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v0.1.0-beta — Initial public release

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@arshawnarbabi arshawnarbabi released this 12 May 05:58
v0.1.0-beta
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LocalNotch v0.1.0-beta

First public release. Beta software — expect rough edges. Apple Silicon only, macOS 14+.

Installation

  1. Download LocalNotch.zip and unzip it
  2. Drag LocalNotch.app to your Applications folder
  3. Do not double-click. Gatekeeper will block it because the app is ad-hoc signed, not notarized:
    • macOS 14 (Sonoma): Right-click → Open → click Open
    • macOS 15 (Sequoia) / macOS 26 (Tahoe): Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → scroll to Security → click Open Anyway
    • Terminal (any version): xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/LocalNotch.app
  4. Grant Screen Recording permission when prompted (required for the screenshot/vision feature)
  5. Make sure Ollama is installed and running — LocalNotch will detect it on first launch

What's in this release

  • Notch panel — hover to expand, move away to collapse; lives entirely in the notch
  • Local AI chat — works with any model installed in Ollama
  • Vision / screenshot — tap the camera button to capture your screen and ask about it; full-screen apps supported via ScreenCaptureKit
  • Live web search — optional Brave Search API integration with a 3-layer classifier (explicit triggers → keyword detection → LLM)
  • Guided 6-step onboarding — Ollama check, name, text model, vision model, web search key, done
  • Settings — models, web search, personality (name + system prompt), about
  • Check for Updates — menu bar sparkle icon → Check for Updates… opens this page when a newer release is available
  • Liquid Glass UI — native macOS 26 Tahoe glass; frosted-glass fallback on macOS 14/15
  • Weather widget — temperature, feels-like, humidity, condition via wttr.in (Fahrenheit)

Known limitations

  • Chat history is not persisted across launches
  • Keyboard/click input is unreliable when another app is in a full-screen Space (screenshots still work)
  • Screen Recording permission re-prompts monthly on macOS 15+ for non-notarized apps
  • Response text is not selectable in this release
  • Reasoning tokens suppressed (think: false) — QwQ/DeepSeek-R1 etc. return final answer only
  • Weather is Fahrenheit only

Requirements

  • macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later
  • Apple Silicon (M1 or newer)
  • Mac with a physical notch (MacBook Pro 14"/16" 2021+, MacBook Air M2/M3/M4)
  • Ollama installed and running
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