1Password
System
On screen 19 of 31 days · agents on 14
Uses
The tools, October 2026
Agents 7
Agent infra 4
Code 4
Create 6
- Audio Hijack, seen on 6 of 31 days, with a note
- Descript, seen on 4 of 31 days, on the web, at descript.com
- XLN Life, seen on 4 of 31 days, with a note
- Paprika, seen on 4 of 31 days, with a note
- Fission, seen on 3 of 31 days, with a note
- HyperFrames, seen on 1 of 31 days, a command-line tool, run by agents on 5 days, with a note
Comms 8
- Gmail, seen on 25 of 31 days, on the web, at gmail.com
- Google Drive, seen on 17 of 31 days, on the web, at drive.google.com
- Slack, seen on 14 of 31 days
- Discord, seen on 10 of 31 days, with a note
- Typefully, seen on 5 of 31 days, on the web, at typefully.com
- Google Meet, seen on 5 of 31 days, on the web, at meet.google.com
- Mimestream, seen on 4 of 31 days
- Quill, in the menu bar, around on 15 days
Notes 5
Browse 8
- Kagi, seen on 27 of 31 days, on the web, at kagi.com, with a note
- Chrome, seen on 20 of 31 days
- Zen, seen on 18 of 31 days, with a note
- Firefox, seen on 13 of 31 days
- Aside, seen on 12 of 31 days, new this month, with a note
- Linkding, seen on 11 of 31 days, self-hosted, at linkding.home, with a note
- Readwise Reader, seen on 8 of 31 days, on the web, at read.readwise.io
- Arc, seen on 7 of 31 days
Design 7
- Figma, seen on 28 of 31 days, run by agents on 7 days
- Paper, seen on 21 of 31 days, run by agents on 16 days, with a note
- Typeface, seen on 9 of 31 days
- Eagle, seen on 8 of 31 days
- Elyx, seen on 6 of 31 days, new this month, with a note
- Variant, seen on 4 of 31 days, on the web, at variant.com
- Upscayl, seen on 3 of 31 days, with a note
Utilities 9
- CleanShot X, seen on 27 of 31 days, faceless, called up by a key
- Keyboard Maestro, seen on 10 of 31 days
- Updatest, seen on 8 of 31 days
- DaisyDisk, seen on 7 of 31 days, with a note
- ForkLift, seen on 7 of 31 days
- AppCleaner, seen on 5 of 31 days
- Dato, in the menu bar, around on 17 days
- Supercharge, in the menu bar, around on 13 days
- Monologue, in the menu bar, around on 9 days
System 7
- Alfred, seen on 27 of 31 days, faceless, called up by a key
- Screens, seen on 21 of 31 days
- 1Password, seen on 19 of 31 days, faceless, called up by a key, run by agents on 14 days
- Loopback, seen on 4 of 31 days, new this month, with a note
- Tailscale, in the menu bar, around on 17 days
- SoundSource, in the menu bar, around on 7 days, new this month, with a note
- Clamshell, in the menu bar, around on 6 days, with a note
Each tool
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AgentsView
Agent infra
On screen 9 of 31 days · agents on 3
AgentsView indexes the sessions from every agent on the Mac in one place. It earns its keep on the days I remember a conversation and not which agent it happened in.
agentsview.io -
Alfred
System
On screen 27 of 31 days
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Antigravity
Agents
On screen 12 of 31 days · 10 sessions started
Antigravity is Google’s agent app, and I use it for one thing: writing with Gemini Argon, which is the best model I have found for collaborative writing and editing. I was working on a few blog posts this month, so it became the front end for that.
antigravity.google -
Antinote
Notes
On screen 25 of 31 days
-
AppCleaner
Utilities
On screen 5 of 31 days
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Arc
Browse
On screen 7 of 31 days
-
Aside
Browse · New this month
On screen 12 of 31 days
Aside is the browser I am trying now as an Arc replacement, after Zen. So far it is working. It comes with a built-in agent that I barely use, because the agents I already have can drive a browser and the rest of the computer perfectly well.
