Notchward

Notchward turns your MacBook's notch into a live control panel for your AI coding agents.

Agents like Claude Code and Codex run for minutes at a time, edit your files and execute shell commands. Notchward shows you what they are doing, lets you answer their permission prompts with one click, and stops the dangerous actions before they run.

SEE EVERY AGENT • Every running session in one place: project, current tool, files changed, commands run • A quiet dot in the notch while things are fine, a gentle alert when they are not • A "done" summary the moment a session finishes, so you stop babysitting the terminal • Token usage per session (Pro)

APPROVE IN ONE CLICK • When an agent asks for permission, the notch opens with the exact command • Allow, deny, or hand the decision back to your terminal • Denials tell the agent why, so it suggests a safer path instead of retrying (Pro)

BLOCK RISKY ACTIONS Notchward inspects every tool call before it runs, with more than 50 rules across 13 categories: • Secrets: .ssh keys, .env files, cloud credentials, Keychain reads • Data leaving your Mac: uploads, remote copies, API keys written into code • Destructive: rm -rf on your home folder, disk erases, bulk deletes • Git: force-pushes, hard resets, git clean, pushes straight to main • Remote code: curl | sh, obfuscated base64 installers, sudo • Infrastructure: terraform destroy, kubectl delete, database drops, package publishing Plus your own patterns — a production database name, a deploy script, a domain (Pro).

THREE MODES • Watch — alerts only, never pauses your agent (free) • Guard — pauses high-risk actions until you approve them (Pro) • Lockdown — blocks critical actions instantly and asks about anything risky (Pro)

PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account. No analytics. No servers. Notchward listens on a private socket inside its own sandbox — there is no network port at all — keeps everything in memory, and makes no network requests of its own. It can only touch the agent folder you pick yourself, and it keeps a backup of the file it edits.

WORKS WITH Claude Code and Codex CLI on macOS 14 or later. No notch? Notchward draws its own slim island at the top of your screen.

NOTCHWARD PRO A single purchase unlocks approvals in the notch, Guard and Lockdown modes, custom rules and token usage. No subscription, no account.

Notchward is an independent tool from AppNovex and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by the makers of the agents it supports.

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