Building StickyShell: A Desktop Sticky Note That Runs Shell Commands

RadnusD — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 07:29:22 +0000

Have you ever found yourself juggling terminal commands, curl one-liners, Docker snippets, and diagnostic scripts across ten different browser tabs, text files, and sticky notes?

I kept running into this issue during daily development. Traditional sticky notes are great for quick thoughts, but useless when you actually want to run a command. Full IDEs and terminals are powerful, but too heavy for quick throwaway scratchpads.

To bridge this gap, I built StickyShell Home — a lightweight cross-platform desktop sticky note that doubles as an instant executable shell scratchpad.

What Makes It Different?

1. Dual Execution Modes

Inline Capture Mode (Ctrl + Enter): Runs the command in the background and renders stdout and stderr directly into a slide-out drawer with a 1-click copy button.
External System Console (Ctrl + Shift + Enter): Spawns an interactive terminal window for interactive workflows.

2. Persistent Accidental Delete Recovery (Ctrl + Z)

Ever closed a sticky note and immediately lost that important snippet? StickyShell maintains an active undo stack that persists even across full application restarts. Pressing Ctrl + Z brings back your deleted note.

3. LaTeX Math & Markdown Checklists

Write formatted notes, task checklists, and complex mathematical formulas with built-in instant KaTeX rendering.

4. 100% Offline & Private

Zero accounts, zero telemetry, zero remote tracking.
All notes and configurations are stored purely on your local hard drive in clean JSON files.

Tech Stack & Architecture

Backend: Built with Rust and Tauri v2 for sub-millisecond startup times, minimal memory consumption, and a tiny installer size (~3.2 MB).
Frontend: Clean vanilla JavaScript and hardened Content Security Policy (CSP).

Getting Started & Downloads

You can install StickyShell on Windows via the Windows Package Manager:

winget install StickyShell

Cross-platform binaries are also available for Windows (.exe / .msi), macOS (.dmg), and Linux (.AppImage / .deb / .rpm):

GitHub Repository & Releases: https://github.com/RadnusD/stickyshell-home
Project Landing Page: https://RadnusD.github.io/stickyshell-home/

I'd love to hear your feedback, thoughts, and ideas for what tools or features you would like to see in future updates!

DEV Community: RadnusD