Margin is a native macOS menu-bar app. Press Option+Space, type a plain sentence in English or Arabic, and it becomes an Apple Reminder or Calendar event. A slim day timeline docks to the edge of your screen with a live now line. Two-way EventKit sync, no account.
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Maker
📌
Hey Product Hunt 👋
I'm Mo, a solo developer, and Margin is the app I kept wishing existed on my Mac.
The moment it really clicked for me was my manager's calendar. It is always packed, and I could never find the right time to catch him. I would open Calendar, scan his busy blocks, do the math in my head, and still guess wrong. Now I just add his shared calendar to Margin and ask it to find a time we are both free. It highlights the open slots right on my own timeline and I pick one. That small thing quietly changed how my whole day flows around the people I work with, and it is a big part of why I built this.
Everything else grew from the same wish: to plan in my own words instead of the app's.
One keystroke, your own words
Press Option+Space from anywhere and a small bar appears. Type a sentence, press Return:
• "Lunch tomorrow 12 to 1" becomes a calendar event
• "Call the office Sunday morning" becomes a reminder at 9am
• "pay rent every month on the 1st" sets the repeat
• "check the oven in 20 minutes" just works
A span of time becomes an event, a single time (or none) becomes a reminder. Most apps only recognize a few tidy date formats. Margin reads the messy, human ones, and it understands Arabic too, including everyday slang and not just the formal phrasing.
An assistant that never touches your words
When you write something it has not seen before (a typo, an unusual phrase, another language), an optional assistant quietly works out the date and time and suggests it for you to confirm. Two things I really cared about here:
• It runs on Apple Intelligence, right on your Mac, for free, and sends nothing anywhere. Prefer your own model? Add an OpenAI, Anthropic, or Gemini key instead. The direct version also lets you point it at a custom endpoint (that option is not in the App Store build).
• It only ever fills in a date or a time. It never rewrites a single word of your task. You are never left retyping.
Your whole day at the edge of the screen
The other half of Margin is a slim timeline docked to the side of your screen. It hides to a thin tab and slides out the moment you reach for it. Because it is a timeline and not a list, you see the shape of the day: the meeting running long, the free hour after lunch, the task tucked inside an event. A warm line marks now, and the ruler glows as the next task nears.
From the timeline you can:
• Drag a block to reschedule, with a magnifier for precise minutes
• Finish a meeting early and get that time back on your day
• Ask it to find a free slot ("find 30 minutes tomorrow afternoon")
• Add a colleague's shared calendar, see their busy hours as a quiet stripe, and find a time that suits you both
No account, no lock-in
Everything lives in Apple Reminders and Apple Calendar, already synced to your iPhone, and still yours if you ever walk away. No account, no sign-up, no tracking. It is a native, lightweight menu-bar app with warm light and dark themes, keyboard commands for everything, and support for a Sunday to Thursday week as naturally as Monday to Friday.
Margin is a one-time $9.99, on the Mac App Store or direct from my site (the direct version ships with built-in automatic updates).
I built this on my own and I read every piece of feedback, so if you give it a try I would genuinely love to hear what works and what does not. Thank you for taking a look 🙏
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Option+Space into plain English and it just lands on my calendar feels like the future. Timeline dock at the edge is a nice touch, though I wish it remembered my preferred width.
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Maker
@eyma72451 Thank you, that genuinely means a lot 🙏 "Feels like the future" is exactly the feeling I was chasing with the capture bar.
You're right about the width. Right now the dock is a fixed width (it only widens when you add a colleague's calendar), so a width you can set and have Margin remember is a great call, and I'm adding it to my list. In the meantime, a small tip: hovering a task expands it in place to show the full text, so nothing stays cut off. Really appreciate you trying it and taking the time to write.
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Love how frictionless the plain-sentence input is, especially the Arabic support. One thing I'd love is a quick "snooze" action on the menu bar timeline, like right-click a reminder and push it 15 minutes, an hour, or to tomorrow morning, so it stays in EventKit without needing to open Reminders.
Report
Maker
@akbeyserha38540 Thank you, that genuinely means a lot. Getting the plain-sentence input to feel effortless in both languages was the whole goal.
On languages: English and Arabic are built in with no setup, including everyday slang and nearly every way you might write a time. And if you turn on the optional assistant (free on your Mac with Apple Intelligence, or your own key), you can type in any language at all and it will still work out the date and time for you.
On the snooze idea: I love it, and it is going straight on my list. In the meantime you can already do it in a few keystrokes without leaving the timeline. Type "/m" (it completes to "move"), then the task's code, then how far to push it. For your exact three:
/m t1 in 15 min
/m t1 in an hour
/m t1 to tomorrow morning
It moves the task right there in Apple Reminders and Calendar, instantly, no need to open Reminders at all. A one-click right-click version is clearly nicer though, so it is on the list. Thanks for such a sharp suggestion.
Report
The docked timeline with the live now line is such a thoughtful touch, makes glancing at the day feel effortless instead of intrusive.
