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Install NotchDesk

You need macOS 14 Sonoma or later. NotchDesk runs on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs.

1. Download NotchDesk.dmg (version 1.4) and open it.
2. Drag NotchDesk onto the Applications folder in the window that opens.
3. Open NotchDesk from your Applications folder. If macOS blocks it, follow the steps in the next section.
4. When asked, allow access to your calendars. NotchDesk appears in the menu bar, and your next event shows beside the notch as it gets close. macOS may also ask to let NotchDesk access your Desktop. That’s for adding new screenshots to your clipboard history, and you can say no. The 14-day trial of everything starts now.

Keep NotchDesk in the Applications folder. That’s also what lets you turn on Launch at login in Settings. If macOS asks you to approve it, go to System Settings → General → Login Items.

If macOS blocks it the first time

macOS 14 Sonoma

1. Open your Applications folder in Finder.
2. Right-click (or Control-click) NotchDesk and choose Open.
3. Click Open in the dialog that appears.

macOS 15 Sequoia and later

1. Try to open NotchDesk once, then close the warning.
2. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security and scroll down to the Security section.
3. Next to the message about NotchDesk, click Open Anyway, then confirm with your password or Touch ID.

Comfortable with Terminal? This removes the download quarantine flag instead: xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/NotchDesk.app

Permissions

Apart from Calendars, every permission is optional, and NotchDesk asks for each one only when a feature needs it, so you can say no and keep using the rest. Most are for features that are off until you turn them on. You can change your answers at any time in System Settings → Privacy & Security.

Click-to-paste or snippets stopped working after an update? macOS can keep showing the old Accessibility or Input Monitoring permission even though it no longer applies. In System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility (and Input Monitoring, if you use snippets), select NotchDesk, remove it with the – button, then add it again with +.

Not seeing your events? Check System Settings → Privacy & Security → Calendars and make sure NotchDesk is allowed. Google and Exchange events appear once those accounts are added in System Settings → Internet Accounts and show up in Apple’s Calendar app.

Said no by mistake? Most panes in NotchDesk Settings show when access is off, with a button that opens the right page in System Settings.

Keyboard shortcuts

These work from any app and can be turned off in NotchDesk Settings (⌃⌘VControl-Command-V, ⌃⌘BControl-Command-B and ⌃⌘LControl-Command-L together, the rest one by one), which is also the fix if another app already uses the same keys.

While Quick Notes is open, ⌘NCommand-N starts another note. The Month tab also has keys once you click inside it: the arrow keys move by a day or a week, Page Up and Page Down change the month, T jumps to today, W shows or hides week numbers, Return opens the day’s first event and Escape closes it. Quick Paste’s keys are listed on the home page.

The Tools tab

New in 1.4. Hover the notch and click the grid icon in its tab bar to open Tools, a grid of small tools. Use a tile right there, or click the expand arrows in its corner for the full view; Tools at the top left takes you back to the grid. The link notchdesk://open/tools opens it too.

Make it yours

• Settings → General → Notch tabs: move tabs up or down, and switch off the ones you don’t use, including Tools and Mirror. The Calendar tab always stays.
• Settings → General → Tools tab: switch single tools on or off.
• Settings → General → Notch: “When the notch opens, show” picks Calendar, the last tab used or any other tab, and “Haptic tap when the notch opens” turns the tap on a Force Touch trackpad on or off.
• Each tool has its own pane in Settings with its options.

