Best notch apps for Claude Code and AI agents

Vibe Island $19.99 once · free trial

Vibe Island is the most complete paid app in this category. Its site lists 30 agents, from Claude Code and Codex to Cursor, Gemini CLI, OpenCode and Copilot, all in one panel. When Claude Code asks for permission, the notch opens with Allow and Deny, and it answers Claude's multiple-choice questions and shows plans for review in Markdown. It also jumps to the right terminal across 20-plus terminal apps, tracks your usage limits and follows sessions on remote servers over SSH.

It costs $19.99 once for 1 Mac, sold as an early-bird price with 1 year of updates, and there is a free trial. Its iPhone option sends notifications through the free Bark app; in its own words, approving and answering still happen on the Mac.

Better than Crest: ten times as many agents, Cursor and Gemini CLI included, plan review, and remote sessions.
Where Crest is better: answering is free in Crest, and Crest is also your music, Shelf and clipboard in the same notch. Vibe Island does agents only.

Best for: anyone who runs several different agents and will pay once for one polished place to answer them. vibeisland.app

CodeIsland Free · open source

CodeIsland is the free answer to Vibe Island, and it holds up. It is open source under MIT, with about 2,500 stars on GitHub and a release on 24 September 2026. It covers more than 30 tools, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI and Copilot CLI among them, and lets you approve, deny or always allow a tool call and answer multi-question prompts from the notch. The app is signed and notarized.

Its free iPhone and Apple Watch app, Code Island Buddy, is on the App Store. It pairs over your local network and Bluetooth, so it is for stepping away from the desk rather than leaving the house.

Better than Crest: free, open source, far more agents, and approvals on your phone.
Where Crest is better: CodeIsland is about agents only; Crest adds Now Playing with lyrics, the Shelf, the Clipboard and window snapping in the same free tier.

Best for: the most agents for nothing. github.com/wxtsky/CodeIsland

Crest Answering free · Pro $24.99 once or $2.99 a month

Crest is a full notch app that also answers your agents. When Claude Code, Codex or GitHub Copilot CLI stops for a permission, the request lands on the notch: rest the pointer on it and the whole command, or the file and the lines it changes, unfolds under it, then Deny or Allow. A switch allows the rest of that session. Claude Code's questions come as one-question cards: tap an answer or type your own. Each agent has its own switch in Settings, Coding agents.

All of that is in the free tier, with no account and no time limit, next to Now Playing with synced lyrics, the Shelf, the Clipboard and window snapping. Crest Pro adds the Agents widget, with every running session and one click to its terminal, plus the calendar, reminders, notes, weather and more: $24.99 once with Take and Minutes, or $2.99 a month. More on how it works: Claude Code in the notch.

Strengths: free answering for the three agents it supports, the full command before you allow it, and a notch that does the rest of your day too. On a team, the owner can set never-allow and always-allow rules that every teammate's Crest applies.
Watch-outs: three agents, not thirty: no Cursor, Gemini CLI or OpenCode. No phone app. Not open source.

Best for: Claude Code, Codex or Copilot CLI users who want the notch for music and files as well, without paying to answer prompts. Download Crest Free tier, no account · 7-day Pro trial, no card · macOS 14 or later

Notchi Free · open source

Notchi puts a small pixel mascot in the notch that reacts to Claude Code and Codex as they think, work, ask and finish. It is free and open source under GPL-3.0, with about 1,000 stars on GitHub, signed and notarized. Since version 1.1.3 it answers Claude Code's permission requests and multiple-choice questions from the notch. Codex prompts are shown but not answerable there. It also tracks your daily cost and token use, and it can read the mood of your prompts if you give it an Anthropic or OpenAI key.

Better than Crest: free, open source, and more fun to look at.
Where Crest is better: Crest answers Codex and Copilot CLI prompts as well as Claude Code's, and runs on macOS 14, where Notchi needs macOS 15.

Best for: Claude Code users who want a free companion with some personality. github.com/sk-ruban/notchi

Open Island Free · open source

Open Island calls itself an open-source Vibe Island. It is free under GPL-3.0, with about 2,000 stars, signed and notarized, and lists 13 agents. Permission approvals work for Claude Code, the Claude Code forks it supports and Kimi CLI, and OpenCode gets questions too. For Gemini CLI and Grok its README says the events are observation only, and its default Codex hooks do not include approvals. It jumps back to the right tab in more than 15 terminals and editors.