Report
Maker
@ayaz540061 Thank you. "Effortless instead of intrusive" is exactly the line I kept trying to walk. It is why the timeline tucks itself to a thin tab and only slides out when you reach for it, and why it is a timeline rather than another list to read. You should feel the shape of your day at a glance, then forget it is there. Really glad that came through.
Report
tried it for an afternoon and the option space quick add genuinely feels faster than opening reminders. love that the timeline just docks to the edge without taking over my screen.
Report
Maker
@kcibr44600 Thank you, this genuinely made my day 🙏 That was exactly the goal: faster than opening Reminders, and a timeline that stays at the edge instead of taking over your screen. "Tried it for an afternoon" is the best kind of feedback too, because it means it survived real use. If you ever hit something rough or think of a feature it's missing, I'm all ears.
Report
The option+space launcher feels instant, and adding tasks in Arabic right alongside English is a really thoughtful touch. Love that it all stays local with EventKit, no account needed.
Report
Maker
@fahri1513620 Thank you, this is lovely to read. The local, no-account part was a real principle for me: your tasks are yours, they live in Apple Reminders and Calendar, already on your iPhone, and still there if you ever stop using Margin. Nothing to sign up for, nothing to lock you in. And doing Arabic properly alongside English mattered to me personally, so it means a lot that it landed. Thanks for taking the time.
Report
The option-space shortcut hooked me right away, and typing a sentence and having it show up in Reminders feels magical. Love that it lives quietly in the menu bar without needing an account.
Report
Maker
@slaapandn3n Thank you, that is exactly the feeling I was going for. Quiet in the menu bar, one keystroke, and it just lands where it belongs. Really glad it clicked for you.
Option+Space into plain English and it just lands on my calendar feels like the future. Timeline dock at the edge is a nice touch, though I wish it remembered my preferred width.
@eyma72451 Thank you, that genuinely means a lot 🙏 "Feels like the future" is exactly the feeling I was chasing with the capture bar.
You're right about the width. Right now the dock is a fixed width (it only widens when you add a colleague's calendar), so a width you can set and have Margin remember is a great call, and I'm adding it to my list. In the meantime, a small tip: hovering a task expands it in place to show the full text, so nothing stays cut off. Really appreciate you trying it and taking the time to write.
Love how frictionless the plain-sentence input is, especially the Arabic support. One thing I'd love is a quick "snooze" action on the menu bar timeline, like right-click a reminder and push it 15 minutes, an hour, or to tomorrow morning, so it stays in EventKit without needing to open Reminders.
@akbeyserha38540 Thank you, that genuinely means a lot. Getting the plain-sentence input to feel effortless in both languages was the whole goal.
On languages: English and Arabic are built in with no setup, including everyday slang and nearly every way you might write a time. And if you turn on the optional assistant (free on your Mac with Apple Intelligence, or your own key), you can type in any language at all and it will still work out the date and time for you.
On the snooze idea: I love it, and it is going straight on my list. In the meantime you can already do it in a few keystrokes without leaving the timeline. Type "/m" (it completes to "move"), then the task's code, then how far to push it. For your exact three:
/m t1 in 15 min
/m t1 in an hour
/m t1 to tomorrow morning
It moves the task right there in Apple Reminders and Calendar, instantly, no need to open Reminders at all. A one-click right-click version is clearly nicer though, so it is on the list. Thanks for such a sharp suggestion.
The docked timeline with the live now line is such a thoughtful touch, makes glancing at the day feel effortless instead of intrusive.
@ayaz540061 Thank you. "Effortless instead of intrusive" is exactly the line I kept trying to walk. It is why the timeline tucks itself to a thin tab and only slides out when you reach for it, and why it is a timeline rather than another list to read. You should feel the shape of your day at a glance, then forget it is there. Really glad that came through.
tried it for an afternoon and the option space quick add genuinely feels faster than opening reminders. love that the timeline just docks to the edge without taking over my screen.
@kcibr44600 Thank you, this genuinely made my day 🙏 That was exactly the goal: faster than opening Reminders, and a timeline that stays at the edge instead of taking over your screen. "Tried it for an afternoon" is the best kind of feedback too, because it means it survived real use. If you ever hit something rough or think of a feature it's missing, I'm all ears.
The option+space launcher feels instant, and adding tasks in Arabic right alongside English is a really thoughtful touch. Love that it all stays local with EventKit, no account needed.
@fahri1513620 Thank you, this is lovely to read. The local, no-account part was a real principle for me: your tasks are yours, they live in Apple Reminders and Calendar, already on your iPhone, and still there if you ever stop using Margin. Nothing to sign up for, nothing to lock you in. And doing Arabic properly alongside English mattered to me personally, so it means a lot that it landed. Thanks for taking the time.
The option-space shortcut hooked me right away, and typing a sentence and having it show up in Reminders feels magical. Love that it lives quietly in the menu bar without needing an account.
@slaapandn3n Thank you, that is exactly the feeling I was going for. Quiet in the menu bar, one keystroke, and it just lands where it belongs. Really glad it clicked for you.