Loki-Menubar v0.1.0-alpha.7

Notarized pre-release (build 12), Apple Silicon, macOS 14 or later. Adds the optional launcher, local chat history, reloadable add-ons, and the notched-display hiding fixes. Verify downloads against SHA256SUMS.

Loki-Menubar v0.1.0-alpha.6

Loki-Menubar alpha.6 rebuilds menu-bar hiding around one checklist: open Loki's full window, choose Menu bar, check what you want tucked away, and choose Apply.

macOS 27. Hiding uses the system's menu-bar allowlist, the mechanism other current menu-bar managers also rely on on macOS 27, because a widened status item can no longer push icons off-screen there. Hiding is per app; Apple's own controls and Loki always stay visible.

• Apps you open while icons are hidden stay visible.
• Refreshing the allowlist no longer flashes hidden icons.
• Every icon is shown while a microphone or camera is in use, so the recording indicators stay intact.
• Run Loki from your Applications folder. On macOS 27 a copy elsewhere would hide its own icon, so Loki refuses to hide from there.
• While icons are hidden, macOS may stop the clock from opening Notification Center and may hide Now Playing.

macOS 14 to 26. Loki Command-drags the chosen icons behind a hidden divider and widens it. It uses public interfaces only and needs Accessibility.

Reveal. Option-click Loki's icon, right-click it and choose Show Hidden Icons, enable hover reveal, or run Loki --toggle-hidden. Reveal All, or quitting Loki, always shows everything.

Also new

• Managed preferences for MDM deployment (docs/MDM.md), plus --list-items.
• Developer ID signing and notarization scripts (docs/RELEASING.md).
• 154 unit, 13 bridge, and 32 controller checks.

Verification. On macOS 27.0.1 the owner confirmed by watching the menu bar that hiding one app's icon left every other icon visible and that Reveal All restored it. Not yet verified on hardware: an app opened while icons are hidden, Option-click reveal, and the microphone and camera pause on macOS 27; all of macOS 14 to 26; multiple displays, notched MacBooks, and sleep and wake. Alpha 5 per-app choices are not carried over; choose them again.

This is preview software for Apple Silicon on macOS 14 or later.

Loki-Menubar v0.1.0-alpha.5

Loki-Menubar alpha.5 adds opt-in app-based menu-bar hiding on macOS 27.

Open Loki’s full window → Menu bar, select the apps to tuck away, and click Tuck icons. Move away from the menu bar and wait for the chosen delay. Hover near the top to reveal, or use Reveal All Menu Bar Items. Choices are saved per realm; switching realms reveals everything until you tuck again.

• All icons from a selected app hide together across displays.
• Loki and the runtime’s system-control identifiers remain in the allowlist.
• Hiding releases on stop, quit, sleep, and display changes. Process changes and Space changes reveal icons.
• Hiding does not automatically start at launch.
• Older macOS versions retain the experimental divider.

A user-observed test on macOS 27.0.1 confirmed that the temporary test icon disappeared and returned while other icons remained visible. Forced-process-death recovery remains unverified.

53 regression checks and 9 bridge lifecycle checks pass. Independent review found no outstanding concrete source defects after fixes.

This is preview software. macOS 27 hiding uses an undocumented Apple interface that may change with OS updates. Broader multi-display, notched-display, full-screen, and long-running qualification remains pending. The SwiftPM dependency download stalled during verification; the signed release-script build passed.

Loki-Menubar v0.1.0-alpha.4

Loki-Menubar alpha.4 fixes four bugs found during independent code review.

• Favorites and groups survive changing utility labels. Known legacy title-based IDs migrate conservatively when observed.
• A second launch exits safely before its model is initialized.
• Keyboard navigation scrolls the selected shelf item into view.
• The personality setting now switches search, loading, empty-state, and settings copy.

50 regression checks pass, including identity collisions and preference migration. Developer ID signed and Apple notarized; includes signed Sparkle updates.

Apple Silicon, macOS 14+. macOS 27 physical icon hiding remains unavailable; divider hiding on macOS 14–26 is experimental. Multiple unnamed icons that reorder within one app remain ambiguous. Full interactive updater installation/relaunch and broad hardware qualification remain pending.

Download the DMG, drag Loki into Applications, and launch it. Existing alpha.3 users can use Settings → Check for updates.

Loki-Menubar 0.1.0-alpha.3 — Polished controls and signed updates

This update tightens the shelf and group editor and adds signed in-app updates.

