Porchlight Tell me when it’s out

A Mac app by nicoleslittlebrother

Everything your app depends on, kept an eye on.

Every status page, release and date your app depends on, judged against what it actually uses. Only what’s yours interrupts you.

Tell me when it’s out

With Apple for review since 28 Oct

Watch one app free. Pay once to watch them all. macOS 26 or later

FieldnoteThe last 8 days, judged against Fieldnote

Wed 21 Oct · Apple Developer · App Store - Sandbox: Outage

Might haveFieldnote uses purchase tests; nothing on your side to say either way.

Four vendor incidents that week, and three had nothing to do with Fieldnote. A vendor’s bad day that didn’t touch you is a normal day.

The problem

A dozen services. A dozen status pages.

Your app relies on hosting, a database, payments, an AI model, mail and the App Store. Each has its own status page and its own changelog, and most of what they say has nothing to do with you.

Only what’s yours

Only what’s yours interrupts you.

Every outage is checked against the parts of a service your app uses, the regions it runs in and the models it calls. Each one is affecting you, might have, or not you, always with the reason.

One sentence first

Then it says how things are.

Porchlight opens on one sentence, then the detail. What wasn’t yours stays in History, with its reason, in case you want to look.

The sample week · 20–28 October

Five vendor incidents.

One thing needs you this week: Tessera was affected by Anthropic.

  1. AnthropicTue 27 Oct

    Elevated errors for Claude Sonnet 5.5

    Affecting youTessera · Your summaries check failed 12 times

  2. GitHubTue 27 Oct

    Elevated 404s for GitHub App s2s tokens in git/API

    Not youNorthwind · Only Git Operations and API Requests, which Northwind doesn’t use

  3. GitHubMon 26 Oct

    Incident with Actions, Issues, API Requests and Pull Requests

    Not youNorthwind · No workflow runs then

  4. Apple DeveloperWed 21 Oct

    App Store - Sandbox: Outage

    Might haveFieldnote · Fieldnote uses purchase tests; nothing on your side to say either way

  5. Google CloudTue 20 Oct

    Multiple services were experiencing issues in the europe-west2 region.

    Not youLumen Photo · Only in europe-west2; Lumen Photo runs in europe-west1

Every “not you” says why.

  • Anthropic · Elevated errors for Claude Sonnet 5.5

    Not you

    Your app calls Opus 5.5

  • Google Cloud · europe-west2

    Not you

    Only in europe-west2; Lumen Photo runs in europe-west1

  • Anthropic · claude.ai

    Not you

    Only claude.ai, which Tessera doesn’t use

  • GitHub · Actions

    Not you

    No workflow runs then

Releases

Know a release breaks you before you upgrade.

Porchlight reads every release of the libraries your app uses, from your version to the latest. A breaking line is quoted word for word, with the file and line where your code meets it. It never guesses.

Breaks you
A breaking line quoted word for word from the release, and the file and line in your code that meets it.
Needs a look
A major version, or a breaking line quoted with no match in your code.
Doesn’t touch you
Read, and nothing in it meets your code. It says why.
Breaks you

stripe 22.6.2 → 23.0.1

Tessera · every release between your version and the latest, read (2)

The line that matters, quoted

Removed the function Stripe.constructEventWithoutVerification() that was mistakenly added in version 22.5.0 of this package.

Found word for word in stripe v23.0.0 · 30 Sep

Where your code meets it

src/routes/webhooks.ts

9const event = env.LOCAL

10? Stripe.constructEventWithoutVerification(payload)

11: stripe.webhooks.constructEvent(payload, req.headers.get('stripe-signature')!, env.WEBHOOK_SECRET)

Summary · written on this Mac from the quote above

Stripe.constructEventWithoutVerification was removed as it was mistakenly added.

Read the 23.0.0 notes

Calendar

One calendar for the dates that break things.

AI model retirements for the exact models your code names, runtime end of life, certificates, domain renewals and Apple’s upcoming requirements, a year ahead. Warnings come at 30 days, and a notification only within 7.

Three dates in the year ahead. The next is 14 Jan 2027.

3 need you at some point · 1 date is missing

Needs you, in order

  1. 14 Jan 2027

    Northwind: gpt-4o retires on 14 Jan 2027.

    app/search/rank.py:31 · replacement: gpt-6-luna

    in 2 months
  2. 30 Apr 2027

    Tessera and Lumen Photo: Node.js 22 reaches end of life on 30 Apr 2027.

    .nvmrc:1 and 1 more

    in 6 months
  3. 19 May 2027

    Lumen Photo: gemini-3.5-flash retires on or after 19 May 2027.

    server/captions.mjs:9

    in 6 months

Missing

  1. No date

    Apple Developer Program renewal

    Needs App Store Connect

Customer notices

Tell your customers in one click.

When an outage is affecting your app, the notice is drafted in plain words: what doesn’t work, what still does. You post it to your status page, save it as a banner, or copy it. The all-clear is drafted when the vendor resolves it.

Nothing is posted until you press the button.

The all-clear

Drafted on this Mac

Tessera is working normally again

Summaries and everything else in Tessera work as usual again. Thank you for your patience.

