Small, private apps.
Each one does one job well. No accounts, no ads, no tracking.
Plainview
A Markdown reader for the Mac
Opens Markdown files in a clean, readable window, and does nothing else. Five typefaces, light and dark modes, Quick Look, live reload and PDF export.
Gaugeline
AI usage limits in your menu bar
Your Claude Code and Codex 5-hour and weekly limits in the menu bar, with reset countdowns and a pace forecast. No account, no network.
Quoth
Local voice transcription
Hold a key, speak, let go: your words appear in whatever app you're typing in. Transcribed on your Mac with Whisper. Nothing saved, nothing sent.
Staple
Substack, stapled together
Gathers the Substack essays you can read into one PDF, EPUB or HTML file for offline reading. No account, no server, no tracking.
Claude Usage Meter
Claude limits, free
Your Claude 5-hour and weekly usage in the Mac menu bar, with reset countdowns. Uses your existing Claude Code login; nothing to set up.
Lectern
A presenter view for HTML slides
Your HTML slide deck on the projector; the next slide, your speaker notes and a clock on your Mac. Works with clickers, and you can edit notes during the show.
Commonplace
Save links to Apple Notes
Save the page you're on to a note in Apple Notes, with its title, the date and your own comment. A Chrome extension with a small Mac helper. Free and open source.
Verbatim
Check quotations against sources
Finds every quotation in your manuscript and checks it, word by word, against the PDFs and EPUBs it comes from: changed words, silent omissions, wrong pages and wrong sources. No AI, nothing uploaded.
Plainread
An EPUB reader for the Mac
Opens EPUB books where they are, in a clean, readable window, with the table of contents beside them. Copy with Citation, Quick Look, cover icons in Finder, and Spotlight search inside your books.
Ibid
Check citations against the bibliography
Checks every citation in your manuscript against its bibliography, and every entry against the text: missing works, uncited entries, wrong years and misspelled authors, in the text or in footnotes. No AI, nothing uploaded.
Broadsheet
Web links, bound into a book
Drop in a pile of links and get one well-made book: a typeset PDF in two columns or one, an EPUB, or a single web page. With your own sign-ins and subscriptions; nothing uploaded.
Wordrange
Word counts the way journals count
Counts the words in a PDF or Word manuscript part by part: the main text and notes, with or without the abstract, references and appendices, as your word limit counts them. Nothing uploaded.
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