Scratch

General settings

Scratch is meant to disappear when you don’t need it and come back the moment you do. The settings on this page tune that behavior. Everything here lives in Settings → General, in three sections: App, Window, and Buffers.

App

  • Open at login — Open Scratch when you sign in to your Mac.
  • Start hidden — Don’t show the window when Scratch opens. Use the hotkey or menu bar to bring it back. Pairs well with Open at login.
  • Show in dock — Show the Scratch icon in the dock.
  • Show in menu bar — Show the Scratch icon in the menu bar.
  • Check for updates — Look for new versions in the background. On by default. Turn off if you’d rather Scratch make no network calls on its own. You can still check by hand from Help → Check for updates….

With both Show in dock and Show in menu bar off, you can only reach Scratch with the global hotkey. The settings panel warns you when that’s the case.

Window

  • Hide when not in use — Hide Scratch when you click on another app. Off by default. Useful when you treat Scratch as a quick capture surface.
  • Keep on top — Keep Scratch in front of other apps. Off by default. A toggle for this also lives in the footer of the main window.
  • Opacity — How opaque the window is. 1.00 means solid; the slider goes down to 0.85.
  • Remember size and position — Open at the same size and place as last time. On by default. Default size when off: 720 × 560, centered.
  • Quit when window closes — When you close the window, Scratch fully quits instead of hiding. Off by default — closing leaves Scratch running so the global hotkey still works.

Buffers

  • Buffer location — Where your .md buffers are stored. Choose folder… points Scratch at any folder — put it in iCloud Drive or Dropbox to sync across machines — and offers to copy your existing buffers across (originals stay put). The row shows the current path, or buffers the default location when unset. Reveal in Finder opens the folder; Use default returns to the built-in location and appears only when a custom folder is set. If a custom folder is unreachable at launch, Scratch uses the default for that session and keeps your setting. See Backups and sync. The scratch CLI reads the same location, with SCRATCH_BUFFERS_DIR as an override.
  • Reset to defaults — Sets every option back to the way it was. Your buffers are safe.
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Settings — General with the Buffer location row, showing a chosen folder and the Use default button.

Tray menu

When Show in menu bar is on, Scratch installs an icon in the macOS menu bar.

  • Click — toggles the window (same as the global hotkey).
  • Right-click — opens a small menu with Show Scratch, Settings, and Quit.

Summon hotkey

The global hotkey is registered system-wide. The default is ⌥ Space; change it in Settings → Shortcuts.

If you set a hotkey that another app already uses, Scratch refuses to bind and shows an inline error. Pick a different combination, or quit the conflicting app and try again.