The tools

• Quick Notes. ⌃⌥⌘OControl-Option-Command-O opens a new note from any app, and ⌘NCommand-N adds another while the notes are open. Lines that start with - [ ] and a space become checklist items you can tick off. Notes are saved as you type, on your Mac only, and Settings → Quick Notes can export them as Markdown. The notch closes shortly after the pointer leaves, even mid-sentence, but nothing is lost. With the pointer on a display without the notch, notes open in a small window instead.
• Timers. Quick-start buttons on the tile, and named timers, a stopwatch with laps and alarms (once or on chosen weekdays) in the full view. A running timer counts down beside the notch; when it ends, the notch opens with Stop, +1 min and +5 min. Timers and alarms only go off while NotchDesk is running: one that was due while the Mac slept or the app was closed goes off once when it’s back, if it was due in the last 6 hours. With the notch turned off, you get a notification instead.
• Calculator. The result appears as you type, and Return copies it. Try “15% off 80”, “5 km in mi”, “72 f to c” or “2h 30m in minutes”. The full view keeps a history and has a unit converter. Currency conversion uses the European Central Bank’s rates, downloaded only when you convert a currency and kept for 12 hours; offline, the last rates are used.
• Color Picker. ⌃⌥⌘CControl-Option-Command-C, or Pick on the tile, turns the pointer into an eyedropper; click to copy the color in your preferred format: HEX, RGB, HSL, HSB, CSS rgb() or hsl(), SwiftUI, NSColor or UIColor. The full view shows every format, a palette of recent colors and a contrast checker with WCAG AA and AAA grades. If you press ⌃⌥⌘CControl-Option-Command-C while the notch is open, it stays open, so close it first to pick a color under it.
• Screen Tools. Capture area copies the part of the screen you select as an image, and adds it to your clipboard history if that’s on. Make QR turns text or a link into a QR code to copy or save to the Desktop. Copy text (⌃⌥⌘TControl-Option-Command-T) recognizes the text in the area you select, and Scan QR reads QR codes and barcodes, both on your Mac. Press Esc to cancel a selection, or Space to pick a window. It needs Screen Recording (see Permissions).
• System Monitor. CPU, memory, network and disk on the tile, and charts, every volume, uptime, battery health and cycle count, and thermal state in the full view. It only measures while it’s on screen, so the charts start again after the notch has been closed a while. Turn on Beside the notch in Settings → System Monitor for a CPU, memory or network readout that shows when nothing else is there. “Memory used” can differ from Activity Monitor’s figure.
• Quick Toggles. Keep Awake (for a while, until a time, or until you stop it), Dark Mode, Hide Desktop Icons, Show Hidden Files, Lock Screen, Sleep Display, Start Screen Saver and Mute Mic; up to six fit on the tile. Keep Awake keeps the display on, but closing the lid still sleeps the Mac, and it ends when NotchDesk quits. Hiding desktop icons and showing hidden files restart Finder; NotchDesk asks before the first restart.
• Downloads. NotchDesk watches your Downloads folder, or another folder you choose. When a file finishes downloading, a note appears beside the notch; hover it for a preview with Open, Show in Finder, Add to Shelf, AirDrop and Copy. The tile lists the latest downloads, and the full view searches the last 30. Folders, such as ones Safari unzips, aren’t announced, and you can ignore file types.
• Dictionary & Translate. Type a word on the tile for its definition, offline, from the dictionaries built into macOS; the full view shows the whole entry. Text clips get Define in their menu too. Translate needs macOS 15 or later and uses Apple’s on-device translation; macOS may ask to download a language first. On macOS 14, Translate offers to open your text in a translation app or in Google Translate in your browser, only when you click.
• Shortcuts Launcher. Pin up to 12 shortcuts from the Shortcuts app, each with its own symbol and color. Six show on the tile; the full view lists and searches all your shortcuts. A shortcut can run with no input, ask for text, or use your latest clip’s text. Beside the notch you see it running, then Done or why it failed, and text output can be copied. A run stops after 2 minutes.
• Countdowns & Breaks. Count down to dates, with yearly repeats for birthdays and anniversaries, or import birthdays and holidays from your calendars. On the day, a small note can sit beside the notch. Break reminders are off until you turn them on in Settings → Countdowns & Breaks: a break after a stretch of activity, the 20-20-20 eye rule, water and standing up. They wait during calendar events, while you’re away and while the screen is locked, and water and stand-up reminders only come during the working hours you set.
• Mirror tab. A live, mirrored camera preview in its own notch tab, with a camera picker, Flip and a ring light. The camera turns on when you open the tab (or when you click Turn On Camera, if you turn that option off) and turns off when the notch closes, you switch tabs or the screen locks. Nothing is recorded.
• Scroll on the notch. A two-finger swipe or the mouse wheel over the closed notch changes the volume, or the built-in display’s brightness where macOS allows it, with a level beside the notch. Hold ⌥⇧ for finer steps. Choose volume, brightness or off, the direction and the sensitivity in Settings → Mirror & Gestures.

Links for the tools

Many tools have notchdesk:// links for Shortcuts, Raycast or a script, for example notchdesk://notes/new, notchdesk://timer/start?minutes=5&label=Tea, notchdesk://calc?expr=…, notchdesk://color/pick, notchdesk://screen/capture, notchdesk://toggle/awake?minutes=60, notchdesk://define?word=…, notchdesk://countdown/add?title=…&date=2026-12-25, notchdesk://screen/text, notchdesk://translate?text=…&to=es and notchdesk://run?shortcut=….

