A lightweight macOS menu bar manager that keeps your menu bar clean by collapsing third-party icons out of sight. Click to expand and reveal them when needed.
- macOS 13 (Ventura) or later
- Double-click
MenuTidy.appto launch it - You'll see a chevron icon (
») appear in your menu bar — this is MenuTidy
MenuTidy adds two elements to your menu bar: a chevron (the visible icon you click) and a spacer (an invisible divider). When collapsed, the spacer expands to push icons to its left out of view.
Expanded: [hidden icons] | [visible icons] [chevron] [system icons]
Collapsed: [visible icons] [chevron] [system icons]
- Left-click the chevron to toggle between collapsed and expanded
- Right-click the chevron to access the settings menu
On first launch, MenuTidy starts in the expanded state so you can arrange your icons.
All icons to the left of the spacer will be hidden when collapsed. All icons to the right of the spacer will remain visible at all times.
To move an icon between the hidden and visible zones:
- Hold ⌘ (Command) — a glowing blue bar will appear in your menu bar showing where the spacer is
- While holding ⌘, drag any menu bar icon to the right of the blue bar to keep it always visible
- Drag icons to the left of the blue bar to include them in the collapsible group
- Release ⌘ — the blue bar disappears
You can also move the spacer itself. Hold ⌘ and drag the glowing blue bar left or right to change where the hidden/visible boundary sits.
| Action | Result |
|---|---|
| Left-click chevron | Toggle collapse/expand |
| Right-click chevron | Open settings menu |
| Hold ⌘ | Reveal the spacer position (blue bar) |
| ⌘+drag an icon | Move it between hidden/visible zones |
Right-click the chevron to access:
- Start at Login — launch MenuTidy automatically when you log in
- Quit MenuTidy — exit the app (all hidden icons will reappear)
- MenuTidy remembers its position and the spacer position across restarts
- Other apps' icon positions are also preserved by macOS
- On subsequent launches, MenuTidy automatically collapses after a short delay to let all icons load into their saved positions first
MenuTidy is a single-file Swift app with no dependencies beyond macOS system frameworks. No Xcode project is required.
cd ~/Desktop/MenuTidy
./build.sh
open MenuTidy.appThe build script compiles main.swift with swiftc, links against Cocoa and ServiceManagement, and assembles the .app bundle.
If you accidentally move the chevron to the left of the spacer and collapse, MenuTidy will detect this and automatically expand to recover. If the chevron is still missing, quit MenuTidy from Activity Monitor and relaunch — it will start expanded.
To fully reset MenuTidy's saved positions:
defaults delete com.local.MenuTidyThen relaunch the app.
Make sure the icons you want hidden are to the left of the spacer (the glowing blue bar that appears when you hold ⌘). Icons to the right of the spacer are excluded from hiding.
The spacer is only visible when you hold the ⌘ key. In normal use it's completely invisible.
MenuTidy is provided by Jorvik Software. If you find it useful, consider buying me a coffee.