MinimalNotes

A minimal always-on-screen note app built with Electron, with Claude Code assistant.

One window, one note. It saves automatically as you type and remembers where you left it.

Features

• Auto-saves (atomic write — no data loss)
• Remembers window position and size between sessions
• "Pin" button to toggle always-on-top (persists across restarts)
• Launches at system startup automatically (hopefully)
• Note is stored as plain note.txt — readable and editable outside the app

Usage

npm install
npm start

Build

Make sure you have Node.js installed, then:

npm install
npm run build

Output goes to dist/.

Windows

• Produces a MinimalNotes Setup x.x.x.exe installer
• Requires an icon.ico file in the project root for the app icon
• If the build fails with a symlink error, enable Developer Mode: Settings → System → For developers → Developer Mode

macOS

• Produces a .dmg file
• Requires an icon.icns file in the project root for the app icon
• To build a signed app you need an Apple Developer certificate; for personal use you can skip signing

Linux

• Produces an .AppImage file
• Requires icon.png (256×256 or larger) in the project root
• Make the AppImage executable after download:

  chmod +x MinimalNotes*.AppImage
  ./MinimalNotes*.AppImage

• For autostart, the app creates ~/.config/autostart/context-note.desktop automatically on first run

Add to Startup Manually

Windows

Run this in a terminal (adjust the path if needed):

reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" /v "MinimalNotes" /t REG_SZ /d "\"C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Programs\MinimalNotes\MinimalNotes.exe\"" /f

To remove it:

reg delete "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" /v "MinimalNotes" /f

macOS

osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to make login item at end with properties {path:"/Applications/MinimalNotes.app", hidden:false}'

To remove it:

osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to delete login item "MinimalNotes"'

Linux

Create the autostart entry manually:

mkdir -p ~/.config/autostart
cat > ~/.config/autostart/minimalnotes.desktop << EOF
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=MinimalNotes
Exec=/path/to/MinimalNotes.AppImage
Hidden=false
X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true
EOF

Replace /path/to/MinimalNotes.AppImage with the actual path to your AppImage. To remove it:

rm ~/.config/autostart/minimalnotes.desktop

Files

File	Purpose
main.js	Electron main process — window, IPC, config persistence
preload.js	Secure bridge between main and renderer
index.html	The entire UI
note.txt	Your note, plain text