These links work out of the box. Any app or web page can open a link (browsers ask first), so switch off the ones you don’t use: Quick Notes, Timers, Calculator, Quick Toggles, Dictionary & Translate and Shortcuts Launcher each have a switch for their links in Settings. Quick Notes links can add text to your notes, Calculator links can replace what’s on your clipboard, and Quick Toggles links can lock the screen, sleep the display or restart Finder. Shortcuts links only run shortcuts you’ve pinned, unless you allow any.

Automation & MCP

Scripts, Shortcuts and AI assistants can show live progress beside the notch, search and add clips, and read your upcoming events. Every part of it is off until you turn it on in Settings → Automation.

Turn on the local server

1. In Settings → Automation, turn on Local server for the command-line tool and MCP.
2. Check what it may do (all four start on): search and read clipboard history, add clips, read calendar events, and show live activities and toasts. Switch off any you don’t need.

The server is a Unix socket, ~/Library/Application Support/NotchDesk/notchdesk.sock, that only apps running under your own macOS account can open. Nothing listens on the network. Clips marked secret are never returned, and clipboard history is off-limits while the privacy curtain is on.

Install the command-line tool

Click Install Command-Line Tool. It puts a small notchdesk script in ~/.local/bin, with no administrator password. If that folder isn’t on your PATH yet, add this line to ~/.zshrc and open a new terminal:

export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

Then, for example:

notchdesk activity start build "Building" --progress 40%
notchdesk activity update build --progress 0.8
notchdesk activity end build
notchdesk clips search invoice --limit 5
notchdesk events --days 1
notchdesk help

Connect an AI assistant (MCP)

NotchDesk includes an MCP server at NotchDesk.app/Contents/MacOS/notchdesk-mcp. It needs the local server to be on and follows the same switches. Settings → Automation shows ready-to-copy setups with the right path for your Mac. With NotchDesk in Applications, Claude Desktop’s claude_desktop_config.json (or a project’s .mcp.json) gets:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "notchdesk": {
      "command": "/Applications/NotchDesk.app/Contents/MacOS/notchdesk-mcp",
      "args": []
    }
  }
}

For Claude Code, run:

claude mcp add --scope user notchdesk -- '/Applications/NotchDesk.app/Contents/MacOS/notchdesk-mcp'

Other AI tools that can run a local MCP server use the same command. The tools are search_clips, get_clip, add_clip, get_upcoming_events, get_event_details, start_activity, update_activity and end_activity. Keep NotchDesk in the same place so the path stays valid.

Links and URL actions

Many features have a notchdesk:// link you can open from Shortcuts, Raycast, a Stream Deck or a script with open -g, for example notchdesk://join, notchdesk://join/copy, notchdesk://quickadd?text=Lunch%20Fri%201pm, notchdesk://month/today, notchdesk://shelf, notchdesk://media/playpause, notchdesk://privacy/curtain?on=1, notchdesk://focus/start?minutes=25 and notchdesk://availability?duration=30&days=5.

The links that show activities, toasts or add clips (notchdesk://activity/…, notchdesk://toast, notchdesk://clip/add) have their own URL actions switch, off by default, because any app or web page can open a link (browsers ask first).

Siri & Shortcuts

NotchDesk works with Siri through the Shortcuts app: Siri runs any shortcut when you say its name, and NotchDesk comes with 14 ready-made ones.

Add the shortcuts

1. Click the NotchDesk item in the menu bar, then the gear to open Settings, and choose Siri & Shortcuts.
2. Click Add to Siri next to a command. It opens in the Shortcuts app, which asks before adding it. To add them all, click Add All: NotchDesk opens each one that isn’t added yet, one after another.
3. Back in NotchDesk, the commands you added show Added. Try It runs a command right away, without Siri.
4. Say “Hey Siri,” followed by the shortcut’s name, for example “Hey Siri, What’s my next meeting”.

Siri needs to be turned on in System Settings. The shortcuts run on the Mac where NotchDesk is installed. If iCloud syncs your shortcuts to your iPhone or iPad, they appear there too, but they won’t do anything.

What you can say

Each shortcut opens a notchdesk:// link, such as notchdesk://siri/next for “What’s my next meeting”, so Raycast, a Stream Deck or a script can run the same commands (see Automation & MCP).

Spoken answers

“What’s my next meeting”, “What’s on my calendar today” and “tomorrow”, and “When am I free” are answered out loud and beside the notch. Hover the notch to read the whole answer, hear it again or close it. Under Answers in the same pane you can pick the voice and the speaking rate (with Preview), and turn off Speak answers or Show answers in the notch. With speech off, answers always show in the notch. Answers are in English and need access to Calendars.

