Gentra Island

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Free and open source. No account, no tracking, about 1% CPU.

Gentra Island sits at the top of your screen. On a Mac with a notch it hides inside the camera housing until something is happening, so your menus stay visible; elsewhere it floats as a small pill. Hover, click, or press ⌥⌘G (Ctrl+Alt+G on Windows and Linux) to open it. It speaks up by itself only when something is worth seeing: Claude Code waiting for your answer, a long build that finished, a call that started, or an hour without a break.

New in 1.0: Droplets. The island has a new look. A black core grows out of the notch and says the one thing that matters right now, and droplets hang under it, one per feature. Tap one and it grows into a full view. On macOS 26 the droplets are real Liquid Glass; older Macs get frosted ones, Windows and Linux solid ones.

• AI agents: see when Claude Code or Codex is working, needs you, or is done, allow or deny Claude Code's permission requests from the notch, and see how many tokens you've used today and this week
• Smart screenshots: copy the text out of any screenshot with one click, saved or copied with ⌃⇧⌘4, read on your computer
• Eyes in the notch: two glowing pixel eyes sit either side of the camera, follow your pointer, and smile when a task is done
• Download progress in the notch, with Open when it's done
• Gentle care: a warm nudge to take a break, drink water, eat, and stop when it gets late, never more than 8 a day
• Now playing for Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and more, with artwork and controls
• Clipboard history that understands what you copied, keeps secrets out of it, and cleans up after itself
• Reminders from what you copy: copy "meeting Friday at 2 pm" and it offers to remind you
• Shelf for files, focus timer, system monitor, and a safe cleaner
• For developers: see and stop local servers, get told when long commands finish
• For calls: which app has your mic, call time, mute, and a camera mirror
• Steps aside over full-screen videos and apps on a Mac, as a thin line

Screenshots

Home: the core says what matters, droplets for the rest	AI agents shows your agents and how much you've used
A peek when Claude Code needs your answer	Gentle care reminds you to stand up
Approve Claude Code's requests from the notch	Copy the text out of a screenshot
Downloads in the notch	And to drink some water
Media controls whatever is playing	Eyes beside the camera follow your pointer
Clipboard remembers and understands what you copy	Dev watches your local servers and long commands
Calls shows who has your mic	Settings: theme, accent, and how long the clipboard keeps things
System shows memory, CPU, and network	Focus counts down in the core
Shelf holds files until you drag them out	Modes pick what's on
Reminders offered when what you copy has a time in it	A reminder when it's due
Remind yourself about anything you copied	Two droplets beside the notch while music plays
Light theme

A higher-quality version of the video is in docs/screenshots/demo.mp4. For a 50-second tour of every feature, with music, watch docs/screenshots/tour.mp4.

What it does

Droplets	The look since 1.0. A black core grows from the notch and shows the one thing that matters now: an agent that needs you, a call, an agent at work, a focus session, or a download. Droplets hang under it, one per feature; tap one and it grows into a full view, tap Done or press Esc and it goes back. Liquid Glass on macOS 26 and newer. Set GENTRA_CLASSIC=1 to start the old island instead.
Home	One glance: what's playing, memory, a focus timer, what you copied last, files on your shelf, and a call if one is live.
Now playing	Music or video from Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and other players. Play, pause, skip, and drag to seek. Artwork and a level meter in two droplets beside the notch.
Clipboard	History of text, links, code, colors, and screenshots. Search, pin, filter. Press ⌥⌘V (Ctrl+Alt+V). Every image has Copy text, old ones too. It cleans up after itself: keep things 1, 7, or 30 days, or until it's full, with at most 60 images; pinned items always stay. Settings shows how much space it takes.
Reminders	Copy "rapat Jumat jam 14.00" or "meeting moved to 3 pm" and the island offers to remind you, in one click. Any clipboard item can get a reminder: in an hour, tonight, tomorrow morning, or any time. Times are understood in English and Indonesian, on your computer.
Smart paste	Decodes JWTs, timestamps, base64, JSON, URL encoding, and cron. Strips link trackers. Masks ID and card numbers on request.
Secret guard	API keys and private keys are never written to disk, shown only masked, and leave history and the clipboard after 60 seconds.
Shelf	Drop files on the island to hold them, drag them out to any app, or send them with AirDrop on macOS.
Focus	5, 15, 25, or 50 minute sessions with the countdown on the small island.
System	Memory (with real memory pressure on macOS), CPU, network, swap, and the apps using the most memory.
Cleaner	Moves safe-to-delete caches, old logs, and old installers to the Trash or Recycle Bin. Never touches documents, photos, or settings.