aside.com -
Audio Hijack
Create · Promoted
On screen 6 of 31 days
Audio Hijack records sound from any app or device on the Mac. I had two projects for it this month: audio for Super Kids, a game I made with my son on his sick day, and a beat that might become the theme for my friend Garett’s new podcast.
rogueamoeba.com/audiohijack -
ChatGPT
Agents
On screen 28 of 31 days · 49 sessions started
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Chrome
Browse
On screen 20 of 31 days
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Clamshell
System · Menu bar
Around 6 of 31 days
Clamshell keeps the MacBook awake with the lid closed, so agents can keep running while I move between places. It only helps if I also remember to turn on my phone’s hotspot first, which makes it a plan B for the days a long task and a departure happen at the same time.
clamshell.dev -
Claude
Agents
On screen 30 of 31 days · 279 sessions started
Claude is where most of my work happens now. Opus 5.5 became the model I reach for first, and I moved off the command line and the alternative harnesses into the apps the model makers ship themselves. The Claude app got noticeably better over the month, and remote control lets me carry on a session from my phone.
claude.ai -
CleanShot X
Utilities
On screen 27 of 31 days
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Cloudflare
Code
On screen 17 of 31 days · agents on 7
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Cursor
Agents
On screen 8 of 31 days · 3 sessions started
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DaisyDisk
Utilities · Promoted
On screen 7 of 31 days
DaisyDisk maps what is filling a disk. Mine was nearly full.
daisydiskapp.com -
Dato
Utilities · Menu bar
Around 17 of 31 days
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Descript
Create
On screen 4 of 31 days
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Devin
Agents
On screen 5 of 31 days
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Discord
Comms
On screen 10 of 31 days
Discord is mostly where conversations I am already in continue. This month I also took part in a couple of communities there, Elyx’s and Emil Kowalski’s.
discord.com -
Eagle
Design
On screen 8 of 31 days
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Elyx
Design · New this month
On screen 6 of 31 days
Elyx is a design tool that keeps screens and components as local files an agent can read and edit. I was invited to its private beta and posted a video about it to YouTube. The team was gracious about asking me to take it down, and I learned what “private” means in “private beta.”
elyx.design -
Figma
Design
On screen 28 of 31 days · agents on 7
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Firefox
Browse
On screen 13 of 31 days
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Fission
Create · Promoted
On screen 3 of 31 days
Fission is Rogue Amoeba’s audio editor, quick at trimming and joining files without re-encoding them. I used it on both of this month’s audio projects, the Super Kids game and the podcast beat.
rogueamoeba.com/fission -
ForkLift
Utilities
On screen 7 of 31 days
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Gemini
Agents
On screen 23 of 31 days
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Ghostty
Code
On screen 26 of 31 days
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GitHub
Code
On screen 28 of 31 days · agents on 26
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Gmail
Comms
On screen 25 of 31 days
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Google Drive
Comms
On screen 17 of 31 days
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Google Meet
Comms · Promoted
On screen 5 of 31 days
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Headroom
Agent infra · New this month
Around 8 of 31 days
Headroom shows my agents’ usage limits in the menu bar, the job CodexBar used to do. It looks better than CodexBar, and so far it has never locked up the Mac, which CodexBar did now and then.
headroom.zantos.co -
Hermes
Agents
On screen 22 of 31 days
Hermes is an agent from Nous Research that runs on my Mac Mini and runs the house: Docker services, the media library and Home Assistant. The Hermes app on my MacBook only connects to it, which is a much nicer way to talk to it than Discord. The Mini also picked up a small plant care app this month, built with an agent and running outside Docker for once.
hermes-agent.nousresearch.com -
HyperFrames
Create · Run by agents
Agents ran it on 5 days · on screen 1 day
HyperFrames is HeyGen’s framework for building videos out of HTML, and I mostly let agents run it. This month they were making videos for this site and for my portfolio review deck.
