Best MacBook notch apps for AI coding agents (2026)
If you want to approve permissions and answer questions from the notch, with the widest agent support, look at Vibe Island (paid) or CodeIsland (free and open source). AgentPeek and CrewTower are cheaper paid options, and Coucou is free with approvals from your phone. If you’d rather only see status, Glint and Notchcode are read-only. If you want a focus timer that shows agents during focus and hides them on breaks, that’s Meowdoro, which we make.
Disclosure. We make Meowdoro, one of the apps below. Every other app is described from its own website, GitHub repository or App Store page as we found them on October 26–27, 2026. Prices and features change quickly in this category; if something is out of date, write to meow@meowdoro.com and we’ll fix it.
- Comparison table
- Approve from the notch?
- App by app
- Vibe Island alternatives
- AgentPeek alternatives
- General notch apps
- Questions
Comparison table
| App | Price | Agents | Approve or answer from the notch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vibe Island | $19.99 one-time direct; App Store free tier and $29.99 unlock | About 30, incl. Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor | Yes |
| AgentPeek | $14.99 one-time | About 27, incl. Claude Code, Codex, Cursor | Approvals for 14 agents, replies to 22 |
| CodeIsland | Free, MIT | 30+, incl. Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor | Yes, also from an iPhone or Watch |
| Coucou | Free, MIT code | Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI and more | Yes, also from a phone |
| CrewTower | $9.99 early bird, one-time | 26; answers 6, incl. Claude Code and Codex | Yes |
| Vibe Notch | Free, Apache-2.0 | Claude Code CLI | Approve or deny |
| NotchCode (notchcode.dev) | $19.99 one-time | Claude Code, Gemini CLI, Codex | Approve or deny |
| Glint | $7 founder price (list $15), one-time | Claude Code; Codex and Kiro listed | No, read-only |
| Notchcode (open source) | Free, MIT | Claude Code, Codex CLI | No, jumps to the terminal |
| Meowdoro (ours) | Free before December 2026, then $20 one-time | Claude Code, Codex | No, by design |
Approve from the notch, or only watch?
This is the real choice, more than price. Answering a permission prompt from a small popup is fast: you stay in the app you’re in and the agent carries on. The cost is that you see less of what you approve. Hacker News commenters on an experiment in which people missed about one threat in three while approving agent commands describe approving on reflex once prompts are frequent. If you approve almost everything anyway, Claude Code’s allowlists or auto mode may serve you better than a faster button.
Read-only apps leave the decision in the agent’s own window, where you see the full command and diff, and tell you only that something is waiting. Meowdoro is in this group on purpose.
App by app
Vibe Island
The broadest of the paid apps: about 30 agents, including Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor, Copilot and Claude Desktop chats. You can allow or deny Claude Code’s permission prompts and answer its questions from the island, and since version 1.0.55 Codex questions too. It shows 5-hour and weekly limits, plays 8-bit sounds, connects to remote machines over SSH, has quiet hours that respect macOS Focus, and can alert your iPhone or Watch through the Bark app. Direct licenses are $19.99 for one Mac with a year of updates; the Mac App Store version has a free tier and a $29.99 unlock with a 7-day trial. Closed source; macOS 14 or later, Apple silicon only per its site (vibeisland.app).
AgentPeek
A one-time $14.99 app (with two- and three-Mac licenses and a 3-day trial) that lists about 27 agents. It handles approvals for 14 of them, including Claude Code and Codex, and can send replies to 22. It shows usage limits where the agent exposes them (5-hour and 7-day for Claude Code, 7-day for Codex), tokens and cost, and can also show your dev servers and saved shell commands. Closed source; macOS 14 or later on Apple silicon (agentpeek.app).
CodeIsland
The most complete free option: open source under MIT, 30+ agents, approvals and multi-question answers, opt-in usage limits, 8-bit sounds, quiet hours, SSH hosts and a free iPhone and Watch companion that can approve too. Signed and notarized; macOS 14 or later (GitHub).
Coucou
Free, MIT-licensed code with a character called Mochi (the character and sounds belong to its author). It supports Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Copilot CLI, OpenCode, Claude Desktop and more, lets you allow or deny and pick answers to questions, and can approve from an iPhone Lock Screen or an Android phone. It also shows Claude and Codex limits and comes with 28 sounds, dictation and a call note-taker. macOS 15 or later, with Windows and Linux builds (GitHub).
CrewTower
A newer paid app, $9.99 as an early-bird one-time price for one Mac. It lists 26 agents and can answer six of them, including Claude Code and Codex: allow once, for the session or always, answer questions and give plan feedback. It has a context ring with warnings, Claude and Codex limits, sounds per event and a pixel companion. Closed source; macOS 15 or later (crewtower.app).
