media details (title, artist, artwork, progress) go only to NotchDude on your Mac. The extension never reads your browsing history, cookies, or passwords, and doesn't run in private windows.

Clipboard

NotchDude keeps the text you copy so you can grab it again later.

• Text you copy is saved while the panel is open. Click any item to copy it again.
• Use Search clipboard… to find something you copied earlier.
• Pin items you use often. Clear removes everything except pinned items.
• PRO Summarise on device turns long text into a few bullet points. It runs on your Mac with Apple Intelligence (macOS 26 or later); on other Macs it pulls out the key sentences.
• Free keeps your last 10 items; Pro keeps 100.

Calendar

A month calendar beside the day you pick. Choose Allow Calendar Access the first time. It shows the calendars already on your Mac, including iCloud, Google, and Exchange accounts added in System Settings.

• The month: today is filled in, and coloured dots mark the days with events, in their calendars' colours. Click a day to see its events. Use the arrows, or swipe sideways, to change month, and Today to come back.
• The day: all-day events sit at the top. Each event shows its time, length, and location, with Now on whatever's happening and "in 10 min" on what's next. On today, a line marks the current time.
• Join a call: events with a Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, Webex, or FaceTime link get a video button. From 10 minutes before the call it's a visible Join button.
• Open Calendar: click an event, or use the button at the top right, to switch to the Calendar app.
• Keyboard: click the month, then use the arrow keys to move between days (up and down jump a week), Page Up and Page Down to change month, and T for today.

Focus

A Pomodoro timer: 25 minutes of focus, then a 5-minute break, and a 15-minute break after every fourth session.

• Set the length: before you start, drag along the ruler or the time to choose anything from 5 to 90 minutes, in 5-minute steps. NotchDude remembers it.
• Press Start, or click the ruler or the time, to begin; do it again to pause. Resume picks up where you left off, and the reset button starts the current session over.
• The ruler's lit ticks show the time left, and it tells you when the session ends and which break comes next.
• When a session ends, a sound plays and the break starts on its own. Skip it with the skip button if you'd rather carry on. The next session waits for Start.
• The track at the bottom shows your set of four, and how many sessions you've finished today. The count starts over each day.
• The countdown shows on the closed notch, in green during breaks. The timer keeps exact time even if your Mac sleeps.

AI Usage PRO

Keep an eye on your Claude Code and Codex limits so they never surprise you, and see what your agents are up to.

• Each card shows how much of your 5-hour and weekly limits you've used and when they reset. Bars and rings turn orange at 70% and red at 90%.
• Larger cards also show tokens over the last 7 days as a small chart, with today's total.
• Numbers update every minute while the widget is open. Click the refresh button to update now.
• For live Claude limits, macOS asks to let NotchDude read Claude Code's sign-in. Choose Always Allow. Without it, NotchDude uses the last numbers Claude Code saved.
• Agent sessions: while Claude Code or Codex is working, its card shows the project folder. You can see when it's busy and when it's waiting for you.
• Cursor and Antigravity keep their limits on their servers, so their cards show when you last used them.
• Drag cards to reorder them. Hold one (or right-click and choose Edit Cards) to resize or remove it, and add it back from the page's add menu.

Usage is read from ~/.claude and ~/.codex on your Mac. Only token counts, model names, limit percentages, project folder names, timing, and tool names are read, never your prompts or code.

Notes

Your notes on the left, the one you're reading on the right, like Notes on the Mac.

• New note: click the compose button above the list, or press ⌃⌥N in any app to open the notch on a fresh note, ready to type. The first line becomes its title.
• Edit: click a note and type. It saves as you go. A note left empty disappears when you move on.
• Remind me: click the bell above a note and choose when: in 15 or 30 minutes, 1 or 3 hours, this evening, or tomorrow morning. When it's due, the notch shows the note with a chime, and opening it takes you straight there. The note shows its reminder time in the list.
• Search, pin notes to the top, copy one, or delete it, with a few seconds to Undo (or ⌘Z). Right-click a note for the same actions.
• Refine PRO: rewrites a note more clearly with Apple Intelligence, on your Mac. The notch's edge glows while it works.

Turn the shortcut off in Settings › General › Quick note shortcut.

File Shelf

A place to park files you're about to use, right in the notch.

