A native macOS notch dashboard: a borderless panel that hugs the MacBook notch and expands on hover into a stack of modules — Now Playing, Calendar, Battery / System, and a Drop Shelf.
Built entirely with Swift Package Manager — no Xcode required.
Click the notch to open your workspace. Named tabs jump directly between pages; Find a tool searches enabled modules by name and description. Use ⌘[ and ⌘] to change pages while the panel has keyboard focus, or swipe sideways.
In Settings → Design, choose paged tiles, priority (a wider first tile), or full-page focus. Settings → Modules includes search, descriptions, toggles, and drag-to-reorder; clear the search before reordering. The settings window is resizable and remembers its position.
- macOS 14+ (developed and run on macOS 26, Apple Silicon)
- Swift 6 toolchain (the Command Line Tools are enough — Xcode is not needed)
make test # build and run the unit suite (swift run TopsoilTests)
make run # build, package Topsoil.app, and launch it
make package # just build the signed .app into ./buildmake run launches Topsoil as a menu-bar agent (no Dock icon). Use the
menu-bar icon for Open Topsoil, Open Settings…, and Quit Topsoil.
Before a public build:
rg -n '"MacNotch"|>MacNotch<|Quit MacNotch|MacNotch Settings|com.macnotch.app' \
Sources Scripts Makefile README.md website/index.htmlExpected: no public-facing launch copy remains except legacy migration code (the retained io.notchapple.NotchApple bundle id and NotchApple/MacNotch support directories) and historical documentation that explicitly says it is legacy.
Tests use a self-contained runner (
Sources/TopsoilTests) instead of XCTest, because XCTest ships only with Xcode. Run them withswift run TopsoilTests; the process exits non-zero if any check fails.
Granted on first use; nothing is requested up front:
- Calendar (EventKit) — prompted the first time the Calendar module refreshes.
- Automation: Music / Spotify (AppleScript) — prompted the first time you use the media controls. If Music or Spotify is already running, the same Automation prompt can also appear on the first media refresh.
- Battery/CPU/RAM and the Drop Shelf need no permissions.
Because the app is ad-hoc signed for personal use, macOS may re-prompt for these after a rebuild (the signature changes). Just re-grant.
| Module | What it shows | Data source |
|---|---|---|
| Now Playing | Track + transport controls; equalizer glance when collapsed | AppleScript (Music/Spotify) behind a MediaSource seam; opportunistic MediaRemote |
| Calendar | Today's date + upcoming events | EventKit |
| Battery / System | Battery %, charge state, CPU, RAM | IOKit + host_statistics |
| Drop Shelf | Files dragged onto the notch; drag them back out | Security-scoped bookmarks |
Modules can be enabled/disabled and reordered in Settings, which also has a Launch at login toggle. Changes apply to the notch immediately.
These need a real notch and a person at the keyboard (the unit suite covers the pure logic headlessly):
- Notch shape sits under the physical notch; expands on hover, collapses on exit.
- Now Playing shows the current track and play/pause/next control Music or Spotify.
- Calendar shows today's events after access is granted; "Grant access" opens System Settings when denied.
- Battery / CPU / RAM update live.
- Drag a file onto the expanded panel → a chip appears; it survives a relaunch; drag the chip back into Finder.
- Settings toggles/reorders modules live; "Launch at login" registers Topsoil in System Settings → General → Login Items.
Design spec: docs/superpowers/specs/2026-06-22-macnotch-phase1-design.md.
All code lives in the TopsoilKit library; the internal Topsoil executable
target is a thin entry point. Each feature conforms to the NotchModule protocol, and the window
renders whatever modules are enabled, in order — adding a module is drop-in.
This is Phase 1. Later modules (weather, Pomodoro, GitHub, notifications,
translation, Bluetooth, and the AirDrop/zip/convert drop actions) plug into the
same NotchModule seam.