Vibe Notch (formerly Claude Island)
Open source under Apache-2.0 and focused on Claude Code in the terminal: approve or deny from the notch, several sessions, chat history. It sends anonymous analytics through Mixpanel. macOS 15.6 or later; the last release was in April 2026 (GitHub). If you’re searching for Claude Island, this is it under its new name.
NotchCode and Notchcode
Two different products share the name. NotchCode at notchcode.dev is a closed, $19.99 one-time app for Claude Code, Gemini CLI and Codex with approve and deny; its 7-day trial needs a card. Notchcode on GitHub (billxby/notchcode) is free and MIT-licensed, shows Claude Code and Codex sessions with local token counts and a weekly budget warning, and jumps you to the waiting terminal instead of approving. It also runs on Windows.
Glint
A small read-only app, $7 as a founder price for two Macs. It’s strong on numbers: a context ring that follows Claude Code’s auto-compact gauge, 5-hour and weekly meters, tokens and cost per turn and a subagent count, in the notch, a pill or by the Dock. Claude Code is supported; Codex and Kiro are listed on the site, but its Product Hunt launch in June called Codex a roadmap item, so check before you buy for Codex. A beta; macOS 14 or later on Apple silicon (glint.binarybeam.net).
Meowdoro (ours)
A pomodoro focus timer around the notch that also shows Claude Code (in a terminal or Claude Desktop) and Codex (in a terminal or ChatGPT) sessions: working, waiting for you, finished or failed, with the question or permission it’s waiting on. A click jumps to the session. During a focus, anything that needs you slides out as one silent line; during a break, agents are hidden entirely, and one line sums up what happened when you’re back. It has a context ring per session, Codex’s 5-hour and weekly limits with a forecast, agents on remote machines through an end-to-end encrypted relay, and statistics that include breaks. It never approves anything. Free before December 2026, then a one-time $20; macOS 14 or later, Apple silicon and Intel; on Macs without a notch it’s a small bar at the top (all features).
What it doesn’t do, compared with the apps above: no approvals or replies, fewer agents (Claude Code and Codex only for now), and no phone app.
Looking for a Vibe Island alternative?
- Free, with approvals: CodeIsland (MIT, 30+ agents, phone companion) or Coucou (MIT, phone approvals).
- Cheaper paid: CrewTower ($9.99 early bird) or AgentPeek ($14.99).
- Claude Code only, open source: Vibe Notch.
- Quieter, read-only: Glint for numbers, or Meowdoro if you want it tied to a focus timer and breaks.
Looking for an AgentPeek alternative?
- More agents with approvals: Vibe Island or CodeIsland.
- Free: CodeIsland, Coucou or, for Claude Code only, Vibe Notch.
- Context and usage at a glance without approvals: Glint or Notchcode.
General notch apps, without agents
- Boring Notch: free and open source (GPL-3.0), music with a visualizer, calendar, a file shelf with AirDrop. Not notarized; installing through Homebrew avoids the Gatekeeper warning (GitHub).
- Atoll: free (GPL-3.0), media, live activities, a shelf, timers and an “LLM Usage” tab with Claude, Codex, Cursor and Gemini quotas, but no session status or approvals. Needs a MacBook with a notch (GitHub).
- Seam: $29 one-time, with music, a focus timer, voice transcription and a calendar. Its homepage lists no AI agent features as of this writing (getseam.app).
- NotchNook: a popular paid notch app with a file tray, media and widgets. Its site didn’t load when we checked, so we can’t confirm its current price.
Questions
Is there a free notch app for Claude Code?
Yes: CodeIsland, Coucou and Notchcode are MIT-licensed and support Claude Code and Codex; Vibe Notch (Apache-2.0) supports Claude Code. Meowdoro is free before December 2026.
Which notch apps support Codex?
Vibe Island, AgentPeek, CodeIsland, Coucou, CrewTower, NotchCode (notchcode.dev), Notchcode on GitHub and Meowdoro. Glint lists Codex, but check its current state.
Do these apps work on a Mac without a notch?
Some do. Meowdoro becomes a small bar at the top of the screen, and Glint has a pill mode. Atoll needs a MacBook with a notch. For the others, check their sites, especially if you work on an external display.
Can I run two notch apps at once?
They can get in each other’s way, since both draw in the same spot, and users regularly complain about it. Keeping one app at the notch is the simplest setup.
Is it safe to approve agent commands from the notch?
It’s as safe as your attention. A small popup shows less than the agent’s own window, so read the command before you allow it, and use allowlists for what you approve every time.
Sources: each app’s website, GitHub repository or App Store page as linked above, checked on October 26–27, 2026, plus the Hacker News discussion linked in the approvals section. Star counts and versions change often, so they’re left out of this page.