MacNotif

MacNotif displays short notices above other windows in a lightweight macOS heads-up display (HUD). Give a notice a title and, optionally, supporting detail. Use it from scripts or your terminal to show a brief update or keep important context visible.

Requirements

• macOS Sequoia (15) or later.
• Apple Silicon (arm64) or Intel (x86_64); Homebrew installs the native executable for your Mac.
• Xcode is not needed for the Homebrew installation. Building from source requires the Swift compiler from Xcode or its Command Line Tools.

Two independent notice lifecycles

A temporary notice expires automatically. The built-in duration is one second. A permanent notice stays until it is replaced or explicitly cleared. New notices replace only the existing notice of the same kind.

One of each kind can be visible at the same time, with the permanent notice above the temporary notice. Clearing a permanent notice does not clear a temporary one. The HUD runs in the background and hides when neither kind has an active notice.

A custom HUD, not Notification Center

MacNotif uses a custom AppKit panel with adaptive macOS HUD material and semantic system text colors. It is not a Notification Center banner: notices have no Notification Center history, Focus integration, or per-app notification delivery settings. The familiar macOS appearance does not provide those delivery features.

System accessibility preferences take precedence over visual settings. This handbook’s light/dark control changes only the website, not the HUD.

Start here

Install MacNotif, then display your first notice.

This handbook tracks the current source. Examples here use released CLI behavior; any future unreleased behavior must be labelled explicitly.