github.com/heygen-com/hyperframes -
iA Writer
Notes
On screen 4 of 31 days
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Kagi
Browse
On screen 27 of 31 days
Kagi is a paid search engine with no ads, and it is my default in every browser.
kagi.com -
Keyboard Maestro
Utilities
On screen 10 of 31 days
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Linkding
Browse
On screen 11 of 31 days
Linkding is a bookmark manager I run on my own server. It is open when I remember to save something or when I am hunting for something I saved.
linkding.link -
Loopback
System · New this month
On screen 4 of 31 days
Loopback creates virtual audio devices, so the sound from one app can be routed into another. It is easy to forget about until something needs it, and this month something did.
rogueamoeba.com/loopback -
Marked
Notes
On screen 6 of 31 days
Marked previews Markdown files as formatted documents, and it is a better way to read them than any editor. Its only real problem is that I forget it is installed.
marked2app.com -
Mimestream
Comms
On screen 4 of 31 days
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Monologue
Utilities · Menu bar
Around 9 of 31 days
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Obsidian
Notes
On screen 4 of 31 days
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Paper
Design
On screen 21 of 31 days · agents on 16
Paper is a design tool built on real HTML and CSS, and it is now where I start any design direction. This month that meant client work, personal projects, a few posters and some internal tools, often with an agent working in the same file.
paper.design -
Paprika
Create · Promoted
On screen 4 of 31 days
Paprika is a recipe manager. If it is open, I am cooking.
paprikaapp.com -
Plannotator
Agent infra
On screen 10 of 31 days · agents on 6
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Quill
Comms · Menu bar
Around 15 of 31 days
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Readwise Reader
Browse · Promoted
On screen 8 of 31 days
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Remarc
Agent infra · New this month
On screen 18 of 31 days · agents on 13
Remarc pins comments to whatever is on screen, a web element or a region of an app, and hands the batch to an agent over MCP. Before it, I gave design feedback by screenshotting and scribbling in CleanShot. Agentation only works in React codebases and Inflight is a paid service, so a well made Mac app that does exactly this was easy to adopt. I have already sent agents hundreds of comments through it.
remarc.app -
Screens
System
On screen 21 of 31 days
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Slack
Comms
On screen 14 of 31 days
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SoundSource
System · New this month
Around 7 of 31 days
SoundSource puts per-app volume and input and output switching in the menu bar. It used to be one of the first things I installed on a new Mac, until macOS updates kept breaking it and the system ran better without it. After a few months away I am trying it again in the hope that it has settled down.
rogueamoeba.com/soundsource -
Sublime Text
Code
On screen 22 of 31 days
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Supercharge
Utilities · Menu bar
Around 13 of 31 days
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Tailscale
System · Menu bar
Around 17 of 31 days
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Text Diff
Notes
On screen 5 of 31 days
Text Diff is one of my own small tools: paste two versions of some text and it shows what changed. I compared text a handful of times this month, and I was also reworking its interface, so some of these days are me testing it.
tools.spidleweb.net/text-diff -
Typeface
Design
On screen 9 of 31 days
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Typefully
Comms · Promoted
On screen 5 of 31 days
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Updatest
Utilities
On screen 8 of 31 days
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Upscayl
Design · Promoted
On screen 3 of 31 days
Upscayl is a free, open source app that enlarges images with AI models running on the Mac itself. I gave it a few small images that needed to be bigger, and about half came back usable, which is a fair rate for upscaling.
upscayl.org -
Variant
Design
On screen 4 of 31 days
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XLN Life
Create · Promoted
On screen 4 of 31 days
Life is XLN Audio’s app for building beats from loops. I used it to make a beat that might end up as the theme for my friend Garett’s new podcast.
xlnaudio.com -
Zen
Browse
On screen 18 of 31 days
Zen is a Firefox-based browser that I hoped would replace Arc. It never quite did, and by the end of the month I had moved the experiment to Aside.
zen-browser.app
What changed
65 tools · 6 new · 9 promoted · 6 demoted · 6 uninstalled
New this month
Software installed this month.
