Free, open-source notch app for Mac · macOS 14+ · Apple silicon
Vortex — Your MacBook's notch, put to work.
A timer, clipboard history, a shelf for files, tasks from your screen and keys Claude Code can use without seeing them. One hover away, and offline by design.
Version 0.1.0 · Free · MIT license
Point at the notch. Vortex opens. Timer up front, files and copies at the bottom.
Vortex grows out of the notch when your pointer gets there and tucks itself back in when you move on. It shows the tools you reach for a dozen times a day, and nothing else.
No notch? Vortex lives in the menu bar.
Timer
A focus timer in your notch. Set the minutes on a drum. Watch them count down.
Turn the drum with two fingers, drag it or click a tick, then press Start. The countdown stays in the notch while you work. When time is up, Vortex plays a sound, flashes the notch until you look and sends a notification with “+5 min”.
- 1 to 120 minutes
- Quick starts: 5, 10, 15, 30, 60
- Keeps running if Vortex restarts
Try itDrag the drum, then press Start.
Clipboard
Clipboard history, one hover away. Your last ten copies, plus the ones you pin.
Text, links, images and files are kept as you copy them. Click one to copy it again, drag it into any app, or pin it for later. Copies that password managers mark as secret show as dots, stay in memory and are gone when Vortex quits.
- 10 recent, pins on top
- Text, links, images, files
- Apps you exclude are never recorded
Try itCopy any sentence on this page.
Shelf
A shelf for files. Drop them on the notch. Drag them into any app.
Put files aside while you work and drag them out later: into a browser, a chat or an uploader. Point Vortex at your build folder and every new .ipa, .apk or .aab lands on the shelf by itself once it's fully written. The notch flashes to tell you.
- Files stay where they are
- Watched folders for builds
- Unpinned files leave after a day
Desktop
Shelf
Drag a file up to the notchTap a file to put it on the shelf
./gradlew bundleRelease && open -a Vortex app-release.aabTry itDrag a file from your desktop onto the notch. Your files stay on your Mac.Tap a file to send it to the notch.
Tasks
Turn anything on screen into a task. Shortcut, frame, Return.
Press your shortcut and the screen freezes, so nothing moves while you frame it. Press Return and Vortex saves the cut-out and the whole screen, with the app, the window title and the page address from your browser. Text on both is recognized on your Mac, so search finds a task by any word in the picture.
- Freeze frame, so nothing moves
- Source: app, window, page
- On-device OCR: search by any word
Dana
Login button is cut off on iPad mini. Screenshot:
Sam
Also, the keyboard covers the password field in landscape.
Frame an area · Esc to cancel
Priority
Chat — Mobile team
Try itPress +, then draw a frame around the message or choose Frame for me.
Keys
Keys Claude Code can use but never see. Database URLs, API tokens and passwords stay in your keychain.
Give a key a name in Vortex. Claude Code writes {{name}} where the value goes, and Vortex runs the command in your shell through a local MCP server. The value goes in as a variable and is taken back out of the output, so Claude gets the result, never the key. The first time a session uses a key, you allow it from the notch.
- Values in the macOS keychain
- Local MCP server with a token
- Allow once per key, per session
Tells Claude what each key is
- PostgreSQL
- MySQL
- MongoDB
- Redis
- GitHub
- Anthropic
- OpenAI
- Slack
- AWS
- Stripe
- JWT
- Private keys
- and any other token or password
What it doesn't stop
- Claude sees what a command returns: your data, not the key.
- A value encoded on purpose, or a part of it, isn't caught in the output.
- While a command runs, your other programs can see the value in its arguments or environment.
Read the guide: Keep secrets and .env files away from Claude Code
Claude Code wants to use github
~/projects/shop
curl -sv -H "Authorization: Bearer {{github}}" https://api.github.com/user/repos?visibility=private- Claude Code
- MCP · 127.0.0.1
- Vortex
- Keychain
- Your shell
Values stay in the keychain; Claude gets the output with them taken out.
Try itPress Allow when Claude asks for the key.
Keyboard cleaning
Lock the keyboard to clean it. Every key stops until you turn it back on.
One button on Home locks every key: letters, modifiers, Esc, the function row and the keys for brightness, sound and media. The mouse and trackpad keep working, so one click brings the keyboard back.
- Needs Accessibility
- Mouse and trackpad keep working
- The keyboard unlocks if Vortex quits
macOS doesn't let any app lock Touch ID or Caps Lock.
Keyboard cleaning mode
All keys are locked
Try itPress a few keys, then lock them.
Fits the way you work. Notch or no notch, shortcut or script.
No notch? No problem.
On a Mac without a notch, or on an external display, Vortex opens under its menu bar icon, and the timer shows next to it.
