What is Cortex Shelf?
Cortex Shelf is a layer that lives in your Mac's notch. Collapsed, it looks like the notch itself: pure black, with live states around it when something is happening. Hover or click and it opens into a panel with everything you keep reaching for.
It has no Dock icon and no main window. It is free, needs no account and sends no telemetry.
In the notch
| Section | What it does |
|---|---|
| Home | A smile that reacts, focus in one click, music, shortcuts, camera mirror and today's agenda |
| Shelf | Files you dropped on the notch, in named stacks |
| Clipboard | Encrypted history, snippets and a paste queue |
| Notes | Quick notes with markdown, checklists and backlinks |
| Screenshots | Your screenshots, with their text read on the Mac |
| Search | One palette over all of the above |
| Focus | A pomodoro timer that quiets the island |
| Music | Now playing from any player, also on the Lock Screen |
| Ports | The dev servers running on your Mac |
Around the notch, live states show calls and meetings, music, focus and, if you use Ted Agent, Ted's notices.
What it is not
AI is paused in this version: it has been taken out of the menus, search and shortcuts. Earlier data is kept.