thaw

Thaw is an open-source menu bar manager for macOS, released under GPL-3.0 and distributed free of charge with no account, analytics or telemetry. It targets macOS 26 and later and is installed via Homebrew (thaw or thaw@beta) or a signed, notarized .dmg from the releases page. Core capability is decluttering the menu bar: items can be hidden, moved into an always-hidden section, or grouped so related items move and hide as a unit. Hidden items can be revealed by hovering, clicking an empty menu bar area, scrolling, swiping, or a hotkey, and can be rehidden automatically. A separate Thaw Bar can display hidden items below the menu bar, which the project presents as useful for MacBooks with a notch. A drag-and-drop layout editor arranges items, and spacers with adjustable width and colour can be inserted. Items can be searched and opened from the keyboard, and an item whose icon blinks for attention can be surfaced automatically. Appearance options include tint (solid or gradient), adaptive tint sampled from the wallpaper, shadow, border, custom shapes, and separate settings for light/dark mode and per Space. Profiles save and switch whole configurations and can be bound to a display, a Space, or a Focus filter, with import/export and pre/post apply script hooks. Triggers reveal or hide items based on conditions such as battery and power, frontmost or running app, network/VPN/Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/audio device, external display, time schedule, location, Focus, Energy Mode, thermal pressure, camera or microphone use, script exit result, or a watched icon changing; conditions can be combined with AND/OR and inverted. Hotkeys cover section toggles, search, the Thaw Bar, dividers, application menus, automatic rehiding, zen mode, opening a specific item's menu, and profile switching. Zen mode conceals all sections and locks reveal gestures, and can engage automatically while presenting or screen sharing. Every core action is exposed as a thaw:// deep link, so the app can be driven from Raycast (official extension), Droppy, Alfred, Shortcuts, Keyboard Maestro, BetterTouchTool or shell scripts. Accessibility permission is requested on first launch to move menu bar items; Screen Recording is optional, and items that cannot be captured are drawn as their owning app's icon. The README states a small, steady memory footprint and availability in 20 languages, with translations managed on Crowdin. Project documentation covers architecture, governance, security policy, roadmap, release verification and URI schemes, and the repository advertises OpenSSF Best Practices Gold and SLSA Build Level 3 badges.