Use your own words

What you say is the shortcut’s name. To say something else, rename the shortcut in the Shortcuts app and say the new name. Renamed shortcuts keep working, but NotchDesk finds shortcuts by name, so Settings no longer shows them as Added and Add All offers the original again; skip it when Shortcuts asks.

If Siri doesn’t do what you asked

• Siri runs its own command instead. A few names are close to Siri’s built-in commands, such as “Next song”, “Play or pause music” and “Start focus”. Rename the shortcut in Shortcuts to words Siri doesn’t already use, and say the new name.
• A command shows “Not available in this build” instead of Add to Siri. Your copy of NotchDesk doesn’t include that ready-made shortcut, so make it yourself. Open How to make it yourself under the command. In Shortcuts, create a new shortcut with the command’s name, add the Open URLs action and paste the notchdesk:// link shown in the pane (Copy URL copies it). For “Add to my calendar”, the pane also lists an Ask for Input and a URL Encode step to add first.
• The answer says NotchDesk can’t see your calendar. Allow NotchDesk in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Calendars.
• Nothing happens. Click Try It next to the command in Settings to check it works without Siri. After the 14-day trial, the commands need a NotchDesk license.

Sync between Macs

Sync is opt-in. It shares your clipboard history through your own iCloud Drive; there’s no NotchDesk server.

1. On each Mac, sign in to the same Apple Account and turn on iCloud Drive in System Settings → Apple Account → iCloud.
2. In NotchDesk Settings → Sync & Weather, turn on Sync clipboard history through iCloud Drive. If macOS asks whether NotchDesk may access iCloud Drive, allow it.
3. Do the same on your other Macs. After the trial, each Mac needs a license seat; a 3-Mac license covers three.

• What’s shared: text, links, code, colors and images up to 10 MB. You choose how far back to bring in clips from your other Macs (a day, 7 days, 30 days or any time), whether to include images, and whether pinned clips stay pinned.
• What never leaves the Mac it was copied on: secret clips, clips set to expire, file clips, and anything from an app you’ve excluded.
• Where it goes: a NotchDesk folder in your iCloud Drive, with one file per Mac plus its images. Changes usually arrive within about 5 minutes, depending on iCloud.
• New clips only: deleting or editing a clip on one Mac doesn’t change the copies already on your other Macs. Categories, rich text, reminders and links to meetings aren’t synced.
• A full history stays yours: when a Mac’s history is full, older clips from other Macs are skipped rather than pushing its own clips out.
• Stopping: turn sync off, or click Remove This Mac’s Data… to also delete this Mac’s file from iCloud Drive. Nothing is deleted from any Mac’s history.

Licenses

NotchDesk is a paid app. The first time you open it, a 14-day free trial of every feature starts, with no account or card needed. There is one trial per Mac. After the trial, the whole app needs a NotchDesk license, including the calendar and meeting features. The first 100 licenses are founders’ lifetime licenses ($25 for 1 Mac or $49 for up to 3 Macs), paid once, with every future update. After that, NotchDesk is a subscription ($9 a month or $89 a year, for up to 3 Macs). See pricing

When the trial ends, nothing is deleted. Your clips, notes, snippets and settings stay on your Mac, and activating a license unlocks everything again.

Licenses are sold by Synthcoder through Dodo Payments, our merchant of record, which handles VAT, GST and sales tax. If you change your mind, email us within 14 days of your purchase for a full refund.

Activate your license

1. After checkout, Dodo Payments, our merchant of record, emails you a receipt with your license key.
2. Click the NotchDesk item in the menu bar, then the gear to open Settings.
3. Choose the license pane, just below General in the sidebar, paste your key and click Activate.

Activation sends your key and your Mac’s name to Dodo Payments, which issued the key, and needs an internet connection once. After that, your license keeps working offline; the app re-checks the license about once a week when it can (about once a day for a subscription). When a subscription ends, NotchDesk asks for a license again; nothing you saved is deleted.

Lost your key?

It’s in your purchase email from Dodo Payments: search your inbox, including spam, for “Dodo Payments” or “NotchDesk”. Still can’t find it? Email support@notchdesk.com from the address you bought with, and we’ll help you get it back.

“This key is already active on its maximum number of Macs”

Your key is in use on as many Macs as it covers. Deactivate it on one of them first (below). If that Mac is gone, email us and we’ll free the seat.

Moving to a new Mac

1. On the old Mac, open NotchDesk Settings and choose the license pane, just below General in the sidebar.
2. Click Deactivate this Mac and confirm. This frees the seat.
3. Install NotchDesk on the new Mac and activate it with the same key.

Your clipboard history stays on the old Mac. To bring it along, copy the folder ~/Library/Application Support/NotchDesk to the same place on the new Mac after you’ve deactivated the old Mac (step 2), and before you first open NotchDesk on the new one.

