Trailer alternative: CI state without the queue
Trailer is a proper open-source PR queue in your menu bar, and very good at it. Notchy takes the lighter approach — review and build state sitting on the notch, next to your AI usage and a terminal.
| Trailer | Notchy | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — MIT, open source | Free — optional donations |
| Hosts | GitHub and GitHub Enterprise | GitHub |
| Shape | A full PR and issue queue in the menu bar | Ambient PR and CI status on the notch |
| Sections, filtering, badges | Yes | No |
| CI status | Yes — optional per item | Yes — glanceable |
| AI usage & Claude Code | — | Included |
| Anything beyond git | No | 50+ tools in the same island |
From Trailer’s own repository and README, checked against Notchy’s shipping build.
For heavy review, use Trailer
Sections for Mine and Participated, filtering as you type, unread badges across repositories — if reviewing is a large part of your day, Trailer is built for that volume and Notchy is not pretending to compete.
Most of the time you want one answer
Did it go green? Is someone waiting on me? Status on the notch answers that without opening a list you then have to close again.
The rest of the build loop
An alert when the long command finishes, Claude Code approvals, and AI spend — in the same strip.
Pairing them is reasonable
They solve adjacent problems and nothing collides. Trailer when you sit down to review, Notchy for the ambient signal in between. Also worth comparing against Gitify.
Everything Notchy does, for free
- Fluid Dynamic Island animations on the Mac notch
- Command palette (⌃⌥K) — every action one keystroke away
- Knock — double-tap a modifier key to open the notch
- AI usage tracker (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Copilot)
- Detach any tab into a menu-bar popover
- Now Playing music controls (Apple Music & Spotify)
- Time-synced karaoke lyrics under the notch
- Mac clipboard history shelf (password-manager safe)
- Searchable clipboard — filter by text, file name, or OCR'd words
- On-device OCR — copy a screenshot, get its text (Apple Vision)
- Window snapping — drag a window to the notch to tile it
- App Launcher — pin apps to the notch, open with one tap
- Text snippets — TextExpander-style pastes from the ⌘K palette
- One-tap screen capture to clipboard + shelf
- Color eyedropper — sample any pixel, hex auto-copied
- System-wide mic mute for every meeting app at once
- Keystroke HUD for demos & screencasts (secure-input safe)
- Keyboard cleaning lock with countdown island (⌘⎋ unlocks)
- Menu-bar icon hiding — Bartender-style separator & chevron
- Live CPU / memory / network stats flyout
- Open GitHub PR count in the notch (Keychain-stored token)
- iPhone-style call island — Answer/Decline FaceTime on the notch
- Notch Terminal — real VT100/xterm shell in a PTY, its own tab
- Privacy Indicator — pill when any app's camera or mic goes live
- Caps Lock HUD — brief island on every toggle
- Full Charge island with adjustable threshold + low-battery sound
- Alt HUD styles — edge-pinned bar or circular gauge off the notch
- Audio-reactive Now Playing visualizer (real FFT of system audio)
- Custom closed-notch idle animation — drop in your own Lottie JSON
- Drag-and-drop file drop shelf — persists across relaunches
- Zip & unzip files right from the shelf
- Image converter (HEIC, PNG, JPEG, TIFF, PDF) + video → GIF
- Run Apple Shortcuts with one tap
- Screenshots auto-staged on the shelf, ready to drag
- Download finished alerts with Reveal in Finder
- USB drive mount island with one-tap Eject
- Apple Reminders quick capture & due list
- macOS Pomodoro notch timer & stopwatch — streaks + 7-day chart
- Resizable expanded panel (width & height, live preview)
- System HUDs (volume, brightness, battery)
- Audio output switcher (speakers, AirPods, monitor)
- AirPods connection manager & battery
- Magic Mouse, Keyboard & Trackpad battery + low-battery alerts
- Quick notes & Calendar widgets
- Camera Mirror (check your appearance)
- Keep Awake (caffeine toggle)
- Teleprompter (Cuely) for Zoom calls
- Focus-aware alerts & native haptic feedback
- Lock screen widgets & hide-the-notch mode
- 133 languages, fully localized
- Native SwiftUI, tuned for Apple Silicon
Notchy vs Trailer — FAQ
Is Trailer free?
Yes — free and open source under the MIT licence, for GitHub and GitHub Enterprise. Notchy is free too, so the choice is about the shape of the thing rather than the price.
What does Trailer do?
It manages pull requests and issues across repositories, sorted into Mine, Participated, Merged, Closed and All. Its menu bar item turns red when you have unread comments, it badges items, filters as you type, and can show labels, reviews and CI status.
What does Notchy do differently?
Notchy shows PR review and CI status ambiently on the notch — whether review is waiting on you, whether the build went green — rather than giving you a full queue to work through. It is a glance, not an inbox.
Which is better for triaging a lot of PRs?
Trailer, clearly. If you review across many repositories and need sections, filtering and per-item badges, that is what Trailer is built for and Notchy has nothing comparable.
Does Trailer support GitHub Enterprise?
Yes, GitHub and GitHub Enterprise, and there is a command line version too. Notchy tracks GitHub.
Can I run both?
Yes, and it is a sensible pairing — Trailer as the queue you open when reviewing, Notchy for ambient CI state and everything else in the notch.
Compare Notchy vs 146 Mac Apps
See how Notchy replaces dozens of single-purpose paid Mac utilities for free.