SwiftBar

Add custom menu bar programs on macOS in three easy steps:

Write a shell script
Add it to SwiftBar
... there is no 3rd step!

You can get plugins from awesome BitBar repository, or in SwiftBar itself using the Get Plugins... menu item.

How to get SwiftBar

or Install with Homebrew

brew install swiftbar

Runs on macOS Catalina (10.15) and up.

...or build it from source

Clone or download a copy of this repository
Open SwiftBar/SwiftBar.xcodeproj
Press play

Plugin Repository

SwiftBar is bundled with a Plugin Repository. You can access it at Swiftbar → Get Plugins...

If you want to add\remove plugin or have other questions about repository content please refer to this issue.

Creating Plugins

To add a new plugin to SwiftBar, you need to create an executable script following the required format (see below) and put it into Plugin Folder.

Plugin Folder

With the first launch, Swiftbar will ask you to set the Plugin Folder. SwiftBar will try to import every file in this folder as a plugin.

Important:

hidden folders are ignored
nested folders are traversed by SwiftBar, including symlinks

Plugin Naming

Plugin files must adopt the following format:

{name}.{time}.{ext}

name - Anything you want.
time - Refresh interval (optional). Should be a number + duration modifier (see below)
ext - File extension.

Duration modifiers:

ms - milliseconds, e.g. 1ms - refresh every millisecond
s - seconds, e.g. 1s - refresh every second
m - minute, e.g. 10m - refresh every ten minutes
h - hour, e.g. 3h - refresh every three hours
d - day, e.g. 1d - refresh every day

Example filename: date.1m.sh

Plugin API

Plugin is an executable script in the language of your choice. When SwiftBar detects a new file in Plugin Folder it makes this file executable if needed and runs it.

Script should produce output (STDOUT) in the required format (see next chapter). Script errors should be redirected to STDERR.

Plugin API is adopted from the BitBar, which means that SwiftBar can run any existing BitBar plugin.

Script Output

When parsing plugin output SwiftBar recognizes the following blocks:

Header: responsible for what you see in the menu bar
Body: responsible for dropdown menu contents

Header is everything before first ---. Each --- after the first one will be interpreted as a menu separator. You have one or more lines in the header.

The simplest plugin looks like this:

echo "This is Menu Title"

If you provide multiple titles, the provided titles will be cycled in the menu bar and shown in the dropdown menu:

echo "This is a primary Menu Title"
echo "This is a secondary Menu Title"
echo "This is a n-th Menu Title"
echo "---"
echo "This is not a Menu Title, this will be showed in the drop-down menu only"

Script output for both header and body is split by line (\n). Each line must follow this format:

<Item Title> | [param = ...]

Where:

"Item Title" can be any string, this will be used as a menu item title.
[param = ...] is an optional set of parameters\modificators. Each parameter is a key-value separated by =. Use | to separate parameters from the title.

Two-lines Title

Title line in Header section supports multiline, use \\n to separate lines, i.e.:

echo "Line 1 \\n Line2 | size=8"

Parameters

Text Formatting:

Parameter	Value	Description
`color`	CSS color or HEX, `light_color,dark_color`	Sets item text color. If only one color is provided, it is used for both light and dark appearance.
`sfcolor`	CSS color or HEX, `light_color,dark_color`	Sets SF Symbol color. If only one color is provided, it is used for both light and dark appearance. If you fame multiple SF Symbols you can provide different colors by adding index, like this `sfcolor2`
`font`	macOS font name	Sets font name to use in item text
`size`	Number	Sets item text size
`md`	True	Enables markdown support in menu title for `bold` and `italic`
`sfsize`	Number	Sets size for SF Symbol image embedded in text
`length`	Number	Trims item text to a provided number of characters. The full title will be displayed in a tooltip.
`trim`	True	Trims whitespace characters
`ansi`	True	Enables support of ANSI color codes. Conflicts with: `symbolize`
`emojize`	False	Disables parsing of GitHub style Emojis (e.g., `:mushroom:` into 🍄). Requires: `symbolize=false`.
`symbolize`	False	Disables parsing of SF Symbols (e.g., `"SF Symbols Test :sun.max: :cloud.fill: :gamecontroller.fill: :bookmark: :sun.dust:"` → ). Always `False` on Catalina.

