Copilot Bar

A macOS menu bar app powered by GitHub Copilot SDK. Chat with AI and control your computer from the menu bar.

By default it uses gpt-5-mini, the shared history is intentionally disabled. This is a hobby project.

Todos:

• Improve overall performance

Features

Chat & AI

• Chat with AI - Ask questions, get help with tasks
• Markdown Rendering - Rich text formatting with syntax highlighting
• Chat History - Conversations persist across sessions (SQLite)
• Chat Sessions - Multiple independent conversations
• Screenshot Analysis - Capture screen and ask AI about what's visible
• Document Analysis - Attach and analyze PDFs, images, and text files
• Data Visualization - Generate charts from CSV and Excel files
• Image Analysis - Extract metadata and dimensions from images
• URL Summarizer - Fetch and summarize any web page
• Code Runner - Execute Python or JavaScript snippets

System Controls (Native APIs)

Hardware controls use native macOS framework calls via koffi FFI for instant, reliable operation — no shell commands or AppleScript for core operations.

Control	Native Framework	What it does
Brightness	DisplayServices	Get/set screen brightness (precise float 0-100%)
Volume	CoreAudio	Get/set volume, mute/unmute
Bluetooth	IOBluetooth	Power on/off, status check
Screen Size	CoreGraphics	Detect actual display resolution

Additional system controls:

• WiFi - Turn on/off, check status, list saved networks (networksetup)
• Do Not Disturb - Toggle Focus mode (defaults command)
• AirDrop - Toggle on/off
• Window Management - Maximize, split, cascade, minimize/restore windows (adapts to your display resolution)
• App Launcher - Open any application by name
• Shell Commands - Run terminal commands via natural language
• Clipboard - Get, set, and clear clipboard contents

Music Controls

• Play/Pause/Next/Previous - Control Spotify or Apple Music
• Now Playing - Get current track info

Widgets & Productivity

• Timer - Interactive stopwatch
• Countdown - Custom duration countdown with notifications
• Pomodoro - 25min work / 5min break timer
• World Clock - Real-time display of multiple timezones
• Unit Converter - Length, weight, temperature, volume, area, speed
• Notes - Create, search, and manage persistent notes
• Todos - Task list with completion tracking
• Weather - Current weather for any location
• WiFi Widget - Visual network status display
• Bluetooth Widget - Paired/connected device listing

Reminders

• Native Notifications - Set reminders that trigger macOS notifications
• List & Cancel - View active reminders and cancel them

Data Visualization

• CSV/Excel Parsing - Upload data files for analysis
• Interactive Charts - Bar, horizontal bar, pie, doughnut, line, and scatter charts
• Automatic Type Detection - Column analysis with numeric stats
• Theme-Aware - Charts adapt to light/dark mode
• Table Fallback - Data displays as tables if chart rendering fails

Voice

• Speech-to-Text - Activate macOS dictation
• Text-to-Speech - Read responses aloud with configurable voice and speed

Customization

• Light/Dark Theme - Toggle between themes in settings
• Global Shortcut - Customizable keyboard shortcut (default: Cmd+Shift+T)
• Model Selection - Choose from multiple AI models

Prerequisites

1. GitHub Copilot - Active Copilot subscription and CLI installed
2. Node.js - v18 or higher

No additional tools required — brightness, volume, and Bluetooth use native macOS APIs directly.

Installation

cd copilot-bar
npm install
npm run build
npm start

macOS Permissions

Some features require macOS permissions (grant in System Settings > Privacy & Security):

Permission	Required for
Notifications	Reminder notifications
Screen Recording	Screenshot capture
Accessibility	Window management (arrange/focus/close)

Configuration

Settings are stored in SQLite at: ~/.copilot-bar/copilot-bar.db

Access settings via the gear button in the app to configure:

• AI Model
• Theme (Light/Dark)
• Global Shortcut

Usage Examples

"Set volume to 50%"          "Turn on Bluetooth"
"Set brightness to 80%"      "List Bluetooth devices"
"Mute my computer"           "Turn off WiFi"
"Turn on do not disturb"     "What network am I on?"
"Open Safari"                "Maximize Chrome"
"Split Safari and Terminal"  "Tile my windows"
"Start a Pomodoro"           "Remind me in 30 minutes"
"What time is it in Tokyo?"  "Convert 100 lbs to kg"
"Take a screenshot"          "What's the weather in NYC?"
"Play next song"             "Create a note about..."
"Run this Python: ..."       "Summarize this URL: ..."
"Analyze this document"      "What file types are supported?"
"Show me a bar chart"        "Plot this data as a pie chart"
"Visualize sales by month"   "Make a scatter plot"

Product Usage

Custom Tools

Audio & Display (Native)

