Peeka

A Dynamic Island for Windows.

Peeka replaces the taskbar with a slim top strip. Music, Claude Code tasks and alerts grow out of it.

Download for Windows Star on GitHub

v0.3.5 · ~4.6 MB · Windows 10/11 · Free and open source (MIT) · Other downloads

Everything the taskbar did, and a bit more.

The island grows when something happens.

A song starts, a download finishes, a timer runs out, Claude Code asks for permission. The pill in the middle of the strip opens into a card with the controls you need, then tucks itself away.

The island expanded into a music card: album art, Night Train by Lowtide, a progress bar, previous, pause and next buttons, and the ghost humming along

Two tasks, one glance.

While a Claude Code session thinks in the island, the song you were playing waits in the small bubble beside it. One button in Settings connects Claude Code, and another removes exactly those entries.

The strip's centre reading Compass, Claude, Thinking, 00:08, with the album cover waiting in a round bubble to its right
The quick settings panel: volume and brightness sliders, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Do not disturb tiles, battery, microphone, camera and screen sharing status

Wi-Fi, sound and battery, one click away.

Quick settings drop down from the strip. Volume, brightness and radio changes show up as short island events.

Clipboard history: four image thumbnails, then a PDF, a blurred Bitwarden password, a link, a note, a video file, a color and a git command, each with how long ago it was copied

A clipboard that keeps secrets secret.

Text, images and file paths. Password-like items, like the Bitwarden row above, stay blurred until you hover, never go to plugins, and sit in a vault encrypted with Windows DPAPI.

A tiny ghost that keeps you company.

It hangs below the island and reacts to what the island is doing.

Three ghost moods: happy, low battery and asleep

And the rest of the taskbar's job.

The strip
Running apps, tray, start and search, system status. Clicking it never steals focus, and hovering an app shows a live window preview.
Notifications
An optional mirror of Windows notifications. One-time codes copy with one click.
Timer
A countdown that lives in the island.
System
CPU and memory, battery thresholds, volume and brightness as brief island events.
Downloads
A finished-download notice with names and sizes only. Files are never opened.
Setup wizard
Three steps on first launch: taskbar, notification mirror, Windows banners. Run it again any time.

See it move.

Nothing leaves your PC.

Peeka runs locally. Its only network request is one daily check for a newer version number (a plain request to GitHub that sends nothing about you; you can turn it off in Settings). No analytics, no telemetry. This page has none either.

  • Passwords stay blurred. Password rows in the clipboard stay blurred until you hover or focus them, and the real text is not in the page until then.
  • Lock and presentation modes. While locked, or while Windows is presenting, the strip and bubble show generic labels instead of content, and nothing is sent to plugins.
  • One-time codes clean up. A code copied from a notification is cleared from the clipboard after 60 seconds, unless you copied something else since.
  • Mic and camera indicator. A dot shows which apps are using the microphone or camera, read from Windows' own consent store.
  • Local listeners only. A per-user named pipe for plugins, and an optional alert API on 127.0.0.1 that is off by default and needs a per-install key.
  • Your data stays in your profile. Settings, the clipboard vault and plugin tokens live in your local app data folder.

Plugins may use their own internet connection. Peeka cannot control that, and the approval window says so.

Add your own cards.

Plugins speak JSON-RPC 2.0 over a named pipe only your user can open. They send data and Peeka draws it: no HTML, CSS or scripts from plugins, permissions you approve scope by scope, and you can disconnect a plugin at any time.

Read the plugin API SDK examples (Python, Node)
Two messages put a row with a live timer in the island
// 1. Ask for a scope. Peeka shows its own approval window.
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"hello","params":{
  "id":"com.example.focus","name":"Focus","publisher":"Example",
  "version":"1.0.0","api":1,"scopes":["island.protrusion"],
  "why":{"island.protrusion":"Show the focus timer in the island"}}}

// 2. Send data. Peeka draws the row and counts the timer.
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"method":"island.protrusion.set","params":{
  "title":"Deep work","icon":"timer","state":"info",
  "timer":{"started_at":"2026-10-18T09:00:00Z"}}}

Questions.

Windows SmartScreen warns me. Is that expected?

Yes. The exe is not code-signed yet, so SmartScreen may say "Windows protected your PC". Choose More info, then Run anyway. If you would rather not, you can build it from source.

Which Windows versions does it run on?

Windows 10 and 11. Peeka needs the WebView2 runtime, which is already part of Windows 11. Download the installer, or the portable exe if you prefer not to install anything.

How do I uninstall it?

If you connected Claude Code, press Remove in Settings first. Choose Restore taskbar (in the Start panel), quit Peeka, then uninstall it from Windows Settings → Apps (installer) or delete peeka.exe (portable). Settings, the clipboard vault and plugin tokens live in %LOCALAPPDATA%\notch; delete that folder too.

Is it really free?

Yes. The source code is MIT licensed. The ghost mascot is the one exception: its artwork is © isDionn and not covered by MIT, so forks bring their own mascot. See the mascot license.

What language is the interface?

English.

The quick settings panel next to a music card, with the ghost mascot peeking over its edge

Give your taskbar a day off.

Download for Windows Star on GitHub

v0.3.5 · ~4.6 MB · Other downloads (portable exe). Not code-signed yet, so SmartScreen may warn: choose More info, then Run anyway.