Installation

Installation

Requirements

macOS 27 or later · Apple Silicon only (macOS 27 does not run on Intel Macs)

The app declares LSMinimumSystemVersion 27.0 and relies on a private macOS 27 menu bar API.

Homebrew (recommended)

brew install --cask roypadina/tap/smarthiddenbar

This puts SmartHiddenBar.app in /Applications. Keep it there: the app must run from /Applications (see How it works). If you run another copy, it says "SmartHiddenBar must run from Applications", offers Show in Finder and quits.

First launch (not notarized)

SmartHiddenBar releases are self-signed with a stable identity, so permissions survive updates (not notarized, so first launch still needs Open Anyway), so macOS may block the first launch. Either:

• open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down and click Open Anyway (right-click → Open no longer works on macOS 15+), or
• clear the quarantine flag once:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/SmartHiddenBar.app"

Then grant Accessibility (required): the Welcome window asks for it. See Permissions.

First run

A Welcome window opens on first launch (and once after updating to 1.4.0). It explains why the app exists, how to hide and reach items, why it needs Accessibility, and asks for it; reopen it from Settings → About → Welcome Guide…. Nothing sits left of the icon yet, so nothing hides: ⌘-drag the SmartHiddenBar icon to the right; everything left of it hides.

Opening SmartHiddenBar again from Finder or Raycast shows Settings, so you can get in even when macOS has dropped its icon from the menu bar. While Settings, About or Welcome is open it also shows in the Dock and Cmd-Tab.

Upgrade

brew upgrade --cask smarthiddenbar

Releases since 1.3.2 share one stable signature, so the Accessibility grant survives updates. If it is lost anyway (coming from 1.3.1 or older), toggle SmartHiddenBar off and on in Accessibility, or run:

tccutil reset Accessibility com.roypadina.SmartHiddenBar

and grant it again. Details: Permissions.

Uninstall

brew uninstall --zap --cask smarthiddenbar

Or quit the app, drag /Applications/SmartHiddenBar.app to the Trash and remove it from Login Items. Quitting restores the full menu bar immediately.

From source

See Building from source.