A scratchpad for your Mac. Press ⌥P, jot something down, and get back to work.
Notes clear themselves away after a few days unless you pin them.
Popnote lives in the menu bar. Press ⌥P from any app and a small note opens in the bottom-right corner of the screen. Type, then press esc or click anywhere else and it's gone, with focus back where you were. Or keep it on top, and it stays in sight over every app and Space until you close it.
- Throwaway by default. Unpinned notes delete themselves 3 days after you last edited them. Press ⌘P to pin one and keep it.
- Checklists. Type
[]to start a checkbox,-for a bullet or1.for a numbered list. ⌘↩ checks an item off. - Gentle reminders. Optionally have the note pop back up every so often, so what you jotted down doesn't slip your mind. ⌘R turns it on or off.
- Keyboard first. Hold ⌘ for a moment in a note to see the shortcuts.
- Plain text. Notes are Markdown under the hood, so anything you copy out reads cleanly anywhere.
- Nothing leaves your Mac. No account, no sync, no network access.
Requires macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later, on Apple Silicon or Intel.
With the install script (recommended):
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bilal-psd/popnote/main/install.sh | shThis puts Popnote in /Applications and opens it. Run it again any time to update.
With Homebrew:
brew install --cask bilal-psd/tap/popnote
xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Popnote.appThe second line stops macOS blocking Popnote the first time it opens (see below). To update, run brew upgrade --cask popnote followed by the same xattr line.
Or download it from the latest release, unzip it and drag Popnote into Applications.
Popnote isn't notarized by Apple (that needs a paid developer account), so if you installed with Homebrew or a download, macOS blocks it the first time. The quickest fix is to remove the "downloaded" mark macOS puts on the app:
xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Popnote.appThen open Popnote as usual. Avoid sudo spctl --master-disable, which you may see suggested elsewhere: it turns off this check for every app on your Mac.
Or do it from System Settings:
- Open Popnote and click Done on the warning.
- Go to System Settings › Privacy & Security, scroll down, and click Open Anyway next to the message about Popnote.
- Confirm with Open Anyway.
You only need to do this once per install or update. The install script doesn't trigger the warning: macOS only checks apps marked as downloaded, which browsers and Homebrew do and curl doesn't.
| Keys | Does |
|---|---|
| ⌥P | Open or close Popnote, from any app |
| esc | Close |
| ⌘N | New note |
| ⌘O | All notes, with search, and Trash |
| ⌘[ ⌘] | Previous / next note (or swipe with two fingers) |
| ⌘P | Pin or unpin |
| ⌘⌫ | Move to Trash |
| ⌘C | Copy the whole note (when nothing is selected) |
| ⌘↩ | Check or uncheck an item |
| ⌘+ ⌘− | Bigger or smaller text |
| ⌘T | Keep on top: stays over every app and Space until you close it |
| ⌘R | Turn the pop-up timer on or off |
| ⌘, | Settings |
In a list, ↩ continues it, ↩ on an empty item ends it, and ⇥ / ⇧⇥ indent and outdent.
Settings let you change the hotkey, how long notes last, the theme (Tokyo Night, Gruvbox, Catppuccin, Solarized, Nord or the system colours), where the window opens, whether it hides when you switch away or stays on top, whether Popnote opens at login or shows in the Dock, and an optional timer that pops the note back up (off by default; every 30 minutes once turned on).
Deleted notes go to Trash for 7 days, so an accidental delete or an expired note can still be brought back from ⌘O › Trash.
Quit Popnote from its menu bar icon (right-click › Quit), then delete it from Applications. To remove your notes and settings as well:
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Popnote
defaults delete io.github.bilal-psd.popnoteWith Homebrew, brew uninstall --zap --cask popnote does all of this.
You need Apple's Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install) with Swift 5.10 or later.
git clone https://github.com/bilal-psd/popnote.git
cd popnote
sh scripts/bundle.sh # builds build/Popnote.app
swift test # runs the testsscripts/icon.swift draws the app and menu bar icons. scripts/release.sh publishes a new version to GitHub Releases and the Homebrew tap.
MIT. See LICENSE. Popnote bundles JetBrains Mono with Nerd Fonts glyphs, under the SIL Open Font License.