Notch Pilot VS Deadpendency

• Creative use of MacBook notch
  Notch Pilot transforms the often-criticized MacBook notch area into a functional and interactive space, turning a design limitation into a useful feature by expanding the notch to display useful information and controls.
• Lightweight and native
  Built with Swift and SwiftUI for macOS, Notch Pilot is a native application that integrates seamlessly with the macOS ecosystem, ensuring good performance and a consistent look and feel with the operating system.
• Open source
  The project is open source and available on GitHub, allowing developers to contribute, customize, and learn from the codebase. This fosters community involvement and transparency.
• Media player integration
  Notch Pilot provides now-playing media controls and information directly in the notch area, giving users quick access to music playback without needing to switch apps or use the menu bar.
• Fun and novel user experience
  The expanding notch animation and interactive elements provide a delightful and novel user experience that makes interacting with the MacBook feel more dynamic and playful.

Possible disadvantages

• Limited to notch-equipped MacBooks
  Notch Pilot is only useful on MacBook Pro models that have a notch (2021 and later). Users with older MacBooks or external displays cannot benefit from the application's core functionality.
• Early stage project
  As a relatively new and community-driven open source project, Notch Pilot may lack polish, have bugs, or be missing features compared to more mature alternatives like NotchNook or other commercial notch utilities.
• Limited documentation
  The GitHub repository may have minimal documentation, making it harder for new users to understand all features or for developers to contribute effectively to the project.
• Potential screen real estate conflicts
  Expanding the notch area could interfere with menu bar items, status icons, or other applications that use the top portion of the screen, potentially causing usability conflicts.
• Maintenance uncertainty
  As an open source side project, there is no guarantee of long-term maintenance or updates. The project could become abandoned if the developer moves on, leaving users without support for future macOS versions.

• Automated Dependency Monitoring
  Deadpendency automatically checks your project's dependencies for signs of being dead, unmaintained, or deprecated, saving developers from manually tracking the health of each dependency.
• GitHub Integration
  Deadpendency integrates directly with GitHub as a GitHub App, making it easy to set up and run as part of your existing pull request and CI workflow without requiring additional infrastructure.
• Early Warning System
  By catching dead or unmaintained dependencies early, Deadpendency helps teams avoid security risks and technical debt that come from relying on abandoned libraries.
• Multi-Language Support
  Deadpendency supports a wide range of programming languages and package ecosystems, making it useful for polyglot projects and diverse development teams.
• Low Configuration Overhead
  The tool is designed to work out of the box with minimal configuration, allowing teams to get value quickly without spending significant time on setup and customization.

Possible disadvantages

• Limited to GitHub
  Deadpendency is primarily a GitHub App, which means teams using other platforms like GitLab or Bitbucket cannot easily use the service without switching or mirroring their repositories.
• Potential False Positives
  The tool may flag dependencies as dead or unmaintained based on activity metrics, even when a library is stable and simply mature, leading to unnecessary concern or migration efforts.
• Niche Use Case
  Dependency health checking is a relatively narrow function. Teams may prefer more comprehensive dependency management tools that also handle vulnerability scanning, license compliance, and version updates in one solution.
• Reliance on External Signals
  Deadpendency relies on external signals like repository activity and release frequency to determine dependency health, which may not always accurately reflect the true maintenance status of a project.
• Limited Community and Ecosystem
  As a relatively niche tool, Deadpendency has a smaller user community compared to alternatives like Dependabot or Renovate, which can mean fewer resources, community support, and third-party integrations.

Tracking Notch Pilot since Apr 2026.

• Deadpendency Open Sourced

  I created a tiny startup in Haskell which failed RIP. I decided to open source the code though. Source: over 3 years ago

• Twitch Streamers?

  I sometimes stream my Haskell work on deadpendency - https://www.twitch.tv/alistairbuzz. Source: over 5 years ago