Visuals:

Parameter	Value	Description
`dropdown`	False	Only applicable to items in `Header`. When set to False, item will not be displayed in dropdown menu, but will be cycled in the menu bar.
`alternate`	True	Marks a line as an alternative to the previous one for when the Option key (`⌥`) is pressed in the dropdown.
`image`	Image encoded in Base64	Sets an image for item.
`templateImage`	Image encoded in Base64	Same as `image`, but the image is a template image. Template images consist of black and clear colors (and an alpha channel). Template images are not intended to be used as standalone images and are usually mixed with other content to create the desired final appearance.
`sfimage`	SFSymbol name	Sets an image for item from SF Symbol. Only available on Big Sur and above.
`checked`	True	Sets a checkmark in front of the item.
`tooltip`	Text	Sets a tooltip for the item.

Actions:

Parameter	Value	Description
`refresh`	True	Plugin Script will be executed on item click
`href`	Absolute URL	Sets an URL to open when item clicked
`bash`	Absolute file path	Executable script to run in Shell
`terminal`	False	`bash` script will be run in the background, instead of launching the Terminal
`params`	`param0=`,`param1=`,`param10=`...	Parameters for `bash` script
`shortcut`	CMD+OPTION+T	Hotkey assigned to item. If item is in header, hotkey will show the menu; otherwise, hotkey will launch associated action.

Environment Variables

When running a plugin, SwiftBar sets the following environment variables:

Variable	Value
`SWIFTBAR`	`1`
`SWIFTBAR_VERSION`	The running SwiftBar version number (in `x.y.z` format)
`SWIFTBAR_BUILD`	The running SwiftBar build number (`CFBundleVersion`)
`SWIFTBAR_PLUGINS_PATH`	The path to the `Plugin Folder`
`SWIFTBAR_PLUGIN_PATH`	The path to the running plugin
`SWIFTBAR_PLUGIN_CACHE_PATH`	The cache to data folder, individual per plugin
`SWIFTBAR_PLUGIN_DATA_PATH`	The path to data folder, individual per plugin
`OS_APPEARANCE`	Current macOS appearance (`Light` or `Dark`)
`OS_VERSION_MAJOR`	The first part of the macOS version (e.g., `11` for macOS 11.0.1).
`OS_VERSION_MINOR`	The second part of the macOS version (e.g., `0` for macOS 11.0.1).
`OS_VERSION_PATCH`	The third part of the macOS version (e.g., `1` for macOS 11.0.1).

Script Metadata

It is recommended to include metadata in plugin script. Metadata is used in the About Plugin screen in SwiftBar. SwiftBar adopts metadata format suggested by BitBar:

# <bitbar.title>Title goes here</bitbar.title>
# <bitbar.version>v1.0</bitbar.version>
# <bitbar.author>Your Name</bitbar.author>
# <bitbar.author.github>your-github-username</bitbar.author.github>
# <bitbar.desc>Short description of what your plugin does.</bitbar.desc>
# <bitbar.image>http://www.hosted-somewhere/pluginimage</bitbar.image>
# <bitbar.dependencies>python,ruby,node</bitbar.dependencies>
# <bitbar.abouturl>http://url-to-about.com/</bitbar.abouturl>
# <bitbar.droptypes>Supported UTI's for dropping things on menu bar</bitbar.droptypes>

Hiding default items

SwiftBar supports these optional metadata flags to hide default menu items:

# <swiftbar.hideAbout>true</swiftbar.hideAbout>
# <swiftbar.hideRunInTerminal>true</swiftbar.hideRunInTerminal>
# <swiftbar.hideLastUpdated>true</swiftbar.hideLastUpdated>
# <swiftbar.hideDisablePlugin>true</swiftbar.hideDisablePlugin>
# <swiftbar.hideSwiftBar>true</swiftbar.hideSwiftBar>

Option+Click will show all items:

Refresh schedule

A special tag can be used as an alternative to refresh interval defined in plugin's name, value adopts Cron syntax:

<swiftbar.schedule>01,16,31,46 * * * *</swiftbar.schedule>

Other Parameters

#<swiftbar.refreshOnOpen>true</swiftbar.refreshOnOpen> - refreshes plugin on click, before presenting the menu
<swiftbar.runInBash>false</swiftbar.runInBash> - doesn't wrap plugins in Bash when running
<swiftbar.type>streamable</swiftbar.type> - mark plugin as Streamable
<swiftbar.environment>[var1:default value, var2:default value, ... ]</swiftbar.environment> - this variables will be passed in plugin's environment, in later release SwiftBar will provide a UI to change values for these variables.