Plain words, no blame, no promised times. Nothing is posted until you press the button.

Quiet is the point

Nothing needs you.

A designed state, not an empty one. One sentence on opening, a strip for each app’s last eight days, and a menu bar glyph that only shows a number when something is yours. Porchlight will tap you on the shoulder when something of yours changes. Until then, it stays quiet.

After sleepYour Mac slept for 7 h 12 min. Caught up: nothing new needs you.

OfflineNo connection. Showing what was true at 14:52. Nothing here turns amber because of it.

It watches while your Mac is awake, and says so. It taps you on the shoulder only for something affecting your app now, or a date within 7 days.

Connections

Connections, if you want them.

Every status page, release and date is read without an account. A read-only token makes the verdicts sharper, and it stays in your Keychain.

  • GitHub

    Fine-grained token · read-only · Actions and Metadata

    Porchlight reads when your workflows ran, so an Actions outage can be checked against your runs.

  • Stripe

    Restricted key · Balance: Read only

    Porchlight checks the API itself every 5 minutes, often before the status page says anything. It can’t see customers or payouts.

  • Atlassian Statuspage

    Your page · used on your press

    Used only when you press Post on a drafted notice.

Every connection is read-only, except posting a notice you’ve pressed Post on. Porchlight never deploys or changes anything for you.

What it reads, without one.

56 vendors, and 28 of their products by name, like Cloud Run, App Store Sandbox and GitHub Actions. Each one’s own status page, release notes and deprecation dates.

Cloud
Google Cloud · Firebase · AWS · Azure
Hosting
Cloudflare · Vercel · Netlify · Fly.io · Render · Heroku · DigitalOcean · GitHub Pages
Data
Supabase · MongoDB Atlas · Upstash · PlanetScale · Neon
AI
Anthropic · OpenAI · Gemini API · ElevenLabs
Payments
Stripe · RevenueCat · Shopify
App stores
Apple Developer
Mail
Google Workspace · Microsoft 365 · SendGrid · Resend · Postmark · Mailgun · Mailchimp
Domains
Namecheap · GoDaddy · NS1
Code and CI
GitHub · GitLab · CircleCI · npm registry · PyPI · Docker Hub · Expo
Errors and analytics
Sentry · Datadog · PostHog · Mixpanel
Sign-in
Clerk · Auth0 · Okta
Messaging
Twilio · Slack
Search
Algolia
Workflows
Temporal Cloud
Media
Mux · Cloudinary
Tools
Linear

How it looks

One calm window on your Mac.

Shown with Porchlight’s sample data: made-up apps on real vendors, with real incidents and releases.

  • Porchlight’s Overview: one thing needs you this week, a card per app with its eight-day strip, and the dates coming up
    Overview One sentence, then a card for each app with its eight-day strip, what needs you and the dates coming up.
  • An incident affecting an app: why Porchlight thinks so, what it touches, and the drafted notice to customers
    An incident Why Porchlight thinks it’s affecting you, what it touches, and the notice to your customers, drafted.
  • Changes: a release’s breaking line, quoted, and the line in the app’s code it meets
    Changes A release’s breaking line, quoted, and the line in your code it meets.
  • Calendar: model retirements and end-of-life dates on one year track
    Calendar Model retirements and end-of-life dates on one year track, in order.
  • History: each vendor’s week in lanes, with the verdict for each app
    History Each vendor’s week in lanes, your own side underneath, and the verdict for each app.

The film · 1:55

Porchlight, in under two minutes.

Private by design

  • Your code and tokens stay on this Mac.
  • Nothing is collected.
  • Porchlight only reads.

Porchlight reads the folders you choose, on your Mac, and never opens .env files. There’s no account and no server of ours, and its requests go straight from your Mac to the public pages it reads. The privacy policy

Price

Watch one app free. Pay once to watch them all.

Free

€0

  • One app
  • Every status page, filtered to what you use
  • “Is it affecting you?” on each incident
  • The calendar of dates
  • The menu bar

Unlocked

€24.99once

  • Every app you make
  • Release impact against your code
  • Customer notices, drafted for you
  • History beyond 8 days
  • Monthly report and stack inventory
Tell me when it’s out

No subscription. No account. Bought through the Mac App Store.

Questions

Good to know.

All Porchlight help

Does my code leave my Mac?

No. Porchlight reads the repo folder you choose, on your Mac, to find what your app uses and where your code meets a release. It never opens .env files, and there’s no server of ours.

Does it watch while my Mac is asleep?

No, and it says so. It watches while your Mac is awake and catches up the moment it wakes. What started and ended while it slept goes to History, not a notification.

Do I have to connect my accounts?

No. Every status page, release and date is read without an account. A read-only GitHub token or a restricted Stripe key makes the verdicts sharper, and both stay in your Keychain.

Can it post or change anything for me?

Only one thing, and only when you press the button: a customer notice to your own status page. It never deploys, upgrades or changes anything.

What does it cost?

Watching one app is free, with every verdict, the calendar and the menu bar. One €24.99 purchase adds every app you make, release impact against your code, customer notices, longer history and the report. No subscription.

Your app’s stack, watched.

Tell me when it’s out

With Apple for review since 28 Oct