Hi! I'm a UX/UI designer who once decided to step out of Figma and dive into the world of code. That decision led me to build Risk Radar, a risk assessment tool for Jira — despite having zero JavaScript experience. Risk Radar But during that process, I ran into an unexpected, very practical problem that sparked a second project: I needed a simple way to save, edit, and copy code snippets without cluttering my screen. That’s how PeekNote was born — a lightweight, always-on-top notes app for macOS. PeekNote The Real Problem: Where Do You Put Your Working Snippets? While building Risk Radar, I found myself copying and editing bits of code, formulas, and API calls constantly — switching between VS Code, Notion, Apple Notes, and browser tabs. It was messy and frustrating. What I really wanted was: A small, always-on-top window
A way to quickly save and reuse text or code
Something faster and lighter than Notion or Obsidian
A clean, focused design A small, always-on-top window A way to quickly save and reuse text or code Something faster and lighter than Notion or Obsidian A clean, focused design So… I built it myself. What Is PeekNote? PeekNote is a minimal notes app that stays on top of all windows — perfect for text fragments, code, or even quick thoughts. PeekNote Each tab holds a separate text block. You can add code, emojis, formulas — whatever you need to keep in sight and copy fast. It’s not trying to replace full-blown editors — just be a focused utility that’s always there when you need it. Key features: Multiple color-coded tabs for organization
Resizable text input (custom-built, since SwiftUI's TextEditor doesn't support resizing)
Clipboard paste support (from browser, IDEs, anywhere)
Font size settings
No cloud — all data is stored locally on your Mac Multiple color-coded tabs for organization Resizable text input (custom-built, since SwiftUI's TextEditor doesn't support resizing) TextEditor Clipboard paste support (from browser, IDEs, anywhere) Font size settings No cloud — all data is stored locally on your Mac locally on your Mac Back to SwiftUI (a Breath of Fresh Air) Back to SwiftUI (a Breath of Fresh Air) After working in JavaScript and Atlassian Forge, I missed the comfort of Swift and SwiftUI. (Let’s be honest — sometimes you just want things to break in familiar ways 😅). Having already built Type Switch — a macOS app for language switching — I felt at home in this environment. So while juggling Forge limitations and console.log()s, I started building PeekNote on the side using SwiftUI + a bit of AppKit, keeping it dependency-free and lightweight. Type Switch console.log() SwiftUI + a bit of AppKit Final Thoughts Final Thoughts PeekNote started as a personal experiment — just something to make my dev life a little less chaotic. Now I use it every day, whether I’m working on a macOS project or something in JavaScript. Could I live without it? Probably. But why would I want to? Sometimes, the smallest tools make the biggest difference. 👉 Want to try it out? You can download PeekNote on the Mac App Store download PeekNote on the Mac App Store download PeekNote on the Mac App Store

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How Building a Jira App Led Me to Create PeekNote — a Minimal macOS Notes Tool for Developers

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