DodoNest - macOS Menu Bar Organizer

A native macOS application for organizing and rearranging your menu bar items. Built with SwiftUI for macOS 14+.

Features

• Visual menu bar layout - See all your menu bar items in one place
• Drag-and-drop reordering - Drag items onto each other to swap their positions in the actual menu bar
• Search functionality - Quickly find any menu bar item by name
• Real-time sync - Items are displayed in their actual menu bar order
• Menu bar icon - Quick access from the menu bar
• Multilingual support - English, Turkish, German, French, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese

How it works

DodoNest uses macOS Accessibility APIs to simulate Command+drag operations, which is the native way to rearrange menu bar items. When you drag an item onto another in the app, DodoNest physically moves your cursor and performs the drag operation to swap their positions.

Requirements

• Accessibility permission - Required to move menu bar items
• macOS 14.0 (Sonoma) or later

Installation

Homebrew

brew tap dodoapps/tap
brew install --cask dodonest

The Homebrew formula automatically removes the quarantine attribute, so the app will open without issues.

Manual installation

1. Download the latest DMG from Releases
2. Open the DMG and drag DodoNest to Applications
3. Right-click and select "Open" on first launch, or run:

xattr -cr /Applications/DodoNest.app

Usage

Reordering menu bar items

Method 1: Using DodoNest app

1. Open DodoNest from the menu bar or Applications
2. Go to the Layout tab
3. Drag an item and drop it onto another item
4. The items will swap positions in your actual menu bar

Method 2: Direct manipulation

• Hold ⌘ Command and drag items directly in your menu bar

Settings

• Launch at login - Start DodoNest automatically when you log in
• Show menu bar icon - Toggle the DodoNest icon in the menu bar

Building from source

Prerequisites

• Xcode 15.0 or later
• XcodeGen (for generating project)

Build steps

# Install dependencies
make install-dependencies

# Generate Xcode project
make generate-project

# Build the app
make build

# Run the app
make run

Creating a release

make release VERSION=1.0.0

This creates a DMG in the build/ directory.

Project structure

DodoNest/
├── App/
│   ├── DodoNestApp.swift          # Main app entry point
│   └── AppDelegate.swift          # Menu bar management
├── Views/
│   ├── MainWindow/                # Main window views
│   │   ├── MainWindowView.swift
│   │   ├── LayoutView.swift       # Menu bar item layout
│   │   ├── AppearanceView.swift   # Coming soon
│   │   ├── HotkeysView.swift      # Coming soon
│   │   └── GeneralSettingsView.swift
│   ├── MenuBar/
│   │   └── MenuBarPopoverView.swift
│   ├── Components/
│   │   ├── MenuBarItemRow.swift
│   │   └── DraggableMenuBarItemRow.swift
│   └── Permissions/
│       └── AccessibilityPermissionView.swift
├── Services/
│   ├── MenuBarService.swift       # Menu bar item detection
│   ├── MenuBarItemMover.swift     # CGEvent-based item movement
│   └── AccessibilityManager.swift
├── Models/
│   ├── MenuBarItem.swift
│   └── AppSettings.swift
├── Utilities/
│   ├── Bridging.swift             # Window management APIs
│   ├── DesignSystem.swift         # Colors, fonts, styles
│   ├── Localization.swift         # Multilingual support
│   └── Extensions.swift
└── Resources/
    └── Assets.xcassets

Comparison with alternatives

Feature	DodoNest	Bartender	Ice
Price	Free (Open Source)	$16	Free (Open Source)
Reorder items	✅ Drag-and-drop	✅	✅
Hide items	Coming soon	✅	✅
Hotkeys	Coming soon	✅	✅
Menu bar styling	Coming soon	✅	❌
macOS version	14.0+	11.0+	14.0+
Open source	✅ MIT License	❌	✅ MIT License

Roadmap

• Hide/show menu bar items
• Global hotkeys
• Menu bar appearance customization
• Notch-aware layouts

Design system

• Primary color: #13715B (Green)
• Background: #0F1419 (Dark)
• Text primary: #F9FAFB
• Border radius: 4px
• Button height: 34px

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

Acknowledgments

• Inspired by Bartender and Ice
• Part of the Dodo app family (DodoPulse, DodoTidy, DodoClip, DodoNest)

Support

If you find DodoNest useful, consider:

• ⭐ Starring the repository
• 🐛 Reporting bugs
• 💡 Suggesting features
• 🤝 Contributing code