Jot
One keystroke to catch a thought before it's gone
22 followers
One keystroke to catch a thought before it's gone
22 followers
A thought hits mid-task. Press Option+Space, type it, press Command+Return, and it's saved to a searchable log on your Mac, without leaving the app you're in. On-device, no account, permission-free. macOS 14+. $4.99 one-time, no subscription. Product Hunt launch: 40% off with code PHLAUNCHJOT, limited availability.
Hi Product Hunt, I'm Arun.
I built Jot because I kept losing my best ideas in the four seconds it takes to open a notes app.
You know the moment. You're deep in something and a thought shows up: a fix you'll forget by lunch, a name you need to keep, the one good line for the email you've been avoiding. To save it you have to leave what you're doing, find the right app, and by the time you're back the thought is gone and so is your place. A dozen times a day, that's a lot of good ideas quietly lost.
Jot is the fix. Here's how it works:
Press Option+Space from any app to open a small box over your work.
Type the thought, then press Command+Return, and it's saved to a searchable log on your Mac.
The box disappears and drops you back exactly where you were.
Later, you can search all of it, click any line to copy it, or export the whole thing to Markdown.
A few things I chose on purpose:
It stays on your Mac. Captures are plain-text files you own. There's no account and nothing to sync, and it works with the wifi off.
It asks for nothing. No Accessibility prompt, no microphone, no screen recording. It runs the second you open it.
It does less than it could. It skips folders, rich text, and AI, and captures, searches, and exports well. The restraint is the whole point.
It's $4.99 one-time (Product Hunt launch: 40% off with code PHLAUNCHJOT, limited availability). No subscription, free updates, good on up to 3 Macs. It's a direct download with your license key by email.
Website: https://jot.arunbrahma.com
This reminds me of the raycast notes feature, which I love so this is perfect for anyone not using it. You mention it can be used on up to 3 macs, are you planning on allowing notes to sync, using iCloud, dropbox, onedrive etc. I also like the lift time purchase and no subscription. Best of luck with the launch.
@codeandsea Thanks, that means a lot. You've put your finger on the one deliberate tradeoff: Jot doesn't sync, and I'm keeping it that way on purpose.
The 3-Mac license just lets you run it on your own machines, so each Mac keeps its own local log rather than mirroring the others. Sync would mean either an account and a server of mine, or leaning on iCloud, and both work against the part people seem to like most here: it's a plain file on your Mac, offline, with nothing to log into.
Raycast Notes does sync across Macs and it's a great feature, but the synced, unlimited version rides on a Pro subscription, and I didn't want Jot's core to depend on a monthly fee.
How does Jot handle notes that span longer than just a quick thought, like when you accidentally paste a paragraph from something you're reading?
@diyarzeytushwa Good question. The capture box is a small multi-line text area, so pasting a paragraph works fine; it scrolls to fit and saves the whole thing as one entry with nothing trimmed. In the history list it previews the first three lines to stay scannable, but the full text is always kept, click it to copy the entire paragraph, or export for the complete content.