Papir

Papir is a fast, private scratchpad that lives in your macOS menu bar. Open it, type or paste anything, and return to your work. Your note is saved automatically and never leaves your Mac.

Features

• Instant access from the menu bar or a global keyboard shortcut
• Plain-text editing with automatic local saving
• Detachable floating panel that stays above other windows
• Configurable font, font size, and keyboard shortcut
• Optional launch at login
• Dark Mode and accessibility support
• No accounts, analytics, advertising, or network requests

Screenshots

Light Mode	Dark Mode

Requirements

• macOS 14 or later
• Apple Silicon Mac

Installation

Download the latest DMG from GitHub Releases, open it, and drag Papir.app into the Applications folder.

Papir runs only in the menu bar and does not appear in the Dock.

Current releases are unsigned. On first launch, macOS may block Papir because it cannot verify the developer. After attempting to open Papir, go to System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to Security, click Open Anyway, and confirm. Only do this when you downloaded Papir from this repository.

Usage

Click the Papir icon in the menu bar or press Control–Option–T to open the scratchpad. The same shortcut dismisses it.

Use the controls at the bottom of the scratchpad to:

• detach Papir into a floating window;
• open Settings;
• quit the app.

When detached, the keyboard shortcut shows or hides the floating window. Papir remembers its position.

The default shortcut can be changed in Settings. Notes are limited to 100,000 characters.

Privacy

Papir stores your note and preferences locally on your Mac. It does not collect data or make network requests. See the full Privacy Policy.

Development

Papir is a native macOS app built with Swift, SwiftUI, and AppKit. It has no third-party runtime dependencies.

Open Papir.xcodeproj in Xcode and run the Papir scheme on My Mac, or use the command line:

xcodebuild test \
  -project Papir.xcodeproj \
  -scheme Papir \
  -destination 'platform=macOS,arch=arm64'

The project definition is kept in project.yml and can be regenerated with XcodeGen:

xcodegen generate

Acknowledgements

Papir is inspired by Tyke, a wonderfully simple menu-bar scratchpad for macOS.