Screen memory without screenshots, just text to Markdown
It's a macOS menu bar app that reads the text of your focused window every few seconds through the Accessibility API. No screenshots, no video, or OCR. It writes plain markdown, one file per day, into a folder you choose. Point Claude Code (or anything with file access) at the folder and ask "what did I work on Tuesday?" or have it build memory about your projects. The folder contains an AGENTS.md explaining the format to the model. Thought it might be useful for someone so chucked it up on GitHub
Screen memory without screenshots, just text to Markdown launched on August 25, 2026 with 62 votes, #592 of 23,274 launches that month and more than 95% of that year's launches.
In plain words
Ambient Context is a macOS menu bar app that passively records the text from your focused window throughout the day, converting it to plain Markdown without taking screenshots or using OCR. It stores one file per day in a folder you control, allowing AI assistants like Claude Code or Cursor to access your work history and provide better context when you ask questions about your activities. The app requires macOS 14 or later on Apple Silicon and is free and open source.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
A menu bar app that keeps a written record of what you worked on. - dragthelake/ambient-context
Does a similar job
all alternatives →
Chunk2025 · chunkapp.net · ▲298Hi HN Dudley here, tech lead on Chunk. Chunk is a macOS menu bar app for time-blocking. It opens with Cmd + / and slides down over whatever you're doing - including fullscreen apps. There's also a live countdown in the tray for the current block. Click-and-drag to create blocks, day/week views, Google/Outlook/Apple Calendar sync, Apple Reminders integration, and a Todo mode where tasks can be dragged onto the timeline. Templates and Routines let you build an ideal day once and auto-apply it on chosen weekdays. There's a local MCP server, so you can ask Claude Desktop to…
- OTOffline text extractor from screenshots in macOS2020 · ▲125
I've always had an issue with the screenshot flow on my computers. They save to the desktop by default and I can't seem to find screenshots easily when I needed it. They create too much clutter too. So I set out to solve this problem. My major concern was with privacy so I made sure to make it work entirely offline. Here's the final product, let me know what you think. - https://visionshot.app/
More dev tools this month
the category →
open-source IDE for thoughtful software design. Contribute to devdotfast/whiteboard development by creating an account on GitHub.
Dev tools · 27d ago · github.com
Contribute to reladraw/reladraw development by creating an account on GitHub.
Dev tools · 25d ago · github.com
OpenBot▲362Grok Bot alternative: free, local, open-source, multiplayer
Dev tools · 22d ago · openbot.run
Talanoa▲340Hi HN, I’m a fullstack developer, and honestly, I’ve lost count of how many side projects I’ve worked on over the years. But one idea kept coming back to me: a different kind of email client. It first came to me in 2014: “What if we could handle emails more like conversations?” Every year, I’d revisit this concept in my “Build Notes.” Ten years later, no one had built exactly what I had in mind — so I finally decided to do it myself. That’s how Talanoa was born. I wanted something focused on people, not timelines. I was tired of marking messages as unread just to remember to reply later, or…
Dev tools · 20d ago · talanoa.email
CoreSpeed▲332One MCP for everything your agents need: apps, memory, tools
Dev tools · 27d ago · corespeed.io
Source: Show HN post ↗
Launched alongside, August 2026
the whole month →- TL
Life & fun · Aug 2026 · louisabraham.github.io
Clipto MCP▲655Hey HN, We recently built Clipto. It’s a tool that lets you search over terabytes of video, audio, and images on your computer, without relying on the cloud. Motivation: we probably all had this similar experience, we know a moment exists in a video or audio, but finding it takes hours scrubbing the timeline. You can send all the media to process in the cloud, but it’s slow, expensive and raises privacy concerns. So we decided to build our own on-device media search engine. How it works (high level): 1. We ingest video, audio, image; normalize formats via ffmpeg; run content analysis to…
Work · Aug 2026 · clipto.com
Hello HN! I found that picking out plausible but diverse skin tones for my digital art and game development projects was kind of difficult, and I got curious about if there was a way to define a color space that made it easy. I've built a color picker and procedural generation algorithm based on the space as well as a bunch of other fun js features and demos throughout the page that use the equations. If you find it interesting, I have lots of explanations of how I built it and what properties the space has. The methodology might be a bit shaky, but hopefully the result is as helpful for…
Life & fun · Aug 2026 · toneyalexander.github.io
Astute▲606Automate your B2B brand going viral, with new media creators
AI · Aug 2026 · company-app.joinastute.com