Hamza Başaran Résumé
Brimlet app icon: a green drop hanging from a dark bar, like a notch

Brimlet

Music, a timer and your next meeting, right in your MacBook’s notch.

Brimlet turns the black strip around your MacBook’s notch into a small, quiet panel that opens when you point at it.

Download View on GitHub

Free · Open source (MIT) · macOS 14 or later · Apple silicon and Intel · Version 0.1.0

Brimlet at the notch: a track change peeks out with playback controls, the panel opens with the track, its synced lyrics, a running timer and today’s calendar, then a meeting reminder with a Join button and a notification from another app.

Music in the notch.

Point at the notch to see the track playing in the Spotify app, with its album art, a seek bar and the controls.

The open Brimlet panel hanging from the notch, on the Music tab: “Slow Tide” by Harbor Lights from Spotify, a seek bar at 01:35, previous, pause and next buttons, and synced lyrics with the current line in bold.

Peeks out, then gets out of the way.

Brimlet peeks out of the notch when the track changes, and reminds you 5 or 10 minutes before a meeting.

The small view under the notch after a track change: album art, “Slow Tide” by Harbor Lights, and previous, pause and next buttons. The small view under the notch before a meeting: “Weekly team sync” in 8 min, with a Join button.

Timer, calendar and tasks.

Turn each module on or off and change their order in Settings › Modules.

The Timer tab with a 25-minute timer running and a Pause button. The Calendar tab set to Today: “Weekly team sync” in 8 min with a Join button, then “Design review” in 2 h.

Privacy

Nothing goes to a server of ours.

Brimlet has no account and no telemetry. It makes three kinds of requests, and this is all of them.

Read the source

  • Three kinds of requests

    The album art of the current track, from the address Spotify gives for it. The lyrics of the current track from LRCLIB, only while lyrics are open: Brimlet sends the title, artist and length of the track. The latest version number from GitHub, once a day.

    You can turn the version check off in Settings › General › Check for updates automatically. An update is downloaded only when you click Download and Install.

  • Your calendar, read only

    Calendar events are read when shown and never stored or changed.

  • Stored on your Mac

    Settings, tasks and quotes are in ~/Library/Preferences/com.hamzabasaran.brimlet.plist.

    ~/Library/Application Support/Brimlet holds only the local connection for notifications from other apps.

Install

A regular Mac app in a disk image. No installer, no account.

  1. Download

    Download Brimlet.dmg from the latest release on GitHub.

  2. Drag it to Applications

    Open the disk image and drag Brimlet to Applications.

  3. Open it from Applications

    Eject the disk image, then open Brimlet from Applications, not from the disk image.

    The first time, macOS asks you to confirm

    Brimlet isn’t notarized by Apple yet, because that needs a paid developer account. So macOS holds back the first launch until you allow it. You do this once per download.

    1. macOS says it could not verify Brimlet. Click Done.
    2. Open System Settings › Privacy & Security, scroll down to “Brimlet” was blocked, click Open Anyway and confirm.

    On macOS 14 you can instead Control-click Brimlet in Applications and choose Open.

  4. Find it at the notch

    Brimlet opens at the notch and puts its icon in the menu bar.

Music and permissions

For music, install the Spotify app for Mac and click Connect to Spotify. macOS asks whether Brimlet may control Spotify; allow it. Brimlet talks to the Spotify app on your Mac, not to your Spotify account, so the web player does not work with it.

macOS asks for permission only when a feature needs it:

Permission When
Automation › Spotify You click Connect to Spotify
Calendars (full access) You turn on the calendar module
Notifications You set a reminder on a task

To start Brimlet when you log in, turn on Settings › General › Open at Login.

Using Brimlet

Everything happens at the notch and in the menu bar.

Where What happens
Point at the notch, or click it Brimlet opens
Move away, click elsewhere or press Esc Brimlet closes
The tabs at the top Switch between the modules: Music, Timer, Calendar and Tasks
The small view Shows what is going on, such as a playing track, a running timer or a meeting about to start
The menu bar icon Opens Brimlet, hides or shows it, and opens Settings

Settings

Modules
Turn music, timer, calendar and tasks on or off and change their order, track change peeks, the timer sound, the calendars to show and their reminders, and apps allowed to show notifications.
Appearance
The display Brimlet lives on, expand on hover, hide in full screen.
General
Open at login, updates and what Brimlet sends where.
Quotes
How often a quote appears, how long it stays, and your saved quotes.

Updates and help

Brimlet checks for a new version once a day. When one is out, its menu bar menu starts with Update to and the version number, and Download and Install in Settings › General verifies the disk image, opens it and quits Brimlet so you can replace the old version.

Brimlet is free and open source under the MIT license. Made by Hamza Başaran in Germany.