tinotify

Cross-platform desktop notifications via native APIs (D-Bus, UNUserNotificationCenter, Shell_NotifyIcon)

Pure Nim score 15/100 · tests present · no docs generated

Summary

Latest Version 0.1.4
License MIT
CI Status Failing
Downloads 0
Last Indexed 2026-09-05 07:26

Tags

notification desktop dbus cross-platform system

Authors

  • carlo

Installation

nimble install tinotify
choosenim install tinotify
git clone https://github.com/capocasa/tinotify

OS Compatibility

Platform Linux macOS Windows FreeBSD OpenBSD NetBSD Android iOS WASM Embedded
tinotify ✓ ✓ ✓ - - - - - - -

Dependencies

Package Version Optional
nim >= 1.6.0 No

Source

Repository https://github.com/capocasa/tinotify
Homepage https://github.com/capocasa/tinotify
Registry Source nimble_official

README

tinotify

Tiny cross-platform desktop notification library for Nim. Calls each platform's native notification API directly — no helper binaries, no external processes, no binary bloat.

Usage

import tinotify

notify("MyApp", "Title", "Body text")

notify(appName, title, body) is the entire public surface. It is always safe to call: if the platform service is unavailable it silently no-ops.

Backends

Platform Native API How it's reached
Linux D-Bus org.freedesktop.Notifications libdbus via lazy dynlib (dlopen) — the exact API notify-send wraps
macOS NSUserNotificationCenter osascript display notification (the native scripting path)
Windows Shell_NotifyIcon balloon (Action Center) shell32.dll via dynlib (already loaded)

Design notes

  • No link-time dependencies. Every backend uses dynlib pragmas, so libraries (libdbus-1.so, shell32.dll) load lazily at first call. ldd shows no hard dep; the binary weight is unchanged.
  • No shell-outs. Linux talks D-Bus directly; Windows calls Win32 directly. macOS uses osascript, which is the native AppleScript path into NSUserNotificationCenter (not a shell-out to a third-party tool).
  • Silent failure. Notifications are best-effort. A missing daemon, DND mode, or unavailable bus never raises.

macOS limitations

NSUserNotificationCenter (the API display notification uses) does not support custom icons, click handlers, or bypassing Focus/DND. Lifting those requires the modern UNUserNotificationCenter, which demands entitlements and a permission prompt — out of scope for a zero-dependency library.

License

MIT