A native macOS menu bar companion for Claude Code.
BuddyBar puts Claude Code sessions, approvals, and buddy identity in your macOS menu bar. Built with Swift, AppKit, and SwiftUI — no Electron, no web views.
Head to Releases and grab the latest BuddyBar.dmg.
Requirements: macOS 14 (Sonoma) or newer.
- Open the DMG and drag BuddyBar to Applications.
- Launch BuddyBar — it lives in your menu bar.
- If Claude Code CLI isn't installed yet, BuddyBar will walk you through setup on first launch.
BuddyBar checks for updates via Sparkle. When a new version is available, the app will prompt you to update in-app.
- Update feed:
https://victorfu.github.io/buddy-bar/updates/appcast.xml
- Glanceable session state — idle, running, waiting-approval, compacting, completed, or error, right in the menu bar.
- Approval handling — respond to Claude Code permission requests from a native UI instead of hunting for terminal tabs.
- Transcript-aware enrichment — message counts, awaiting-input indicators, and activity timestamps surfaced automatically.
- Usage visibility — live 5h / weekly usage from your Claude Code login, plus local lifetime stats.
- Sound cues and notifications — configurable sounds and native macOS notifications for approvals and task completion.
- System health glance — CPU load and memory pressure shown inline, no extra permissions needed.
- CLAUDE.md tools — inspect, optimize, back up, and restore your workspace CLAUDE.md from Settings.
- Plugin Store — browse and install Claude plugins directly from the app.
- Launch at login — native macOS ServiceManagement toggle in Settings.
Check the Releases page for the full changelog per version.
Found a bug or have a feature request? Open an issue.