Tool	Description
set_volume	Set system volume (0-100%) via CoreAudio
get_volume	Get current volume level via CoreAudio
toggle_mute	Mute/unmute audio via CoreAudio
set_brightness	Adjust screen brightness via DisplayServices
get_brightness	Get current brightness level via DisplayServices

Connectivity (Native + System)

Tool	Description
set_bluetooth	Turn Bluetooth on/off via IOBluetooth
get_bluetooth_status	Check Bluetooth state via IOBluetooth
toggle_bluetooth	Toggle Bluetooth via IOBluetooth
list_bluetooth_devices	List paired/connected devices via system_profiler
set_wifi	Turn WiFi on/off
get_wifi_status	Get WiFi status and current network
toggle_wifi	Toggle WiFi on/off
list_wifi_networks	List saved WiFi networks (widget)
toggle_airdrop	Toggle AirDrop on/off

Window Management

Tool	Description
list_windows	List all visible applications and windows
arrange_windows	Split, cascade, maximize, minimize/restore
focus_window	Bring an app to the front
close_window	Close an app's window

Document Analysis

Tool	Description
attach_document	Open file picker to attach PDFs, images, or text files (up to 10MB)
list_supported_formats	Show supported document formats and size limits

Supported formats:

• PDFs - Document analysis via vision
• Images - PNG, JPG, JPEG for image analysis
• Text - TXT, MD, JSON, CSV for text processing
• Spreadsheets - XLSX, XLS for data analysis and charts

Data Visualization

Tool	Description
analyze_data_file	Parse CSV/Excel and return column types, stats, and chart suggestions
render_chart	Generate interactive charts (bar, pie, line, scatter, table)

Productivity

Tool	Description
create_note / list_notes / search_notes	Persistent notes (SQLite)
create_todo / list_todos / complete_todo	Todo list with completion
start_timer / start_countdown / start_pomodoro	Interactive timer widgets
set_reminder / list_reminders / cancel_reminder	Scheduled notifications
show_world_clock / get_time	Timezone display
show_unit_converter / convert_unit	Unit conversion
get_weather	Weather for any location
capture_screenshot	Screen capture for AI analysis
analyze_image	Image metadata extraction
summarize_url	Web page summarization
run_code	Execute Python or JavaScript
calculate	Open calculator

Media & Voice

Tool	Description
play_music / pause_music	Control Spotify or Apple Music
next_track / previous_track	Skip tracks
get_music_status	Current track info
speak_text	Text-to-speech
speech_to_text	Activate dictation

System

Tool	Description
open_application	Open macOS apps by name
run_shell_command	Execute shell commands
get_clipboard / set_clipboard	Clipboard operations
set_do_not_disturb / toggle_do_not_disturb	Focus mode

Screenshot & S3 Upload (Optional)

Screenshots are saved locally by default. For cloud storage, configure S3-compatible storage:

1. Copy .env.example to .env
2. Configure your S3 credentials (supports AWS S3, Cloudflare R2, MinIO, etc.)

Data Storage

All data is stored locally in SQLite:

Data	Location
Config, chat history, notes, todos	~/.copilot-bar/copilot-bar.db

Tech Stack

• Electron + menubar - Menu bar desktop app
• @github/copilot-sdk - AI capabilities
• koffi - FFI for native macOS framework calls (CoreAudio, DisplayServices, IOBluetooth, CoreGraphics)
• sql.js - SQLite for persistence
• marked + highlight.js - Markdown rendering
• Chart.js - Interactive data visualization
• papaparse + xlsx - CSV and Excel parsing
• TypeScript - Type safety

Development

npm run build    # Compile TypeScript
npm run dev      # Build and run
npm start        # Build and run

Credits & Acknowledgments

Libraries & Frameworks

Package	Author / Org	License	Used for
Electron	OpenJS Foundation	MIT	Desktop app runtime
menubar	Max Ogden	BSD-2-Clause	Menu bar window management
@github/copilot-sdk	GitHub	MIT	AI chat and tool calling
koffi	Niels Martignène	MIT	FFI for native macOS framework calls
sql.js	sql.js contributors	MIT	In-browser SQLite for persistence
marked	Christopher Jeffrey & contributors	MIT	Markdown to HTML rendering
highlight.js	Ivan Sagalaev & contributors	BSD-3-Clause	Syntax highlighting in code blocks
Chart.js	Chart.js Contributors	MIT	Interactive data visualization
papaparse	Matthew Holt	MIT	CSV parsing
xlsx	SheetJS LLC	Apache-2.0	Excel file parsing
@aws-sdk/client-s3	Amazon Web Services	Apache-2.0	S3 upload for screenshots (optional)
dotenv	Scott Motte	BSD-2-Clause	Environment variable loading
TypeScript	Microsoft	Apache-2.0	Type-safe development

External Services

Service	Provider	Used for
wttr.in	Igor Chubin	Weather data API
GitHub Copilot	GitHub	AI model backend

License

MIT