Keep docs and ChatGPT open over a fullscreen editor

I make Overlay. Hit the shortcut and the docs, the issue, or ChatGPT show up over the editor. The editor stays fullscreen. That's the feature. The rest is when it's worth a separate app, and how people actually arrange the panel once it's there.

Can you keep ChatGPT open over a fullscreen editor?

Yes. Docs, ChatGPT, an issue tracker, over a fullscreen editor, on a Mac. Default shortcut is Option-Space. The panel lands on the screen where the pointer is. A fullscreen Space counts.

The layout I keep seeing: issue or docs on the left, chat on the right, sometimes a third pane for localhost or the preview. Drag a tab onto the left, right, top, or bottom edge of another tab. It isn't a fixed pair. A tall column beside two stacked pages is normal. Sizes come back next launch, so you're not rebuilding it every morning.

The editor can be Xcode, Cursor, Zed, Nova, or a terminal that happens to be fullscreen. Overlay doesn't plug into any of them. It can't see your file. What you get is not having to leave the Space to find the API page that was in a browser window somewhere.

ChatGPT is the name people use. Claude, someone's docs, a status page, localhost, same mechanism. If the chat is the only page, the official desktop app is less to own. Overlay starts to make sense when the chat is one of several, or when you want it gone on one key without a leftover window.

You can park the panel on a screen edge. It slides out when the pointer hits that edge, and it can hide when focus leaves, when the pointer leaves, or only when you tell it to. Long stretch of typing, edge dock plus hide-on-blur, and the pages aren't even a rectangle sitting there. They're a gesture.

Is a second display or Split View enough?

A second display is enough if you already have one and the reference has to stay up for hours. Split View is enough if you'll lock the editor and the browser into a pair and live there. Overlay is the awkward middle. One screen, editor fullscreen, pages you need for a minute and then want gone.

Split View's cost is the pair. You leave the call, or you leave Figma, and that Space is still built as a pair. Overlay doesn't change the Space. Dismiss the panel and the editor is where you left it.

If the editor isn't fullscreen, a normal browser window beside it is less machinery. I wouldn't install anything for that. Same if the browser already lives on display two and you like it. This is for the setup you have.

One more that feels like this and isn't. You want the editor window itself to stay above other windows. Overlay can't pin Xcode. A window-pinning utility can. If the thing on top isn't a web page, wrong category.

What does Overlay not do here?

It doesn't pin the editor, the simulator, or a terminal. It loads web pages. It doesn't put a pile of Slack workspaces to sleep the way Rambox does, and it doesn't run on Windows.

Leave ten chats open and they stay live pages. There's no "sleep after 15 minutes." Launch is cheaper than it looks, because a tab isn't built until you show it. That's not the same as putting an idle Slack to sleep at 3pm. If the job is every client's messenger, all day, read the Rambox page before this one.

A page can raise a Mac notification. Click it and you're on the tab that sent it. Fine for a deploy dashboard, or a chat you muted in the Dock and still need. It isn't an inbox. It won't tell you which of three Slacks pinged if you never opened them.

One chat and nothing else is usually the official ChatGPT or Claude app. Overlay makes more sense when the chat is one of several pages. That's its own page.

If the reference is a PDF or a screenshot rather than a URL, it can live in the same panel. Drag it in. It sits in a pane next to the docs. Not a file manager.

macOS 14 or later. 30-day trial, then $12 once. Two Macs on one code. No account.