NotesBar

A unified, professional macOS utility for Obsidian and Apple Notes.

NotesBar is a high-performance macOS utility designed to seamlessly unify your personal knowledge base across Obsidian and Apple Notes. It provides instantaneous system-wide search, live markdown previews, and floating context preservation, empowering you to interact with your notes without disrupting your primary workflow.

📦 Installation

You can easily install NotesBar via Homebrew:

brew install --cask aman-senpai/apps/notesbar

🏗 Architecture

The diagram below outlines the core components and data flow within the application.

graph TD
    A[Global Search Controller] --> B[Vault Provider]
    B --> C[Obsidian Vaults]
    B --> D[Apple Notes Service]
    A --> E[Spotlight Indexer]
    A --> F[Dual-Pane Search View]
    F --> G[Markdown Preview Engine]
    G --> H[Mermaid/KaTeX Rendering]
    F --> I[Floating Window Manager]

🔄 User Workflow

NotesBar streamlines the discovery and interaction of your notes through a unified search-first model.

graph LR
    Start([Global Shortcut]) --> Search[System-Wide Search]
    Search --> Preview[Live Metadata Preview]
    Preview --> Action{Navigation}
    Action --> Floating[Floating Note Window]
    Action --> Native[Native App Handover]
    Action --> Spotlight[Spotlight Tab Search]

✨ Core Features

• Unified Search Interface A high-performance search experience that aggregates content from all Obsidian vaults and Apple Notes simultaneously.

• Global Accessibility Access your entire knowledge base from any application using a dedicated system-wide shortcut (Ctrl + N).

• Apple Notes Integration Native support for viewing and searching Apple Notes with high-fidelity Markdown previews.

• Spotlight System Integration Deep integration with macOS Spotlight, including support for specialized “Tab to Search” functionality for rapid note retrieval.

• Markdown and Diagram Rendering High-performance rendering of Markdown content, including complex Mermaid diagrams and KaTeX mathematical notation.

• Persistent Floating Windows Pin specific notes in independent, floating windows for continuous reference during complex tasks.

• Context Preservation Operates entirely from the menu bar and floating panels, ensuring your primary workspace remains undisturbed.

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Obsidian ecosystem and URI schemes
• Apple Notes framework and automation services
• Mermaid.js for diagram rendering
• KaTeX for mathematical notation support