Show HN: Hot Notes – Fuzzy Search for Apple Notes (macOS)
10 comments
·April 2, 2025rafram
emadda
It is strange. That was how I created the original prototype (from the terminal).
But in order to get the "global keyboard shortcut brings the search window forward from any space" behavior, it needs to be its own app. Otherwise, it would interact strangely with your current terminal windows, as they all have the same bundle ID.
I also want it to be easily installable without any dependencies, and usable for all skill levels.
dpfu
https://github.com/emadda/hot-notes/blob/main/license.md
Proprietary software
„Hot Notes is a fully functioning, time-unlimited free trial, with the occasional message to buy a license for continued use.
You can purchase a license by clicking the About Hot Notes menu item in the app.“
rafram
I didn't realize that it was proprietary, but that still doesn't really explain bundling an entire terminal emulator for something this simple...
(license.md should include the licenses for Ghostty and fzy - both MIT. Not sure that bundling their licenses in a file within Contents/Resources/ is sufficient.)
emadda
> explain bundling an entire terminal emulator for something this simple.
- The app takes 40MB disk space, and around 80MB RAM. So quite light.
- Ghostty is fast, and is needed to render the search result list quickly. It is much lighter than a whole browser engine (Electron apps).
- I wanted a single "drag and drop" install method for all skill levels.
- The app needs its own windows and bundle ID so that the global keyboard shortcut can focus the Hot Notes window without interacting with your other terminal windows.
> Not sure that bundling their licenses in a file within Contents/Resources/ is sufficient
You can also view the MIT and other licenses in the About menu.
emadda
Hello,
This allows you to search for and open your Apple Notes.
Matching is instant, so much faster than Spotlight or the built in Notes search.
I wrote a post about some of the technical aspects here: https://madebyenzo.com/#hot-notes
And the project page is here: https://hotmatcha.dev/hot-notes/
Thanks, Enzo
null
Why is this distributed as a modified version of the Ghostty terminal emulator bundled with the `fzy` utility? That's quite strange to me. You can run Swift that interacts with Cocoa APIs from a regular command-line utility, which lets users run it from any terminal - why not just do that?