Shortcuts you choose.
Open Vortex, jump to any tab or start a task with shortcuts you set. None are taken by default.
From your scripts.
open -a Vortex <files>puts files on the shelf without opening the window.Turn off what you don't use.
A feature you switch off leaves the sidebar and Home, and Vortex stops asking for its permission.
Light and dark.
Vortex follows your Mac's appearance, or keeps the one you pick.
English and Ukrainian.
Vortex speaks both: your Mac's language, or the one you pick in Settings.
Offline by design. Vortex never goes online by itself.
No analytics, no update checks, no accounts. Network traffic comes only from commands Claude Code runs with your keys, after you allow them.
- Your data
~/Library/Application Support/Vortex- Your secrets
- your login keychain
- Text recognition
- on your Mac
- The one listener
- an MCP server for Claude Code, on this Mac only, with a token
- The rule
- a build check fails if network code appears outside Keys
- This website
- no cookies, no analytics, no third-party requests
Free and open source. MIT license. Read it, build it, make it yours.
Vortex is a native Mac app in Swift 6 and SwiftUI, built on The Composable Architecture. Each feature is a module that brings its own tab, Home widget, settings, tables and docs. Delete a feature's folder and the lines that list it, and the rest still builds.
brew install xcodegengit clone https://github.com/OrtexIsArtem/vortex.git cd vortexmake installYou need Xcode. The README shows how to keep the permissions across rebuilds.
- Home
- Timer
- Clipboard
- Shelf
- Tasks
- Keys
$ make buildBuild succeeded, 6 features
Get Vortex for Mac. Free. macOS 14 or later, on Apple silicon.
Vortex runs on a Mac. Send yourself the link and download it there.
Opening it the first time
- Unzip it and move Vortex to Applications.
- Open Vortex. macOS refuses: Vortex isn't notarized by Apple, which takes a paid developer account. Click Done, or Cancel on macOS 14.
- Open System Settings › Privacy & Security, scroll to Security and click Open Anyway next to the message about Vortex. On macOS 14 you can instead Control-click Vortex in Applications and choose Open.
Or, in Terminal:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Vortex.app Every permission is optional
- Notifications
- the timer's end, and Claude's key requests while the window is closed
- Accessibility
- keyboard cleaning
- Screen Recording
- tasks from the screen
- Automation, per browser
- a task's page address; macOS asks the first time
- Paste from Other Apps
- clipboard history, only on macOS versions that ask
Vortex walks you through them on first launch. A feature whose permission is off shows a yellow warning: click it to turn the permission on.
Questions. Straight answers.
Something else? Ask on GitHub.
Is Vortex free?
Yes. Vortex is free and open source under the MIT license, with no subscription and no account.
Does it work on a Mac without a notch, like the MacBook Neo?
Yes. On a Mac without a notch, or on an external display, Vortex opens under its menu bar icon, and the timer and other indicators show next to the icon.
Which Macs does Vortex run on?
Macs with Apple silicon, M1 and later, on macOS 14 Sonoma or newer. Intel Macs aren't supported.
Does Vortex collect any data?
No. It never goes online by itself: no analytics, no update checks, no accounts. Your data stays in ~/Library/Application Support/Vortex and your secrets in your login keychain.
Why does macOS refuse to open Vortex?
Vortex isn't notarized by Apple, which takes a paid developer account. Open System Settings › Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway next to the message about Vortex. On macOS 14 you can also Control-click Vortex in Applications and choose Open.
How can Claude Code use a key without seeing it?
You give the key a name in Vortex. Claude Code writes {{name}} where the value goes and sends the command to Vortex through a local MCP server. Vortex runs it in your shell with the value from your keychain and takes the value back out of the output, so Claude gets the result, never the key.
Should I keep production keys in Vortex?
That's your call. The value never reaches Claude, and each key needs your OK once per session. But Claude sees what a command returns, a value encoded on purpose isn't caught in the output, and while a command runs, other programs on your Mac can see the value.
How is Vortex different from NotchNook, Boring Notch and other Dynamic Island apps?
Vortex is built around work: a shelf for builds and files, tasks from your screen, keys for Claude Code, a timer and clipboard history. It never goes online by itself, and it's open source under MIT. It has no music controls or calendar. Compare the three side by side.
How do I update Vortex?
Quit Vortex, replace it in Applications with the new version and open it the way you did the first time. Releases aren't signed with a developer account, so macOS treats each one as a new app: it asks again for Accessibility and Screen Recording, for your browsers and for Vortex's keychain items.
Can I add my own feature?
Yes. Copy Features/_Template, rename it and list it in the package and the registry. CONTRIBUTING.md walks you through it.