What is gh-notch?

MacBooks with a notch have a small cutout at the top center of the screen that most apps simply leave empty. This project, gh-notch, turns that space into a utility bar. It is a free, open-source macOS application written in Swift that places tools directly in the notch area so they do not take up screen real estate elsewhere. The main feature currently working is an AI command bar. You can type a command into the notch and the app first tries to answer it on your device, handling things like math calculations, word counts, text transformations, and date lookups without sending anything to the internet. If the command needs an AI model, it forwards the query to whichever AI endpoint you have configured, such as a locally running Ollama model or an OpenAI-compatible service using your own API key. A small icon shows whether a result came from your device or from the network. A battery indicator is also live, showing charge level, whether it is charging, and how much time remains. Features planned for future versions include media controls with album art and a live audio visualizer, a calendar showing your next event, a file shelf where you can drag files temporarily and then AirDrop them, and a replacement for the default macOS brightness and volume overlay. The app runs on macOS 14 Sonoma or later. On Macs without a physical notch, it appears as a bar at the top center of the screen instead. The project is in early alpha: the core notch panel and the two shipped features are tested in continuous integration, but most of the roadmap is still unbuilt. Unsigned builds are available for download, macOS will warn you on first launch, which you dismiss by right-clicking and choosing Open. MIT license, no telemetry.