Notchly turns the MacBook notch — that sliver of display real estate above the menu bar — into a persistent terminal hub. Instead of toggling between a full-screen terminal and your editor, you hover over the notch (or press a single key from any app) and a floating panel slides down, ready for Claude Code. When you’re done, it retreats back out of the way. The result is a Claude Code workflow that stays permanently accessible without cluttering your desktop or forcing an app switch.Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/javierpr0/Notchly/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
The notch concept
The MacBook notch is a dead zone that macOS normally treats as off-limits. Notchly places a transparent overlay window directly over it, monitoring cursor proximity. The moment your pointer drifts toward the top of the screen, the panel animates open below the notch. A color-coded pill inside the notch itself reflects what Claude is doing — amber while it’s working, orange when it’s waiting for your approval, green when a task completes — so you can track session status from any app without opening the panel at all. On Macs without a physical notch, the pill still appears (sized to its content rather than the notch width), and all status information also lives in the menu bar icon.Key features
Notch integration
A transparent overlay window sits over the MacBook notch and detects hover. The panel slides down instantly; the notch pill shows Claude’s live status in any app.
Multi-session tabs
Open as many terminal tabs as you need, each with its own working directory and session state. Tabs persist across restarts and support drag-to-reorder, rename, and sleep/wake.
Split panes
Split any tab horizontally or vertically into independent panes. Each pane has its own shell, status detection, and working directory. The entire layout is saved and restored.
Git checkpoints & worktrees
Snapshot your working tree to a git ref before big AI-assisted edits, then restore with one click. Open a tab in an isolated git worktree so parallel Claude sessions never fight over the same working copy.
Command palette
Press Cmd+P to fuzzy-search per-directory command history. Commands are seeded from your
~/.zsh_history and ~450 built-in defaults covering git, npm, docker, and claude.10 terminal themes
Choose from Default, Dracula, One Dark, Solarized Dark, Solarized Light, Nord, Monokai, Tokyo Night, Gruvbox Dark, and Catppuccin Mocha. The selected theme applies to the entire app chrome, not just the terminal.
Smart notifications
Native macOS notifications fire when Claude finishes a task or needs your approval. The “needs input” notification includes a Continue button so you can approve Claude’s highlighted choice without switching back to the app.
Per-project config
Drop a
.notchy.json in any project root to set a custom shell, environment variables, or launch command. If the directory contains a CLAUDE.md, Notchly launches Claude automatically when you open that tab.Requirements
Notchly requires macOS 26.0 or later. Notch integration — the hover-to-reveal panel and the status pill — requires a MacBook with a physical notch (MacBook Pro 14-inch or 16-inch, 2021 and later; MacBook Air M2 and later). On other Macs, the app still works fully via the menu bar icon and the global hotkey; the panel simply anchors to the status item instead of the notch.License and attribution
Notchly is released under the MIT License. It is based on Notchy by Adam Lyttle.Notchly is not signed with an Apple Developer certificate. Releases are built and signed ad-hoc (
CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY="-") via GitHub Actions. macOS Gatekeeper will block the first launch with a “developer cannot be verified” warning. See the Installation guide for the exact steps to allow the app to run.