Modes keep it as small as you want. Compact, Everyday, Dev, Meetings, and Focus are presets; switch any feature on or off. A switched-off feature stops its background work, not just its tab.

The interface speaks eleven languages: English, Bahasa Indonesia, Español, Português, Français, Deutsch, 日本語, 한국어, 简体中文, हिन्दी, and العربية, right to left included. The nine newest were drafted with AI help and still want a native speaker's read; see docs/TRANSLATING.md to help.

System requirements

	Minimum	Recommended
macOS	macOS 11 Big Sur, Intel or Apple silicon	macOS 15 Sequoia or newer
Windows	Windows 10 version 1809, 64-bit (x64)	Windows 11
Linux	64-bit (x86_64) with WebKitGTK 4.1: Ubuntu 22.04, Debian 12, Fedora 37, Linux Mint 21, or newer	An X11 session
Memory	4 GB RAM	8 GB RAM
Disk	30 MB free

Tested so far

Being clear about what has and hasn't been tried on real machines:

System	Status
macOS 27 on Apple silicon	Used daily during development
macOS 11 to 26, Intel Macs	Builds for them; not yet run on them
Windows 10 and 11	Builds in CI; not yet run on a real machine
Linux	Builds in CI; not yet run on a real machine

If you run it on something not marked as tested, an issue saying how it went helps a lot.

Install

Get the file for your system from the latest release. No terminal needed.

macOS

1. Download the file ending in .dmg. It runs on Intel and Apple silicon Macs.
2. Open it and drag Gentra Island into Applications.
3. Open Gentra Island from Applications.
4. If the Mac says it can't check the app for malware: open System Settings, go to Privacy & Security, scroll down, and click Open Anyway. This happens once, because the app isn't notarized by Apple yet.
5. The first open can take a few minutes on some Macs while macOS checks the app, with nothing on screen yet. Wait a moment: the island then appears at the top of the screen with a short guide. There's no Dock icon; to find it again, click the G in the menu bar.

Windows

1. Download the file ending in -setup.exe.
2. Double-click it and click Install. No admin password needed.
3. If Windows shows "Windows protected your PC", click More info, then Run anyway. This happens once, because the app isn't code-signed yet.

Linux

• Any distro: download the .AppImage, right-click it, open Properties, switch on Allow executing as program, then double-click it.
• Ubuntu, Debian, Mint: download the .deb and double-click it to open it in your software center.
• Fedora, openSUSE: download the .rpm and double-click it.

To check your download, compare it with SHA256SUMS.txt on the release page. More detail, including uninstalling, is in INSTALL.md.

How to use

The basics

1. After you open it, the island sits at the top center of your screen, small. A short guide shows up the first time.
2. Hover over it, click it, or press ⌥⌘G (Ctrl+Alt+G) to open it. Move away, press Esc, or press the shortcut again to close it.
3. Tap a droplet to open its view, and Done or Esc to go back. ⌘1 to ⌘9 (Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+9) jump straight to one.
4. The Modes droplet picks which features are on. Choose Compact if you only want memory and the clipboard, or switch features one by one.
5. The Settings droplet has the theme, accent color, how long the clipboard keeps things, language, open at login, one-click updates, and About.

Everyday things

• Paste something you copied earlier: press ⌥⌘V (Ctrl+Alt+V), type to search, use the arrow keys, and press Enter to copy it back. P pins an item so it stays.
• Understand what you copied: hover a clipboard card. A JWT shows who it's for and when it expires, a timestamp shows the date, a tracking link offers a clean copy.
• Control music or a video: open Media, or use the buttons on Home. Drag the bar to jump; Space plays and pauses.
• Hold files for later: drag files onto the island. They wait on the Shelf until you drag them out to another app, or send them with AirDrop on a Mac.
• Focus for a while: on Home, click Start 25 min, or pick a length in Focus. The countdown stays on the small island.
• Free up space: open Cleaner, review what it found, and click the button to move it to the Trash. Nothing outside the safe list is touched.

Reminders

• When you copy something with a time in it, like "rapat Jumat jam 14.00" or "call at 3 pm", the island asks "Remind you Friday at 2:00 PM?". Click Remind me, or ignore it.
• For anything else you copied, hover its card in Clipboard and click the bell (or press R). Pick As written (when the text has a time), In 1 hour, Tonight, Tomorrow morning, or any date and time.
• When it's due, the island opens a little with the text: Copy again, In 10 min, or Done. Upcoming reminders are listed on Home, where you can cancel them.
• A reminder that came due while Gentra Island was closed shows as soon as it starts again.

