Cheetos

A macOS menu bar app for quickly viewing cheat sheets for command-line tools (vim, tmux, git, …).

Click the menu bar icon → search → pick a sheet from the sidebar, or press your global shortcut from anywhere.

Features

• Menu bar app — no dock icon, lives quietly in your status bar
• Optional global hotkey to toggle the window from anywhere
• Fuzzy search across titles and bodies, with match highlighting
• Quick-action banner: press ↩ to copy the top-matching command and dismiss
• Click any `command` pill or fenced code block to copy it
• 10 bundled sheets, plus drop-in support for your own at ~/.cheetos/
• Hide individual sheets you don't use
• Auto-reload when files in ~/.cheetos/ change
• Usage-aware sidebar ordering (most-used sheets float to the top)
• ⌘1–⌘9 to jump to a sheet, ⌘F to focus search, ⌘, for Settings
• Open at login toggle

Requirements

• macOS 14+
• Swift 5.9+ (Xcode 15 or Command Line Tools)

Build & Run

./build-app.sh          # produces Cheetos.app
open ./Cheetos.app      # launches; icon appears in menu bar

For dev iteration without bundling:

swift run                # runs the binary directly

To codesign with a Developer ID identity (instead of ad-hoc):

CODESIGN_IDENTITY="Developer ID Application: Your Name (TEAMID)" ./build-app.sh

Adding cheat sheets

Your own sheets live in ~/.cheetos/ — created on first launch.

• Click + New sheet in the sidebar (or Settings → New Sheet…) to scaffold a stub .md and open it in your default editor.
• Or drop any .md file into ~/.cheetos/ directly.
• The filename becomes the sheet id; the title is derived from it (docker-compose.md → "Docker Compose").
• Cheetos auto-reloads when files change.
• User sheets override bundled ones with the same name — right-click a bundled sheet → Override with Custom Copy to start from the bundled content.

Bundled defaults (Git, Vim, Tmux, Bash, Docker, Kubectl, SSH, curl, find/grep, Homebrew) live in Sources/Cheetos/Resources/cheatsheets/ and ship inside the app.

Hiding sheets

Don't need a sheet? Right-click it in the sidebar, click the eye-slash icon in the detail header, or toggle it in Settings → Show / Hide Sheets. Hidden sheets stay out of the sidebar, search results, and the quick-action banner until you re-enable them.

Supported markdown subset

• #, ##, ### headings
• - / * bullets — lines like - `cmd` — description render as a copyable pill + description row
• ``` fenced code blocks (with a copy button)
• `inline code`
• > block quotes
• Search highlights match in titles, descriptions, and commands

Releases

Pushes to main (and manual dispatches) trigger .github/workflows/release.yml, which builds Cheetos.app, optionally codesigns/notarizes it, and publishes a GitHub release with a versioned zip.

Signing tiers (workflow degrades gracefully based on which secrets are set):

Secrets present	Result
(none)	Ad-hoc signed; zip contains a README-unsigned-release.txt with the quarantine workaround.
APPLE_CERTIFICATE_P12_BASE64, APPLE_CERTIFICATE_PASSWORD, KEYCHAIN_PASSWORD, APPLE_DEVELOPER_ID_APPLICATION	Developer ID signed.
Above + APPLE_NOTARY_KEY, APPLE_NOTARY_KEY_ID, APPLE_NOTARY_ISSUER_ID	Signed, notarized, stapled, and Gatekeeper-verified.

Project layout

Package.swift
build-app.sh                       # builds + (optionally) codesigns Cheetos.app
.github/workflows/release.yml      # CI build + GitHub release
Sources/Cheetos/
  CheetosApp.swift                 # @main + AppDelegate (status item, floating panel, global hotkey)
  CheatSheetLibrary.swift          # loads .md files, watches ~/.cheetos, tracks usage + hidden state
  ContentView.swift                # sidebar, detail view, markdown renderer
  Settings.swift                   # SettingsStore + HotkeyManager + login-item helpers
  SettingsView.swift               # inline Settings page
  Resources/cheatsheets/
    git.md
    vim.md
    tmux.md
    bash.md
    docker.md
    kubectl.md
    ssh.md
    curl.md
    find-grep.md
    brew.md

Notes

• LSUIElement = true in the generated Info.plist hides the dock icon, so the app lives only in the menu bar.
• The window is an NSPanel (floating, non-activating) — it hides on deactivation, so clicking elsewhere closes it. Press esc to close, ⌘, to open Settings inline.
• Right-click the menu bar icon for Open / Settings… / Quit.
• "Open at login" is implemented via SMAppService (macOS 13+); the toggle lives in Settings.