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Repo of the Day

0xMassi/stik_app

Published: Feb 25, 2026

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Instant thought capture for macOS. One shortcut, post-it appears, type, close.

Summary

Stik is a macOS quick-capture app that opens a floating note via a global keyboard shortcut and saves everything as plain markdown in ~/Documents/Stik/. It is built with Tauri 2.0, a Rust backend, and a React 19 + TypeScript frontend, with AI features running on-device through Apple frameworks.

What it is useful for

Stik fits when you need to capture an idea in seconds without leaving the app you are already in. Pressing Cmd+Shift+S summons a post-it over your current work; closing it persists the text as a .md file — useful for engineers juggling interruptions during code review or bug triage.

Dictated capture is also supported: Cmd+Shift+V opens a post-it already listening, while Cmd+Shift+D toggles dictation into the active note. Audio is transcribed locally by WhisperKit. For text already on screen, Cmd+Shift+C appends the active selection from any standard text field (Safari, Terminal, VS Code) into a "Clips" note.

Other practical uses include pinning a note as a floating desktop sticky, encrypting sensitive notes with AES-256 and unlocking them with Touch ID, and running semantic search and folder suggestions through Apple's NaturalLanguage framework with no API keys. Notes can sync between Macs via iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Syncthing, or any folder those services already watch. Stik also imports Apple Notes directly and can push a folder to a git remote in the background.

How engineers can use it

Install on macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later by downloading the .dmg from the Releases page, or with Homebrew:

brew install --cask 0xMassi/stik/stik

Grant Accessibility permission on first launch so global shortcuts work.

Daily flow:

  • Cmd+Shift+S — capture a new note.
  • Cmd+Shift+D — dictate into the active note.
  • Cmd+Shift+C — append selected text to Clips.
  • Cmd+Shift+P — command palette for search and folders.
  • Cmd+. — zen mode.
  • Cmd+Shift+, — settings.

The editor is CodeMirror 6 in source mode with [[wiki-links]], ==highlights==, task lists, editable tables, image paste, and / slash commands. Custom templates live in Settings.

Building from source requires macOS 14+, Xcode Command Line Tools, Rust stable, Node.js 20+, and Bun 1.4.1:

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/0xMassi/stik_app.git
cd stik_app
bun install --frozen-lockfile
./scripts/build-dev.sh dev    # dev with hot reload
./scripts/build-dev.sh build  # local .app bundle

Documented limitations: Stik is macOS-only and requires Accessibility permission for global shortcuts. AI features depend on Apple's NaturalLanguage and WhisperKit, so behaviour may vary by macOS version. There is no built-in cloud account — cross-device sync relies on iCloud, Dropbox, Syncthing, or git remotes configured separately. License: MIT.