01
No Xcode, on purpose
The whole app builds with swift build and a shell script that assembles and ad-hoc signs the .app bundle — which meant learning exactly what Xcode does for you, then doing it by hand.
Case study · 2026 · Personal daily driver
NotchPal
A macOS notch companion in Swift/SwiftUI — Now Playing, a file shelf, a mirror, and a system HUD living around the MacBook notch. Built without Xcode.
Role
Solo developer
Type
macOS app · Swift & SwiftUI
Year
2026
Links
SwiftSwiftUIAppKitCoreAudioIOKitAVFoundationMediaRemote
01 / 03
Expanded notch shelf — Now Playing, files, and quick tools
Overview
The MacBook notch is dead space with prime real estate. NotchPal turns it into a control surface: hover and it blooms into a panel with Now Playing controls, a drag-and-drop file shelf, a camera mirror, timers with a countdown ring traced around the notch itself — plus a battery readout in the corner.
It's also a systems project: no Xcode (Swift Package Manager and command-line tools only), private-framework spelunking for media metadata, and an NSPanel that has to live where AppKit insists windows can't.
0
Xcode involved
3
Tabs — Home, Shelf, Mirror
26px
HUD that grows below the notch
100%
Swift + SwiftUI
The problem
Apps like NotchNook proved the notch can be useful — but I wanted mine: my animations, my features, my rules, and a codebase I understand down to the window server.
The hard parts are all systems problems. macOS 15.4+ returns empty Now Playing data to third-party binaries; AppKit actively pushes windows out of the menu-bar zone; and the volume HUD needed to appear without any of the permissions a global event tap requires.
What I built
A borderless panel over the notch, and everything that lives inside it:
Now Playing
♪Artwork, controls, progress — via a MediaRemote helper, with AppleScript fallback for Music/Spotify
Shelf & Mirror
2A drag-and-drop file tray that follows you between apps, and a camera mirror tab
System HUD
26pxVolume and brightness changes stretch the notch downward with an animated level bar
Timer & widgets
◔A countdown ring traced around the notch silhouette, presets, and a battery badge in the corner
The systems work
Beating the MediaRemote lockout
macOS 15.4+ answers MediaRemote queries only for Apple-signed processes — so a helper runs via /usr/bin/swift (an Apple-signed interpreter), streams now-playing JSON over stdout, and takes play/pause commands on stdin.
A window where windows can't go
The panel overrides constrainFrameRect to defeat AppKit's menu-bar eviction, and sets its level above the main menu — ordered carefully, because isFloatingPanel silently resets window level.
Volume HUD with zero permissions
A CoreAudio property listener on the default output device catches every volume/mute change — no event tap, no Accessibility prompt — and brightness polls a private DisplayServices getter that fails silently if Apple removes it.
Choreographed, not just animated
Open: window grows silently, then the shape springs into it, then content fades in. Close: exact reverse. Resizing and animating in the same pass makes SwiftUI pop instead of spring — sequencing is the feature.
Technical challenges
02
Windows that resize without flinching
The collapsed pill grows wings for media, stretches down for the HUD, and blooms into a panel — each needs the NSWindow resized at the right moment relative to the SwiftUI animation, or the whole illusion collapses.
03
Graceful private-API failure
MediaRemote and DisplayServices are private frameworks that can vanish any release. Every private call sits behind a fallback (AppleScript polling, feature disabling) so the app degrades instead of crashing.
Outcome
NotchPal runs on my Mac every day — music control, file shelf, volume HUD, and timers all living in the notch, with the exact feel I wanted because every spring constant is mine.
It's the project that took me from web developer to systems developer: window servers, CoreAudio listeners, process signing, and the discipline of building against APIs that owe you nothing.
What's next
Clipboard history tabCalendar peekPublic beta build