Keeping both Macs? With a license on each, Sync between Macs shares text, links, code, colors and images between them through your iCloud Drive (not files, secrets or rich text).

Updates

NotchDesk checks for a new version about once a day. When there is one, “NotchDesk 1.x is available” appears with a Download button at the top of the menu bar dropdown. You can also check now in Settings → Updates → Check for Updates.

Download the new DMG and replace the app in your Applications folder. The first time you open the new version, macOS may block it again. Follow the steps in If macOS blocks it. Your history, settings and license are kept. Every 1.x update is included with your license. See what changed in the changelog.

Troubleshooting

• Features stopped working after 14 days. Your free trial has ended. Your data is still there; activate a license (see Licenses) to unlock everything again.
• My Mac has no notch. NotchDesk shows a small island at the top center of the screen instead. Hover it just like the notch. The menu bar items work everywhere.
• My MacBook is connected to an external display. The notch stays on the built-in screen by default. In Settings → Displays you can put it on your main display or have it follow the mouse, and switch it off on any display. With the lid closed, it moves to an island at the top of your main display. Press ⌃⌘BControl-Command-B while the pointer is on a display without the notch and the Library opens instead of the shelf.
• The notch disappeared. It hides while an app is full screen and comes back when you leave full screen or switch apps. It can also hide when a window fills a whole display, for example with an auto-hiding menu bar, or on a second display when “Displays have separate Spaces” is off. If that happens, turn off Hide the notch while an app is full screen in Settings → Displays.
• Now Playing shows nothing. On macOS 15.4 and later, NotchDesk can only show Music and Spotify, and only after you allow it in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Automation. Other players appear on earlier versions of macOS. It’s best effort, because it depends on what macOS lets apps read.
• A meeting’s Join button opens the wrong app or browser. Choose how each service opens in Settings → Meetings → Join routing. Zoom personal links, ZoomGov links and Teams short links open their web page, which can hand off to the app.
• Something I copied isn’t in the history. It may have come from an excluded app, been marked as concealed by a password manager, or been copied while capture was paused. Check the exclusion list in Settings.
• A shortcut doesn’t work. Global shortcuts can be turned off in Settings (⌃⌘VControl-Command-V, ⌃⌘BControl-Command-B and ⌃⌘LControl-Command-L share one switch), so check it’s on, and another app may already use the same keys.
• Join doesn’t appear on an event. NotchDesk looks for meeting links in the event’s URL, location and notes, and only shows Join for known meeting services such as Google Meet, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex, FaceTime and Slack huddles.
• Screen captures come out blank or only show the desktop. Screen Tools needs Screen Recording to capture other apps’ windows. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen Recording (Screen & System Audio Recording on macOS 15 and later), turn on NotchDesk, and try again. If macOS offers to quit and reopen NotchDesk, let it. Settings → Screen Tools shows whether it’s allowed, with a button to that page.
• Screen Recording is on, but captures still don’t work after an update. macOS can treat a new version of NotchDesk as a different app and keep showing the old permission. Select NotchDesk in that list, remove it with the – button, add it again with +, then capture again. The same can happen with the Downloads folder: allow it again in Privacy & Security → Files and Folders, or click Try Again in Settings → Downloads.
• Nothing happens when I press ⌃⌥⌘TControl-Option-Command-T. Check that its shortcut is on in Settings → Screen Tools. While a selection is already on screen, pressing it again only beeps; finish the selection or press Esc.
• A timer or alarm didn’t go off. They only ring while NotchDesk is running. One that was due while the Mac slept or NotchDesk was closed goes off once when it’s back, if it was due in the last 6 hours.

Uninstall

Quit NotchDesk, then drag it from Applications to the Trash. To remove its data too, delete ~/Library/Application Support/NotchDesk (it also holds Quick Notes, countdowns, your color palette and any screen captures kept for the file shelf) and run defaults delete com.rexotech.NotchDesk in Terminal. If you’ve activated a license, deactivate this Mac first so you can use the seat elsewhere.

If you used the extras, also: click Remove next to the command-line tool in Settings → Automation (or delete ~/.local/bin/notchdesk), remove NotchDesk from your AI assistant’s MCP settings, and use Remove This Mac’s Data… in Settings → Sync & Weather, or delete the NotchDesk folder in iCloud Drive.

Contact

Email support@notchdesk.com. It helps to include your NotchDesk version, your macOS version and your Mac model. For license questions, include the email address you bought with. Please don’t send your full clipboard history or screenshots containing private information.