NotchBud
☀︎
Morning Briefing, Mondaywritten by your AI at 07:00
📅
Design review with Sam14:30 · in 15m
Join
🗓 TODAY'S SCHEDULE
One meeting: design review at 11:00. Big goal: ship the spring update today.
🔴 URGENT 3
⚡ Release notes still need a final pass, shipping today
The print vendor has been waiting on approval since Friday
💬 MENTIONS 4
👀 ON YOUR RADAR 2
ノアノアShigeru Suzuki
✅ TODAY 2/5
Final pass on release notes
Approve the print proof
Reply to the venue quote
Book the studio for Thursday
Prep the 11:00 review
hover the notch

Hover the notchyour day folds out A new homefor your AI briefs Every todoone swipe away Your morningbriefed before it starts Stay on top of your todo listby keeping it at the top Never hunt forthe join link again

Always at the top of your screen, and of your day. Your AI writes the morning brief. NotchBud gives it a place to live.

NotchBud for macOS
Download for macOS

One-time purchase·7-day free trial·No servers, no account

How it works

Three steps. Then it runs itself.

No accounts, no servers. Your AI writes one simple file each morning. NotchBud does the rest.

01

Connect your AI

Copy one prompt block from Settings into your scheduled AI task: Claude, ChatGPT, any agent or script that can write a file.

02

The brief lands on your schedule

Whenever your task runs: 06:30, 07:00, after standup. The brief appears as collapsible bento cards under your notch, and an amber dot says it's fresh.

03

Stay on top of your tasks

Your todos live one hover away, all day. Check things off as you go: whatever is left rolls into tomorrow's brief automatically.

The gesture

Right to prioritize.
Left to delete.

Your todos answer to a flick. Swipe right and an item is flagged as a priority: it lights up, and your AI takes note for tomorrow. Swipe left and it is gone for good. Fast, physical, weirdly satisfying.

Meetings

Never hunt for
the join link again.

Your next meeting lives in the notch with a live countdown. Fifteen minutes out, NotchBud pings you and the Join button lights up green: one click drops you into Zoom, Meet, or Teams. No calendar tab, no digging through invites, no walking in late.

Customization

Customize your productivity partner.

Frosted glass, solid dark, or three gradients distilled from quiet skies. Or go custom: pick any two colors and NotchBud paints the wash over the glass. The notch itself stays hardware black, always.

Reminders

Hold it. Time it.
Forget it.

Press and hold any todo or brief item. The edge traces itself, a menu springs open, you slide and release. One hour, three hours, tomorrow, or fully custom with repeats. macOS nudges you at the moment, one click jumps back to the todo in the notch, and your AI plans tomorrow's brief around it.

Now Playing

Your soundtrack,
one glance up.

Spotify, Apple Music, even YouTube playing in Chrome: whatever is on shows up under your brief with artwork and controls. Click the cover and you're in the app, or on the exact tab, instantly.

Quick note

A thought, captured.
Without switching apps.

Press Control and Space anywhere on your Mac: the notch folds out with the input focused. Type, hit Return, keep working. Press it again and it tucks away. Every capture lands in your todos, and your AI reads them all.

Works with any AI

Bring your own AI.

Claude, ChatGPT, a cron job: anything that can write a text file can power NotchBud. Copy this block into your scheduled task, and you're set.

Copy
=== DELIVER TO NOTCHBUD ===

Write one markdown file per day into the NotchBud folder.

1. File name: YYYY-MM-DD.md, first line: # Your Title
2. Sections: ### 🔴 Urgent, ### 📅 Today's Schedule, …
   each becomes a collapsible card
3. One item per "- " bullet, each becomes swipeable
4. Tasks: ### ✅ Action Items with "- [ ] task" lines
   → they import into the todo list
5. Read feedback.json first: never repeat "cleared" items,
   surface "prio" items on top, plan around "reminders"
6. Evening runs: APPEND a ### 🌙 section, never rewrite

=== END NOTCHBUD ===
Pricing

Free download.

Use everything free for 7 days, or make it yours right away.
One price, once, no subscription.

Try it free

7 days
Every feature, nothing to enter
  • Full app: no card, no account
  • Morning brief, evening recap, feedback loop
  • Native macOS app, featherlight
Download for macOS
Notarized by Apple. Running in one minute.

Or unlock it now

€29€14once
Early-bird price
  • Yours forever, all 1.x updates included
  • License key in your inbox instantly
  • Use on all your own Macs
Buy NotchBud
Works before, during, or after the trial.
FAQ

Questions.

Do I need a Mac with a notch?

NotchBud is designed for notched MacBooks (2021 and later). A menu-bar mode for external displays and older Macs is on the roadmap.

Which AI does it work with?

Any of them. NotchBud reads plain markdown from a folder: Claude scheduled tasks, ChatGPT, n8n, a cron script, or you typing by hand. If it can write a file, it can brief you.

Where does my data live?

In a folder on your own Mac, as markdown and JSON you can open with any editor. A local folder is the default and the safest. NotchBud has no servers, no analytics, no account.

Will it fill up my disk?

No. NotchBud keeps 30 days of briefings and automatically expires stale flags. A full year of daily use is a few hundred kilobytes.

What happens after the trial?

NotchBud asks for a license. Your briefings and todos stay untouched in your folder either way. It is your data.

Is there an iPhone app?

In development: a companion app with home-screen widgets that syncs your todos through your own iCloud. It will be free for license holders when it ships.