Metadata for Binary Plugins

For binary plugins metadata can be added as an extended file attribute:

xattr -w "com.ameba.SwiftBar" "$(cat metadata.txt | base64)" <plugin_file>

Plugin Types

Standard (default)

For Standard type of plugins, SwiftBar expects that plugin execution is finite, i.e., plugin runs and exits with output to stdout:

exit with code 0 and non-empty stdout - menu bar is built from the output
exit with code 0 and empty stdout - nothing in the menu bar
exit with code 1 - error shown in the menu bar

Optionally, a standard plugin can be run on a repeatable schedule, configured in the plugin's file name or schedule metadata property.

Streamable

Swiftbar launches a separate process for each Streamable plugin, which runs indefinitely until SwiftBar is closed or a failure. You should use Stremable plugins only when dealing with a stream of incoming events; an example could be financial market info read from a websocket or CPU load information for a remote computer.

To let SwiftBar know when to update the menu bar item, Streamable plugins must use a special line separator ~~~. SwiftBar will reset the menu item on each occurrence of this separator.

In the example below, SwiftBar will show "Test 1" in the menu bar for 3 seconds, then nothing for 5 seconds, and "Test 2" indefinitely.

#!/bin/bash
#<swiftbar.type>streamable</swiftbar.type>

echo "Test 1"
echo "---"
echo "Test 2"
echo "Test 3"
sleep 3
echo "~~~"
sleep 5
echo "~~~"
echo "Test 2"

You can mark a plugin as streamable with a special metadata property <swiftbar.type>streamable</swiftbar.type>

URL Scheme

Endpoint	Parameter	Description	Example
refreshallplugins	none	Force refresh all loaded plugins	`swiftbar://refreshallplugins`
refreshplugin	`name` or `plugin` plugin name	Force refresh plugin by name	`swiftbar://refreshplugin?name=myplugin`
refreshplugin	`index` plugin index in menubar, starting from `0`	Force refresh plugin by its position in menubar	`swiftbar://refreshplugin?index=1`
enableplugin	`name` or `plugin` plugin name	Enable plugin by name	`swiftbar://enableplugin?name=myplugin`
disableplugin	`name` or `plugin` plugin name	Disable plugin by name	`swiftbar://disableplugin?name=myplugin`
toggleplugin	`name` or `plugin` plugin name	Toggle(enable\disable) plugin by name	`swiftbar://toggleplugin?name=myplugin`
addplugin	`src` source URL to plugin file	Add plugin to Swiftbar from URL	`swiftbar://addplugin?src=https://coolplugin`
notify	`name` or `plugin` plugin name. Notification fields: `title`, `subtitle`, `body`. `href` to open an URL on click (including custom URL schemes). `silent=true` to disable sound	Show notification	`swiftbar://notify?plugin=MyPlugin&title=title&subtitle=subtitle&body=body&silent=true`

LTP: instead of plugin name you can(and probably should) use plugin file name, this considered a unique plugin ID where name can be the same between multiple plugins. If your plugin's filepath is ~/Documents/SwiftBar/myplugin.1m.sh then name is myplugin and ID myplugin.1m.sh

Preferences aka 'defaults'

List of preferences that are not exposed in SwiftBar UI:

defaults write com.ameba.SwiftBar StealthMode -bool YES - hides SwiftBar menu item when all plugins are disabled
defaults write com.ameba.SwiftBar DisableBashWrapper -bool YES - doesn't wrap plugins in Bash when running
defaults write com.ameba.SwiftBar MakePluginExecutable -bool NO - disables auto chmod +x all files in Plugin Directory
defaults write com.ameba.SwiftBar PluginDeveloperMode -bool YES - enables editing in Preferences -> Plugins
defaults write com.ameba.Swiftbar PluginDebugMode -bool YES - enables Plugin Debug View
defaults write com.ameba.SwiftBar StreamablePluginDebugOutput -bool YES - enables debug output for Streamable plugins, Swiftbar will expose the stream data in Console.App

Logs and Error

If plugin fails to run SwiftBar will show ⚠️ in the menu bar, you can see details by clicking on Error in dropdown menu. Use macOS Console.app to view SwiftBar logs.

Acknowledgements

SwiftBar uses these open source libraries:

To freeze and secure dependencies these libraries are forked to SwiftBar organization.

Translation/Localization

SwiftBar can be translated here.

More Apps

If you enjoy SwiftBar you may like these as well:

TRex - Easy to use text extraction tool for macOS
Esse - Swiss army knife of text transformation for iOS and macOS

tchigher/SwiftBar