• Add: drag files, screenshots, images, or links onto the notch. It opens to catch them as you get close. You can also use Paste from Clipboard.
• Drop actions: hold a drag over the notch for a moment and it splits into Keep plus actions that suit what you're dragging, such as Zip, Copy Text, Cut Out, To JPEG, Merge PDFs, or Make PDF, with AirDrop always at the end. The actions you pick most move to the front. Hold Option to just keep, or drop quickly.
• Screenshots: choose what happens to new screenshots in Settings › Files: leave them where macOS saves them, add them to the shelf, or move them off the Desktop onto the shelf. Screen recordings follow the same setting.
• Screenshot thumbnail: each saved screenshot shows at the bottom right of the screen under your pointer, like the macOS screenshot preview. It stays above app windows and the notch. Hover it for four actions, or drag it into any app. With screenshots added to the shelf automatically they start as Copy, Edit, More, and AirDrop; otherwise Keep takes Edit's place, and Edit is under More. Pick the four in Settings › Files. Keep only appears when screenshots aren't added to the shelf automatically. To see only NotchDude's thumbnail, press ⌘⇧5, click Options, and untick Show Floating Thumbnail.
• Edit a screenshot PRO: hover the thumbnail and choose Edit (or find it under More) to open the screenshot editor. Without Pro, Edit shows a crown and opens Settings › Pro. Draw arrows, boxes, ovals, freehand lines, and text; highlight text; add numbered steps; blur passwords, emails, or anything private; dim everything but one area with Spotlight; and crop. Add a gradient or solid background with padding, rounded corners, a shadow, and a shape such as 16:9 or 1:1 for posts and slides; the last background you used is kept for next time. Set text and step numbers to any font size in points. Each new mark is selected as you draw it: drag its handles to resize it (hold ⇧ to keep its shape), use Bigger and Smaller (⌘= and ⌘-), duplicate it (⌘D), nudge it with the arrow keys, recolour it, move it with the Select tool, or delete it. Each tool is named in the bar along the top and has a one-letter shortcut, shown when you hover it, such as A for Arrow and T for Text. Esc deselects; it never closes the editor. Undo with ⌘Z. On the right, Drag drops the edited picture straight into another app, Copy (⌘C) puts it on the clipboard, Save Copy… saves a new PNG, JPEG, or HEIC file and keeps the original, and Save & Close (⌘S) saves over the screenshot. Revert to Original is at the bottom of the sidebar.
• Select: click to select, ⌘-click to add, Shift-click for a range, and double-click to open.
• Preview: hover a file and click the eye for Quick Look. Use the arrow keys to step through the shelf.
• Use: drag files from the shelf into any app or Finder folder (hold Option to copy instead of move), or use Copy, AirDrop, Share, and Show in Finder.
• Quick actions: compress files into a zip, convert images to PNG, JPEG, or HEIC, merge PDFs, make a PDF from images, copy the text in an image or PDF, and cut out a photo's subject. The new file lands on the shelf, and everything runs on your Mac.
• Right-click a file for Open, Open With, Copy Path, Save As…, and Remove from Shelf.
• Clean up: Remove Missing clears files you've moved or deleted, and Clear Shelf empties it.

The shelf points to your original files rather than copying them. Screenshots and dropped images or links that aren't files yet are saved in NotchDude's folder, and removing them moves them to the Trash so nothing's lost by accident. The free shelf holds 3 items; Pro has no limit. Turn the shelf off in Settings › Files.

Messages PRO

New WhatsApp, Slack, and Teams messages appear in the notch as they arrive, with who sent them and the channel or group when there is one. Click a message to open it: Teams goes straight to that message in its chat, WhatsApp opens the chat when the sender is shown by phone number, and otherwise the app opens. You can also dismiss a message.

• Messages needs Full Disk Access, so it can read the notification record macOS keeps. Choose Allow Full Disk Access in the widget (or in the welcome window), then turn on NotchDude in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Full Disk Access.
• Only want the notch? In System Settings › Notifications, turn off Desktop for each app and keep Notification Centre on. Messages still reach NotchDude, without banners on top.
• Messages stay in memory only. They're never saved or sent anywhere.

Mirror PRO

Check your look before a call with a live camera preview. Choose Allow Camera Access the first time. The preview is mirrored, like a real mirror. While the pointer is over the notch, a button in the top-left corner flips the image to see yourself as others see you. It works like Maps on the trackpad: pinch to zoom up to 3×, and swipe with two fingers or drag to look around while zoomed in. While you zoom, −, +, and the zoom level appear along the bottom; click the level to go back to 1×. You can also change the flip with Mirror the image in Settings › Mirror. NotchDude remembers both. The camera is only on while Mirror is open, and nothing is recorded.

Teleprompter PRO

Read your script right under the camera, so you keep eye contact on calls and recordings.

1. Paste or type your script (or use Paste), then choose Done. You'll see the word count and roughly how long it takes to read.
2. Press Start or Space. The text scrolls past a reading line near the camera, and the panel stays open while it plays.
3. Tap the text to pause, or drag it to move back and forth. Adjust the speed (0.5× to 3×) and text size as you go.
4. Use Back to start to read it again, or the pencil to edit the script.

