What's new in v0.5.25

Ask in Slack.
Pick it up in your terminal.

Pacenote is a free Mac app. Its assistant, Pace, answers your Slack mentions with your own Claude Code or Codex login, lists what people asked of you, and hands each task, with its history, to the terminal session that does the work.

brew install --cask ashon/tap/pacenote

Read the docs

Install with Homebrew. Setup ends when Pace answers you in Slack.

Free and open source
Apple silicon, macOS 12 or later
Uses your Claude or ChatGPT plan
No telemetry

Pacenote's Todo screen: three tasks people asked of you in Slack. The open one, a PR review due Thursday, shows how a related review ended last week in Codex and what Pace answered in the same thread, with a button to continue it in Claude Code.

The ask is in Slack. The fix is in last week's session.

Work reaches you in Slack threads and gets done in Claude Code or Codex. Each keeps its own history, so you paste the thread again, explain it again, and hunt for where you stopped. Pacenote keeps each task's history together on your Mac, whichever tool did the work.

Why the name: in rallying, the co-driver reads the pace notes so the driver can keep their eyes on the road. You drive. Pace reads the notes.

AskedA Slack thread and its link
On your listCollected into Todo, with a summary
Picked upWith the thread and how related work ended
Worked onYour sessions and the branch
Wrapped upHow it ended, and a reply to send

Ask Pace in Slack

Mention @Pace in a thread. Pace reads the thread and its files, works the question out with the claude or codex CLI you are signed in to, and answers in the same thread.

Every answer keeps a record of each step Pace took, so you can check how it got there. In the built-in sandbox, Pace can answer with diagrams and charts, and add, list or close your tasks.

A run in Pacenote: the question asked in #ops, the two tool steps Pace took, and its answer naming the likely cause.

Know what you were asked, and what you promised

Press Collect now and Claude Code reads Slack through your claude.ai Slack connector, read-only. You get a list of what people asked of you and what you said you would do. Anything it is unsure about waits under Maybe, and no message becomes a task twice. Collecting is off until you turn it on.

Pick up where you left off, in either tool

Continue in Claude Code or Codex opens a terminal session that already has the task, the thread, what Pace found and how related work ended last time, even if that was in the other tool. When you finish, the task closes with a note on how it ended and, if someone is waiting, a drafted reply. You send it.

What Pace never does

Each limit is enforced in code, not left to the model. The sandbox and how it works docs show how.

Answer anyone but you. It runs on your login, so anyone else who mentions it gets a note only they can see. Teammates each run their own Pace.
Answer in private channels or DMs. It answers only in public channels it has been invited to.
Send messages for you. It replies only in the thread you asked in. Replies it drafts for your tasks are yours to send.
Change your files. On your Mac, the CLI gets read-only access to one folder you choose, never your credential folders. In the sandbox, each answer runs in a Linux VM that reaches only the domains you allow and is thrown away afterwards.
Hand your credentials to the model. Slack and hub tokens never reach the CLI. With ops tools on, SSH keys and cluster, GitHub and Jira tokens stay in a separate broker.
Open a public endpoint or phone home. It connects out to Slack over Socket Mode, so nothing on your Mac accepts connections from the internet. Besides Slack or your hub, your AI service and the ops tools you turn on, it contacts GitHub to check for updates and, when you set up the sandbox, the hosts its images are built from. There is no telemetry.
Charge you. Pacenote is free. Answers run through the official CLI on the plan you already pay for, and count toward its usage limits.

How an answer happens

You mention @Pace. The mention reaches the app on your Mac over Slack's Socket Mode, a connection your Mac opens, or through your team's hub.
Pace checks that it is you, in a public channel, then reads the thread and its files.
It runs claude or codex on your Mac with read-only access to one folder, or in a Linux VM thrown away after the answer.
It strips its own secrets from the answer, replies in the thread, and records every step.

Slack; Pace on your Mac as four layers (messenger, pipeline, reasoner, sandbox), beside the desktop app, the MCP server and ~/.pacenote; and the built-in sandbox's VMs: the renderer, and the reasoner with its two ways out, the proxy in Pace and ops-broker.

Also in Pacenote

Recap your day, week or month

A day as a standup, a week by area with what carries over, a month by where the work went. Copied as text, ready to post.
See the areas you work in

Pacenote sorts your tasks and your Claude Code and Codex sessions into the areas you contribute to. You correct what it gets wrong.
Let your AI tools look things up

Pacenote's MCP server lets Claude Code, Codex and other MCP clients read what Pace did and what is on your list. Off until you add it, in one click.

What you need

An Apple silicon Mac on macOS 12 or later. The built-in sandbox needs macOS 15.
Claude Code on a Claude Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise plan, or Codex 0.138 or later on ChatGPT Plus, Pro or Business, signed in on that Mac.
A Slack workspace where you can create an app, or your team's Pacenote hub.
For collecting tasks: Claude Code with your claude.ai account's Slack connector.

Setup ends with Pace's first answer

Install with Homebrew: brew install --cask ashon/tap/pacenote
Open Pacenote. Setup walks you through your AI service, where answers run, Slack, and a review. Stop at any step and pick it up later.
Mention @Pace in a thread. Setup is done when Pace answers you there.

To update, run brew upgrade --cask pacenote. Settings and run history stay in ~/.pacenote across upgrades.

Questions

What leaves my Mac?

The thread you ask about and its files go to the AI service you chose, Anthropic or OpenAI, through its official CLI, and the answer goes back to Slack. Local does not mean private from that service: pick a plan whose data terms fit your work. Run history, tasks and settings stay in ~/.pacenote.

How is this different from an AI assistant my company adds to Slack?

A company assistant is set up by an admin and runs under the company's account. Pace is one you set up yourself: it runs on your Mac, answers only you, and works with Claude Code or Codex on your own plan.

Do I need my Slack admin?

You need to be able to create and install an app in your workspace, and some workspaces ask an admin to approve new apps. If your team runs a Pacenote hub, you pair your Mac with it instead.

Can my teammates ask my Pace?

No. Pace answers only you. Each teammate runs their own on their own Mac and login, and a team can share one Slack app through a hub.

What does it cost?

Nothing for Pacenote. Answers use the Claude or ChatGPT plan you already have and count toward its limits. Pacenote is a personal project, open source under the Apache License 2.0 and offered as is.

Does it work on Intel Macs, Windows or Microsoft Teams?

Not today. Pacenote runs on Apple silicon Macs and works with Slack.

What is the built-in sandbox?

A Linux VM per answer, started on your Mac with Apple's Containerization framework. It has no network device of its own, reaches only the domains you allow through a proxy in Pace, and is thrown away after the answer. It needs macOS 15 or later.

Install Pacenote