For developers

• See and stop local servers: open Dev. Each server shows its port, folder, and how long it has run; Open opens it in your browser, Stop asks once more, then stops it.
• Get told when a long command finishes: in Dev, pick your shell, click Copy line, paste it at the end of your shell config, and open a new terminal. Commands of 10 seconds or more show up on the island when they finish.
• Watch Claude Code or Codex: open AI and click Connect next to the agent. The island explains what it will change before it does it: one small script is added to the agent's hook settings (~/.claude/settings.json or ~/.codex/hooks.json), with a backup of the file kept next to it. New sessions then report when they start working, when they need you, and when they finish. Disconnect takes the script out again.

In calls

• When an app starts using your mic, the small island shows the call time. Open Calls to see which app it is, and on a Mac, mute the mic for every app at once.
• Check camera in Calls shows a mirror before you join. If the camera is blocked, the island walks you through allowing it.

Permissions

Gentra Island asks for as little as possible. When something needs your OK, the island shows numbered steps for your system and a button that opens the right settings page.

Permission	Used for	When it's asked
Camera	The camera mirror in the Calls tab	Only when you click Check camera
Automation (macOS)	Asking your browser which tab is playing, to show a YouTube thumbnail	Only if you switch on Show thumbnails in the Media tab

Nothing else needs a permission prompt. Seeing which app uses the mic doesn't record audio, and the clipboard, shelf, and system monitor use access every app already has.

Privacy

The full Privacy Policy explains what is stored where and how to delete it. In short:

• Everything stays on your computer. No accounts, no analytics, no telemetry.
• Few network calls, each one you can turn off. Once a day it downloads latest.json from this repo's releases to see if there's a new version (turn it off in Settings, Updates); nothing about you is sent. It also reaches the network when you click a link it shows, such as opening a local server in your browser, and, only if you switch on Show thumbnails in the Media tab, to load a YouTube video's thumbnail from i.ytimg.com.
• Reminders and clipboard history are stored in your user's app data folder. Secrets are never written there. History older than you chose (30 days by default) is removed by itself, and Clear history in Settings removes it all.
• Gentle care asks the system how long since you last touched the keyboard or mouse, a single number. It never sees what you type.
• AI agents. Usage is read from the agents' own logs on your computer, and only the token counts are kept. Connecting adds a hook that tells the island the project folder name and, when an agent asks you something, its question. Your prompts, code, and logins are never read or sent.
• The mic is never opened. The meeting guard only asks the system whether an app is using it.
• The camera is on only while the mirror is visible, and nothing is recorded.
• Full-screen check (macOS). To step aside, the island asks the system where other apps' windows are. It reads only their size and position, never their titles or contents.

How light it is

Measured on a Mac with the release build:

• CPU: about 1% of one core while you work with the island closed, less when the mouse rests. While music plays, the level meter steps at 4 frames a second instead of animating continuously.
• Memory: about 160 MB in total after start-up, as Activity Monitor counts it: 30 MB for the app, 37 MB for the web view, 63 MB for the system's graphics process, and 23 MB for the now-playing helper (only while that feature is on). The web view briefly uses more while starting.
• Download: about 7 MB on macOS.
• Battery: the window never resizes, nothing animates while the island is still, and background checks slow down when nothing is changing. Features you switch off stop their work.
• Motion: droplets grow and move on the graphics chip (transform and opacity only), and the glass follows with the system's own animation on the same curve, so the page doesn't redraw every frame. WebKit's 60 fps cap is lifted, so faster screens can show more.

Known limitations

• Artwork from browsers on macOS. Since macOS 15.4, apps other than Apple's may not read what's playing; Gentra Island reads it through a small built-in osascript helper. Titles, artists, and controls work, including YouTube in Chrome, but browsers don't share their artwork. For YouTube, you can switch on Show thumbnails in the Media tab: Gentra Island then asks your browser (Chrome, Safari, Brave, Edge, Arc, Vivaldi, Opera) which tab is playing and loads the video's thumbnail. Other sites stay without artwork.
• Now playing on older macOS. The reader relies on parts of macOS that may not exist before macOS 15. On macOS 11 to 14 the Media tab may stay empty.
• Claude's plan limit isn't public. Claude Code doesn't share how much of your plan's limit is left or when it resets, so the island shows the tokens it counted, not a percentage or a time. Codex reports its limits itself, so those are exact.
• Liquid Glass needs macOS 26. Older Macs show frosted droplets, and Windows and Linux solid ones. The droplets have only been checked by eye on macOS 27 so far.
• Muting the mic from the island works on macOS only for now.
• Linux on Wayland decides window positions itself, so the island may not sit exactly at the top. X11 works fully.
• Gentle care on Linux knows when you step away on GNOME and KDE. On other desktops it can't tell, so a break only resets when you answer a reminder.
• Camera mirror on Linux depends on the system's web view and may not be available.