Better than Crest: free, open source, and many more agents to watch.
Where Crest is better: Crest answers Codex and Copilot CLI prompts, not only shows them, and adds music, files and the clipboard.

Best for: people who want to read or change the code that sits between them and their agents. github.com/Octane0411/open-vibe-island

Pushary Isle From $9.99 a month · 3-day trial

Pushary Isle is the Mac side of Pushary, a service that sends your agents' questions to your phone. In the notch it shows sessions from Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, VS Code, OpenCode and Hermes, and you approve, deny, pick an option or type a reply, or press Control-Command-Y and Control-Command-N from any app. Walk away and the same question reaches your phone, as long as the Mac stays awake and online; answer it on one device and it closes on the others. It also has permission policies and a history of decisions.

It comes with a Pushary plan, from $9.99 a month after a 3-day trial, and needs a Pushary account.

Better than Crest: approvals on your phone from anywhere, more agents, keyboard shortcuts from any app.
Where Crest is better: no account and no subscription to answer prompts, and the notch does more than agents.

Best for: people who leave long agent runs going and want to answer from the couch or the train. pushary.com/mac-notch-app

Coucou Free · open source

Coucou is a character, Mochi, who lives in the notch and watches Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Copilot CLI and more. Claude Code permission requests come with Allow, Deny and Always, Claude's questions can be answered in the notch, and Codex gets Allow and Deny. Its code is MIT, it has about 3,800 stars on GitHub, and it is young: its first release was 27 September 2026. Its iPhone app, in TestFlight beta, syncs through your own iCloud and lets you allow a request from the Lock Screen with Face ID.

Better than Crest: free, open source, more agents, and phone approvals.
Where Crest is better: a longer track record, macOS 14 support, and a notch built around music, files and the clipboard as much as agents.

Best for: people who want free phone approvals today and do not mind a beta. github.com/Louis-CFM/coucou

Vibe Notch Free · open source

Vibe Notch, previously called Claude Island, is the minimal one: Claude Code sessions in the notch, approve or deny from there, and the chat history in Markdown. It is free under Apache-2.0, with about 2,500 stars. Its last release was 20 April 2026, and its README says it sends anonymous usage events to Mixpanel.

Better than Crest: free, open source and nothing extra.
Where Crest is better: Codex and Copilot CLI too, macOS 14 support, and no analytics service.

Best for: Claude Code alone, kept simple. github.com/farouqaldori/vibe-notch

NotchIA Free tier · agents in Pro, €2.99 a month or €24.99 once

NotchIA is the closest to Crest in spirit: a full notch app with a media player, calendar, a file Shelf, clipboard history and a Focus timer, plus live Claude Code and Codex status with token use. Its pricing page lists the Claude Code and Codex tabs under Pro, at €2.99 a month or €24.99 once. Its pages describe watching the agents, not answering them.

Better than Crest: an on-device AI news digest and a video downloader, if you want those.
Where Crest is better: Crest answers the prompts, and does it on the free tier.

Best for: people who want a notch hub and only need to see what the agents are doing. notchia.app

AgentNotch Free

AgentNotch shows Claude Code and Codex tool calls, token counts and cost estimates in the notch, fed by the agents' OpenTelemetry output, which you switch on yourself. It does not answer prompts. Its README says MIT, and its last release was 19 January 2026.

Better than Crest: live cost estimates per session.
Where Crest is better: Crest answers the prompts and sets up its own hooks.

Best for: watching what an agent spends. github.com/AppGram/agentnotch

Notchly Free · open source

Notchly is different from the rest: it is a terminal that drops down from the notch, with tabs, split panes and git checkpoints, and you run Claude Code inside it. A pill in the notch shows whether Claude is working, waiting or done, and you answer prompts in that terminal. It is a small MIT project based on Notchy, and its README says it is not code-signed, so macOS blocks it until you allow it in Privacy and Security.

Best for: people who would rather keep Claude Code itself one hover away. github.com/javierpr0/Notchly