Promoted
Software previously installed that was on screen three or more days.
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Upscayl
On screen 3 of 31 days
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Paprika
On screen 4 of 31 days
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Readwise Reader
On screen 8 of 31 days
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Google Meet
On screen 5 of 31 days
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Typefully
On screen 5 of 31 days
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Audio Hijack
On screen 6 of 31 days
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Fission
On screen 3 of 31 days
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XLN Life
On screen 4 of 31 days
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DaisyDisk
On screen 7 of 31 days
Demoted
Software previously on the list that was now under three days of screen time.
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Screen Studio
On screen 2 of 31 days
Screen Studio makes polished screen recordings with automatic zooms. CleanShot added a Studio mode in version 5.0 that does the same, so one app now covers what used to take two.
screen.studio -
OpenCode
On screen 1 of 31 days
OpenCode is an open source coding agent you can wire to any model. It went the way of Pi and every other alternative harness I have tried, because the ChatGPT, Claude and Antigravity apps are good enough for my work. Alternative harnesses mostly gave me new ways to indulge my worst habit, which is configuration.
opencode.ai -
BetterDisplay
Around 2 of 31 days
BetterDisplay manages display resolutions and other settings macOS keeps out of reach. I replaced the trip to its menu with an Alfred workflow that switches resolution on a keyboard shortcut, Hyper and R, and now I rarely open it.
github.com/waydabber/BetterDisplay -
MarkViewer
On screen 1 of 31 days
MarkViewer did one job, opening long Markdown files that agents wrote. I used to have agent rules that sent files there, but I removed them once I moved to the agent apps, and Plannotator covers the reading now.
markviewer.app -
GenMotion
On screen 0 of 31 days
GenMotion makes video with AI. It was a brief trial, and it never cleared the bar for everyday use.
genmotion.dev
Also IconJar, with no note.
Uninstalled
On screen three or more days, then uninstalled.
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CodexBar
Around 3 of 31 days
CodexBar showed my agents’ usage limits in the menu bar until it started locking up the Mac now and then. Headroom does the same job and has not frozen anything yet.
github.com/steipete/CodexBar -
Dia
On screen 6 of 31 days
Dia is The Browser Company’s AI browser, the one it built after it stopped work on Arc. I had already left Arc, so I tried Dia because a few designers I follow on X liked some of its patterns. Extensions only work once they are pinned, which was the last of several things that did not suit me, and I uninstalled it.
diabrowser.com -
Find Any File
On screen 5 of 31 days
Find Any File searches the disk for things Spotlight will not show you. I realized the terminal does the same searches, so I uninstalled it.
findanyfile.app -
Skills Desktop
On screen 4 of 31 days
Skills Desktop syncs a library of agent skills to each agent that uses them. It is one of a few dozen apps and workflows I have tried for that job, and it outlasted most of them because the sync worked. In October I could no longer get it to sync at all, so I uninstalled it.
github.com/laststance/skills-desktop -
Soma
On screen 11 of 31 days
Soma records your calls and other audio to build what it calls a voiceprint, then coaches you to sound more confident and fluent. I never finished the voiceprint, which tells me how much I wanted one. I suspected it was slowing the Mac down, and with an interview coming up I uninstalled it rather than find out.
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tldraw
On screen 13 of 31 days
tldraw is an infinite canvas for sketching and diagrams. I drifted to Paper for most of what I used it for, and the files are awkward to open on my iPad, which limits how useful it is away from the desk. The web app might fix that, but I have not tried it yet.
tldraw.com
Most used
By days on screen.
How this is counted
These counts are compiled from a range of sources and represent which apps were frontmost on my MacBook during the month.
Only tools that appear on three or more days get a tile on the table. This includes some tools that only agents ever use. What changed also lists the ones that fell under three.
A note about my usage may accompany a tool, when merited. Usually those notes will be an explanation for why the tool rose or fell. Or it might be a tip. You’ll just have to read them to find out.