Menu bar

Macotron lives in the menu bar. Its own icon opens the Macotron menu, and plugins add their own items next to it: meters, clocks, the next meeting, the current track.

The Macotron menu

Click the Macotron icon to open its menu. Plugins can add rows at the top. The bottom of the menu always has these rows:

To hide the Macotron icon, clear Show in menu bar in Settings → General. Plugin items stay in the menu bar.

Badges on the icon

A small badge on the Macotron icon tells you that something needs a look. When more than one thing applies, the icon shows the most important one, in this order:

See Permissions and Security for what each one asks of you.

Plugin status items

A plugin can put its own item in the menu bar. An item can show an SF Symbol, an image, or an SVG; a title with an optional second line; and a small graph. A click runs an action or opens a menu. Many built-in plugins work this way:

• CPU, GPU and Memory Graph (cpu-graph.js) and System Metrics (system-metrics.js): usage meters.
• Battery Meter (battery.js) and Bluetooth Device Levels (bluetooth.js): charge levels.
• Network Stats (network-path.js): network speed and ping.
• Weather (weather.js), World Clock (world-clock.js), and Mini Calendar (mini-calendar.js).
• Now Playing (now-playing.js): the current track, with play, pause, and skip.
• Time Machine Progress (time-machine.js), Eject Disks (eject.js), Mic Mute (mic-mute.js), Audio (audio.js), Wi-Fi Toggles (wifi.js), Stay Awake (power.js), Pomodoro Timer (pomodoro.js), and Fan Control (fan.js).
• Meetings and Reminders: see Meetings and calendar.

This is the Reminders plugin, slightly shortened. It shows the next reminder with its due time on a second line, and lists the rest in its menu:

async function paint() {
  const items = (await macotron.reminders.list()).slice(0, 8);
  const next = items[0];
  macotron.menubar.status("reminders", {
    title: next ? next.title : "Reminders",
    subtitle: next ? "Next up" : "",
    sfSymbol: "checklist",
    secondary: true,
    menu: items.map((item) => ({
      title: item.title,
      onClick: () => { macotron.reminders.complete(item.id); paint(); },
    })),
  });
}

paint();
macotron.every(60_000, paint);

Call status() again with the same id to repaint the item. When a plugin is disabled or deleted, its items go away on the next reload. See macotron.menubar for every option.

Hidden and crowded items

macOS can keep an item out of view in two ways, and Macotron tells you about both on the plugin's page in Settings → Plugins, under Menu Bar:

• You removed it. Command-dragging an item out of the menu bar hides it for good. The plugin page says the item was removed and has a Restore button.
• There is no room. On a Mac with a notch, the menu bar runs out of space, and macOS does not draw the items that do not fit. To make room, Command-drag other items out of the menu bar, or move some into Control Center in System Settings.

Settings → Permissions also lists Menu Bar Items while an item that a plugin asked for is hidden, either dragged out or switched off for Macotron in System Settings → Menu Bar. Show… puts back the items it can and opens the System Settings pane for the rest.

See also

• macotron.menubar
• Built-in plugins
• Writing plugins