Build from source

Requirements: Rust, Node 20 or newer, pnpm, and the Tauri prerequisites for your system.

pnpm install
pnpm tauri dev

Build an installer for your own machine:

pnpm tauri build

Run the tests:

pnpm test:all

Work on the interface without Rust: run pnpm dev and open http://localhost:1420/preview.html. It runs the real UI with the backend mocked, plus buttons that simulate copies, calls, music, and more.

FAQ

Is it really free? Yes. Gentra Island is free and open source under the GPL-3.0. There's no paid version and nothing is locked. If you'd like to support it, there's an optional coffee link.

Do I need a MacBook with a notch? No. On a Mac with a notch it blends into the camera housing. On other Macs, and on Windows and Linux, it floats as a small pill at the top of the screen.

Is it a NotchNook or Boring Notch alternative? It covers similar ground (now playing, a file shelf, a notch that does something), and adds AI agent status, break and water reminders, clipboard history, reminders, a system monitor, developer tools, and call tools. It's free, and it also runs on Windows and Linux.

Can it tell me when Claude Code or Codex needs me? Yes. Open the AI tab and click Connect. When Claude Code asks for permission, the notch shows its question; when a task of 15 seconds or more finishes, it tells you how long it took. It also shows the tokens you've used in your latest session, today, and the last 7 days, read from the logs on your computer. Codex's own 5-hour and weekly limits show as bars.

Can I approve Claude Code's requests from the notch? Yes. Connect Claude Code in the AI tab. When it asks for permission, the notch shows the exact command with Allow, Deny, and In terminal. Only your click decides, and an unanswered request goes back to Claude Code's own prompt after 30 seconds.

Can it copy the text from a screenshot? Yes. Take a screenshot as usual and click Copy text on the island. The text is read on your computer, with no upload.

Can it remind me to take breaks and drink water? Yes, that's Gentle care. It counts real keyboard and mouse activity, so time away counts as a break. It suggests a break after about 50 minutes, water every hour and a half, lunch, dinner, and bed when it's late. Never during calls or focus sessions, and at most 8 a day.

Does it cover my menu bar? No. On a Mac with a notch, the small island stays inside the notch until something is playing or running, and then shows only small droplets beside it. You can pick Hide in notch, Compact, or Wide in Settings. Over full-screen apps on a Mac it shrinks to a thin line.

Does it slow my computer down or drain the battery? It's built to stay out of the way: about 1% CPU while you work, and nothing animates while the island is still. Features you switch off stop running. See How light it is.

Is my clipboard safe? Everything stays on your computer, and API keys and private keys are never written to disk. History cleans itself up after the time you pick in Settings. See the Privacy Policy.

Why does my Mac or Windows warn me when I first open it? The app isn't notarized or code-signed yet, which costs money for a solo, free project. INSTALL.md shows the one-time steps to open it.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome. Read CONTRIBUTING.md first, and the Code of Conduct applies everywhere in the project. Security problems go through SECURITY.md, not public issues.

Support

Gentra Island is free. If it saves you time and you'd like to buy me a coffee: paypal.me/adamfaturahman. There's also a link in Settings, under About.

Credits

Created by Adam Faturahman.

Built with Tauri. Icons by Phosphor (MIT); the Claude mark from Simple Icons (CC0). Interface fonts Figtree, Doto, and Plus Jakarta Sans for the classic island (all SIL Open Font License). Logo lettering in Marow Block by Ramandhani, converted to outlines; the font itself is not included.

License

Gentra Island is free software under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later. You may use, study, change, and share it; if you distribute a changed version, it must stay under the same license with its source available. See LICENSE.

The name "Gentra Island" and its logo are not covered by the license. See TRADEMARKS.md.

Using the app: Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, in English and Bahasa Indonesia.

Copyright © 2026 Adam Faturahman.