• Close sits to the right of expand; the extra popup title, setup footer hint, and sidebar shortcut card are removed.
• Form fields and their action buttons share a 36-point height. Group rows align around the input, with a styled group chooser matching the shelf toolbar.
• Group deletion and stopping hiding now require confirmation and use red controls. Group deletion can be undone during the session without overwriting newer assignments.
• System controls prefer specific labels and identifiers. Known system identities stay stable across host processes, with migration for existing favorites and groups.
• Sparkle checks, downloads, verifies, installs, and relaunches updates. Automatic checks are off by default; enable them in Settings. The feed and archives are signed, and system profiling is disabled.

macOS 27 icon hiding remains unavailable. The old spacer implementation could incorrectly report success. This build blocks that path and offers macOS Menu Bar settings. The divider is still experimental on macOS 14–26. This release does not claim to complete physical hiding on macOS 27.

Validation: 42 regression checks, isolated group-undo checks, rendered layout inspection, independent Superpowers code review, Developer ID signing, Apple notarization, and installed-app status response. A full older-to-newer in-app installation/relaunch test has not yet been completed.

Alpha 1 and 2 require one manual installation because they do not contain an updater. Use the DMG, drag Loki into Applications, and replace the old copy.

Loki-Menubar 0.1.0-alpha.2 — Your groups, your names

Custom groups are here: create separate categories for Development, Meetings, Home, or any part of your day.

• Open Groups in the main window, or Groups → Manage groups… in the shelf.
• Create, rename, and remove groups independently within each realm.
• Rename keeps assignments, including apps that are not running. Removing a group keeps its apps and favorites and returns items to Ungrouped.
• Existing preferences retain their groups. Invalid and duplicate names produce clear errors.

Apple Silicon, macOS 14+. Signed with Developer ID; app and installer accepted by Apple notarization. The DMG is the recommended download. The app's standalone offline-ticket attachment failed, so the ZIP may require an internet connection for Gatekeeper verification.

Validation: 35 regression checks pass; signed build and runtime status check pass. Interactive group-editor verification was blocked by the UI automation service. Physical hiding remains a compatibility preview; notched displays, multiple monitors, and earlier macOS versions still need broader testing.

See COMPATIBILITY.md and ROADMAP.md for known limits and next priorities. No analytics or screen capture was added.

Loki-Menubar 0.1.0 alpha 1

An original, native Swift menu-bar utility with a searchable shelf, Nordic realms, favorites, groups, and a divider-hiding compatibility preview.

This is an early alpha preview. System icon hiding still needs end-to-end visual qualification across macOS/display configurations. Read the compatibility ledger before enabling it.

Download and install

• Apple Silicon · macOS 14+. Release checks ran on macOS 27.0.1; older macOS and notched displays are not yet qualified.
• Download the DMG, open it, and drag Loki.app into Applications.
• Launch Loki, then click its rune icon. The full window opens only when explicitly requested.
• Enable Accessibility for the installed public build to use Menu items. Earlier development builds used a different bundle identity.
• Both the app and DMG are Developer ID signed, notarized by Apple, and stapled. Gatekeeper assessment passed. Publisher: Reality Software Entertainment LLC.
• A ZIP is also included. Verify downloads against SHA256SUMS.txt if desired.

Included

Search, favorites, keyboard selection, shelf ordering, three renameable realms, Work/Personal/System groups, running-app shortcuts, bounded menu-extra discovery, fixed Control–Option–L shortcut, explicit close/Escape/outside-click dismissal, quiet launch and launch at login, local settings, and local CLI recovery/status commands.

The divider preview uses an ordinary status item, with manual Command-drag setup, hover reveal, delayed rehide and reveal-all. It avoids private frameworks and screen capture. Rehide defers while a popup or mouse interaction is detected. Display changes and quitting remove the divider.

Fixes and verification

• Removed accidental Apple/File/Edit discovery and duplicate system entries.
• Menu activation closes Loki first, avoids remote AXPress, and validates the current menu-bar geometry off the UI thread.
• Removed the large header logo and allowed the title to use the full width.
• 23 regression checks passed locally and GitHub CI passed.
• Escape dismissal and Control Center activation were observed on macOS 27.0.1. Broader menu compatibility and rendered hiding remain incompletely verified.
• Source and binary scans found no credential patterns, private keys, personal home paths, or bundled local preferences. Public signing-certificate identity is intentionally visible; this is a scoped audit, not an absolute guarantee.

Known gaps

No always-hidden tier, replica icon bar below a notch, per-display physical layouts, automatic physical-icon sorting, system-bar tint/shape/spacing controls, shortcut editor, or self-updater. Realms/groups arrange Loki’s shelf only. See the compatibility ledger for supported capabilities and remaining work.

Original source and vector artwork are MIT licensed. Loki is independently developed. The folded-rune concept involved AI-assisted design exploration; no trademark clearance is implied.