Your script is saved on your Mac for next time.

Bookmarks PRO

Keep the sites you open every day one click away. Type a name and an address, then choose Add. Click a tile to open it in your browser, and hover it to delete it.

Settings

Open Settings from the menu bar icon, the ··· menu, or ⌘,. If the menu bar icon is hidden, open NotchDude again from Applications or Spotlight and Settings appears.

NotchDude follows Reduce Motion, Reduce Transparency, and Increase Contrast in System Settings › Accessibility.

Free and Pro

The notch, Home, Focus, Calendar, Notes, and Keep Mac Awake are always free. Pro is a one-time purchase that unlocks everything on up to 3 Macs.

Buy and activate

1. Open Settings › Pro and choose Buy Lifetime. Checkout opens in your browser.
2. Your licence key arrives by email.
3. Back in Settings › Pro, paste it under Already purchased? and choose Activate.

NotchDude checks your licence now and then, and keeps working offline for up to 14 days between checks.

Move to another Mac

Your key works on up to 3 Macs. To free one up, open Settings › Pro on the old Mac and choose Deactivate on This Mac, then activate on the new one.

Privacy and permissions

NotchDude is local-first: your clipboard, notes, files, scripts, and calendar stay on your Mac. Every permission is optional and only unlocks the feature that needs it.

With analytics on, NotchDude also reports when it crashes or freezes: which version, and where in its own code it happened, so problems get fixed sooner. macOS prepares these reports on your Mac; they never include your content. Turn both off in Settings › Privacy.

NotchDude doesn't need Accessibility or Input Monitoring access. You can turn any permission off in System Settings › Privacy & Security. Read the full privacy policy.

Keyboard shortcuts

With Keyboard Navigation turned on in System Settings, Tab and ShiftTab move between controls.

Troubleshooting

I can't find the menu bar icon

A crowded menu bar can hide it behind the notch. Open NotchDude again from Applications or Spotlight to bring up Settings.

The notch doesn't open when I hover

Check that Enable NotchDude and Expand on hover are on in Settings › General. You can always click the notch instead.

The screenshot thumbnail doesn't appear

Check that File Shelf and Screenshot thumbnail are on in Settings › Files. Look at the bottom-right corner of the screen under your pointer. The preview stays above app windows, fades after six seconds, and stays visible while you hover it. It needs a saved file, so it doesn't show for screenshots copied to the clipboard (⌃⇧⌘4, or Save to: Clipboard in ⌘⇧5 › Options), or for other screenshot apps. If macOS asks whether NotchDude can access your Desktop or the folder screenshots go to, choose Allow, or turn it on in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Files and Folders.

Music shows no artwork or controls

Turn on NotchDude for your player in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Automation.

Browser media doesn't show up

Open NotchDude first, then play something; the extension's toolbar button should say Connected. In Safari, check that NotchDude Media is on in Safari › Settings › Extensions and allowed on the site. In Chrome or another Chromium browser, use the extension from the Chrome Web Store; in Firefox, the one from Firefox Add-ons. Open the browser at least once before NotchDude, and restart it after updating NotchDude. On sites other than YouTube, choose Turn on in the extension first.

Calendar is empty

Turn on NotchDude in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Calendars, then use the refresh button in the widget.

Messages don't show up

Turn on NotchDude in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Full Disk Access, and check that each app's notifications are allowed with Notification Centre on in System Settings › Notifications.

Claude limits look out of date

Click refresh in AI Usage and choose Always Allow when macOS asks. If it says your sign-in has expired, open Claude Code once to renew it.

NotchDude doesn't start when I log in

Turn on Launch at login in Settings › General. If macOS asks for approval, allow NotchDude in System Settings › General › Login Items.

My licence key won't activate

Check the key in your purchase email. If it's already on 3 Macs, deactivate it on one of them first.

Updates

NotchDude checks for updates automatically. To check now, choose Check for Updates… in the menu bar icon or the notch's ··· menu; that always gets the newest version straight away. Automatic checks get a new version gradually over about a day and a half, so if you hear about an update before NotchDude offers it, it's on its way. To turn automatic checks off, use Settings › General › Updates. See what changed in each version in the release notes.

Beta updates

Turn on Get beta updates in Settings › General › Updates to try new versions a few days before everyone else. Betas are tested, but may still have rough edges, and your feedback from Settings › Support shapes the final release. Turn it off any time; you'll move to the next regular release when it comes out.

Still stuck?

Use Settings › Support to send a report with your app details, or email support@notchdude.com.