NothingHere - A MacOS panic button where one key press cleans your screen
by•
NothingHere is a macOS panic button. One hotkey, three things happen at once:
1. All windows disappear — every app gets hidden instantly
2. All sound goes silent — music, videos, everything mutes
3. A cover document opens — your pre-configured "real work" file
Your screen goes from "definitely not working" to "hard at work" in milliseconds.
Guard Mode sits in your menu bar — when armed, you're always one key press from a clean screen.
Free, open source, ~5.9 MB. macOS 15.0+.
Replies
Tessl
Ah, you've triggered some ancient memories here. We used to call these "Boss key" to hide whatever game you're playing when the manager walks into the office.
Obviously, it's less needed these days with remote working from home, a multi-tasking OS that can change apps quickly, we can all very easily switch away from "Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards" - or whatever other important non-work activity we're hiding.
Might be better making it look like a terminal running Claude or Copilot these days though :)
NothingHere
@_popey_ Oh, a fake app! Thanks for the idea — it might take some time, but we'll try adding a feature like that down the road.
So simple, so good. This would be nice for if I got one of those unlucky pops up while looking for sports streams. Nice job.
NothingHere
@andy_kimball Thank you so much! We'll keep doing more testing to make sure this little feature covers as many possible scenarios as it can. 😄
Love that it kills audio too — that's the detail most "boss key" tools miss. Alan's right though, the cover doc should probably be a terminal with Claude running these days 😄
NothingHere
@letian_wang3 Exactly, it's not just about opening a document — it can also launch a specific app. Got it, we'll give it a try! 🫡
Copperlane
Love this haha!! Can any apps (Slack, Zoom, Chrome) “unhide” themselves automatically after being hidden?
NothingHere
@brianna_lin Restoring hidden windows is a great idea — we considered that at the beginning too. But our core goal was to keep it simple, a small tool that solves one specific problem, so we held off on that feature for now.
NothingHere
🎉 v1.2 is live — built from your feedback!
Two big additions in this release:
Whitelist support — You asked, we listened. Now you can exclude specific apps from being hidden when Guard Mode activates. Keep your password manager, calendar, or any critical tool visible while everything else disappears.
Flexible cover options — The cover document now supports two modes:
📄 File mode — open any document, spreadsheet, or PDF as your cover
🖥️ App mode — launch a specific app instead (Terminal, Xcode, whatever sells your "I'm totally working" alibi)
Thanks to everyone who took the time to share feedback after launch — this release is directly shaped by your suggestions. Keep them coming!