Hi HN, I built Jot because my notes app was always one window too far away.
You select anything on your Mac and tap Shift twice. It becomes a markdown file in ~/Documents/Jot. Hold fn to dictate into any app. Ctrl+Opt+A grabs a region of the screen so you can mark it up.
Some choices:
- Plain files only. No account, no sync. Analytics are off unless you turn them on.
- Transcription runs on the Mac by default: Apple Speech on macOS 26, else NVIDIA Parakeet. Cloud providers are optional, with your own key in the Keychain.
- A CLI and an MCP server, so Claude Code, Codex or Cursor can list, search and tag your jots.
- Electron, React and TypeScript, with small Swift helpers for Apple Speech and Apple Intelligence, and the macOS Accessibility API to read the selection. Notarized, universal (Intel and Apple silicon), macOS 12+.
It's paid: a one-time license, $9 for the first 50 buyers, then $29. Every feature is free for 3 days, and there's a 7-day refund.
alt Hacker News
Hi HN, I built Jot because my notes app was always one window too far away.
You select anything on your Mac and tap Shift twice. It becomes a markdown file in ~/Documents/Jot. Hold fn to dictate into any app. Ctrl+Opt+A grabs a region of the screen so you can mark it up.
Some choices:
- Plain files only. No account, no sync. Analytics are off unless you turn them on. - Transcription runs on the Mac by default: Apple Speech on macOS 26, else NVIDIA Parakeet. Cloud providers are optional, with your own key in the Keychain. - A CLI and an MCP server, so Claude Code, Codex or Cursor can list, search and tag your jots. - Electron, React and TypeScript, with small Swift helpers for Apple Speech and Apple Intelligence, and the macOS Accessibility API to read the selection. Notarized, universal (Intel and Apple silicon), macOS 12+.
It's paid: a one-time license, $9 for the first 50 buyers, then $29. Every feature is free for 3 days, and there's a 7-day refund.
https://sayjot.xyz?ref=hn
I'd love feedback on the capture shortcut and on what you'd want agents to do with the folder.