A companion in your notch
Zera lives at the top of your Mac. Hover to open one shared island for Home, Agents, Shelf, Clipboard, Tasks, Pull requests, Reminders, Alerts, Focus and Teleprompter. The living character, native controls and shared navigation keep these everyday tools together.
- Follow Claude and Codex activity and respond to managed-session approvals.
- Keep files and clipboard history nearby, track tasks and export timesheets.
- Dictate into editable fields, run focus sessions and keep reminders close.
- Reach Settings directly and return to the screen where you left off.
App Shortcuts and Android sharing are optional additions under Settings → Extras. Both are off on a fresh install; enable only the extras you want. The notch companion and its everyday tools remain Zera’s core.
What’s new in Zera v2
Android sharing. One picture, across two screens.
▶ Play Android sharing video · 20 seconds
Open a photo in Androp, glide it off the phone’s edge, and it arrives from the matching edge of your Mac. Original files move directly over local Wi-Fi or a phone hotspot. No internet connection or cloud upload is required.
Photos and videos travel as the picture itself and open after Zera verifies and saves the original. Other files glide into the notch: Zera catches them, the themed liquid receipt fills with actual progress, and the saved original appears on your Shelf. Filename, size and errors stay readable below the hardware cutout. Zera already contains the receiver — you only need the Android companion on your phone.
Download Androp.apk · Pairing and sharing guide · Wire protocol
- Connect phone and Mac to the same trusted Wi-Fi, or connect the Mac to your phone’s hotspot.
- In Zera’s menu, open Extras → Android sharing and copy the six-digit pairing code. Enable receiving.
- Enter the code in Androp’s settings. Use discovery or enter the Mac’s local address.
- Hold a gallery tile or open a photo, then glide it off an edge. The Files tab sends documents and other originals. Share → Androp works too.
Androp’s optional background overlay supports global drags exported by the source app. Support varies by app and Android/One UI mode; an in-app Gallery drag is not always a cross-app drag. All four edges work, and direction follows your gesture. Wi-Fi does not locate your Mac’s physical position. Transfers are paired but unencrypted; use trusted local networks and keep the receiver off the public internet. Native streaming has no fixed file-size cap; disk, provider and OS limits still apply. Transfer time depends on the file and local connection.
Claude and Codex, together
Follow current work, requests, tools and results from the Agents screen. Managed sessions can accept replies and approvals; observed desktop sessions are read-only activity. Connect through your own installed tools and logins. Claude plan usage appears when you enable tracking; it is a plan reading, not a made-up task percentage.
Settle back into your work
Settings is one click from the notch hover controls. Remember Last Screen is enabled by default: returning to the notch restores your screen, filters and timesheet range, including Yesterday. Turn it off in Settings → General to use the default landing behavior. Timesheet export now stays inside the shared island, with Back to Tasks.
First-run setup guides optional Accessibility, speech and model access. Settings → Permissions & Diagnostics is the single repair area; Zera does not require Screen Recording. Murmur and Apple speech are explicit provider choices. Dictation stays bound to the original editable field and avoids secure input; unsupported or changed fields leave a recoverable transcript in Diagnostics without replacing your clipboard.
Voice, focus and everyday tools
Hold right ⌥ or ⇧ to dictate with the configured provider. Optional Murmur uses an on-device Whisper model after its one-time download. The first use asks for the relevant microphone/speech permissions. Tasks, the focus orb, commit-based timesheets, reminders, water breaks, clipboard history, now playing, weather and app-opening shortcuts round out the day. Some integrations require separate access or setup.
Optional addition: App Shortcuts
Open Settings → Extras → App Shortcuts, add an application and record the keys you want. A shortcut opens the app or activates its existing process. App choices and bindings migrate from the retired window manager; layouts, workspaces, window gestures and dock previews have been removed. App Shortcuts needs no Accessibility or Screen Recording permission.
Use a separate window manager such as OmniWM for scrolling or tiled layouts. Zera does not bundle or control it. App Shortcuts guide.
See the current app
▶ Play Android sharing · 20 seconds · ▶ Play the native walkthrough · 80 seconds · Get the Mac wallpaper
These are fresh captures from the v2 Swift UI with fictional demo data. The 80-second walkthrough has kinetic captions, smooth focus moves and an earlier window-layout demo (the window manager has since been removed). It covers every primary screen; the separate short film shows the phone-to-Mac flow. Media sources and recording steps.
Install
Mac: macOS 13 or newer, Apple silicon or Intel. Download the DMG from Releases, drag Zera to Applications, then open it. A release without Apple notarization may need System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway after the first launch attempt. Full install/update/uninstall guide.
Android: Android 8/API 26 or newer. Download Androp.apk and allow installation from your download source. The supplied companion is debug-signed for direct installation. Photo/media, optional Files access, notifications and the edge-overlay permission are explained in the app; choose the features you use.
Quit an older Zera before replacing it, then reopen the updated app. Quit standalone Androp on the Mac before enabling Zera’s receiver: only one receiver can own port 8989. Your existing pairing code is reused when available.
Setup and privacy
- Agents: use your own Claude/Codex tools and login. Installing activity hooks or starting a managed session is explicit. Observed desktop chats remain read-only.
- GitHub, calendar, weather and audio: optional integrations request their own access. Tokens are kept in macOS Keychain.
- Shelf: stores references; removing an item does not delete the original. File contents go to Claude only when you ask for analysis. Received photos, videos and plain text can open after the verified save.
- Android sharing: original bytes and preview metadata stay on the local network. Files save to
~/Downloads/Androp with collision-safe names, quarantine and byte-count/SHA-256 verification. Only the final verified result means saved.
- Voice: on-device Murmur needs a model download. Provider behavior and platform permissions are explained in Settings. Zera has no account, analytics or telemetry service.
See Security, the data map, and the sharing guide.
Build and test
git clone https://github.com/amsynist/zera.git
cd zera
./build.sh
open dist/Zera.app
swift test
swift test --package-path Packages/AndropKit
The Mac app uses Swift, AppKit/SwiftUI, Network.framework and pinned WhisperKit. VERSION defines the local release version; CI can override it with ZERA_VERSION. The build uses the project’s stable local signing identity when configured, Developer ID when explicitly supplied, and ad-hoc signing otherwise. Signing alone is not notarization.
The self-contained Android source is in android/, and the native receiver package in Packages/AndropKit. No adjacent private checkout is required to build Zera. Agent/project guide · v2 release notes.
Contributing and credits
Contributions, issues and focused pull requests are welcome. Built by amsynist, with help from contributors.
Code is MIT. Zera’s identity and original creative assets have separate terms. Film music: Sascha Ende, ende.app, CC BY 4.0; motion accents are CC0 where used. Third-party notices.
Zera is independent and is not affiliated with Anthropic, OpenAI, GitHub, Apple or Samsung. Their names and marks belong to their owners.
