Frequently asked questions
23 answers about Pelmet — what it needs, what it sends, and how it compares. Nothing here is marketing copy: where the answer is “no, use something else”, it says so.
The basics
- What is Pelmet?
- Pelmet is a free, open-source menu bar organizer for macOS. It hides the status icons you rarely use behind a divider, brings them back with a keyboard shortcut, and reports icons hidden by a physical notch or covered by an enabled software island.
- Is Pelmet really free?
- Yes. Pelmet is MIT licensed with no paid tier, no subscription, no trial, and no account. If it saves you time you can contribute through Polar, but nothing in the app is gated behind that.
- Which macOS versions are supported?
- macOS 13 Ventura or later, on both Apple silicon and Intel Macs. Building from source additionally requires a Swift 6 toolchain (Xcode 16 or recent Command Line Tools). One caveat on macOS 27: hiding icons does not work there, for any menu bar manager. See the next answer.
- Why can't Pelmet hide icons on macOS 27?
- macOS 27 draws the whole menu bar as a single composited window instead of one window per icon. Every menu bar manager, Pelmet included, hides icons by widening an invisible spacer until the icons to its left are pushed past the screen edge, and on a single window there is nothing left to push. No third-party app can move or hide what is in the bar there, and nothing short of permissions Pelmet refuses to require would change that. Pelmet detects the situation and tells you rather than flipping its chevron over a menu bar that never changed. On macOS 13 through 26 hiding works exactly as it always has.
- Does Pelmet work on Macs without a notch?
- Yes. Hiding and showing icons works on any Mac, including external displays and iMacs. If Vibe Island is running, Pelmet detects it automatically; other persistent top-center overlays can be enabled and calibrated locally. Without a physical notch or enabled software island, the coverage counter and Shelf stay idle.
- Where does Pelmet appear after I install it?
- Next to the clock. Pelmet is a menu-bar-only app: it has no Dock icon and no main window. It seeds its chevron toggle and its divider in the last spot macOS gives away, so they should always be reachable.
Permissions and privacy
- Does Pelmet need Accessibility permission?
- Not for anything core. Hiding and showing icons, the overflow counter, and the Shelf all work with zero special permissions. Only the optional one-click access feature asks for Accessibility, and if you decline it everything else keeps working.
- Does Pelmet need Screen Recording permission?
- No, and it never will. Physical-notch and software-island detection use public window geometry, and the Shelf draws each row from the app icon and name. It is not a screen capture, so there is no permission prompt or purple recording indicator.
- Does Pelmet use private APIs?
- No. Pelmet collapses icons by inflating the width of a normal status item, the same expanding-spacer technique used by Hidden Bar and Dozer. Physical-notch and software-island coverage detection read public window geometry only.
- What data does Pelmet send?
- One anonymous event per day: a random resettable ID, the app version, the macOS major/minor version, the chip architecture, whether the Mac has a notch, which Pelmet features are enabled, and one boolean for whether the previous session ended cleanly. No names, emails, file paths, window titles, menu bar contents, hardware identifiers, or location. IP addresses are discarded on arrival and raw events are deleted after at most 12 months.
- How do I turn telemetry off?
- Three ways, all equivalent: toggle it off in Settings → General → Privacy, run `defaults write com.ismatbabirli.Pelmet telemetryEnabled -bool NO` in Terminal, or set the DO_NOT_TRACK=1 environment variable. An in-app notice appears before the first ping is ever sent.
- Are crash reports sent automatically?
- No. Crash data never leaves your Mac on its own. After a crash Pelmet offers to open a prefilled GitHub issue that you review and submit yourself.
Using Pelmet
- How do I choose which icons stay visible?
- Hold Command and drag an icon to the right of the ╱ divider, next to the clock. Everything to the left of the divider is managed by Pelmet and collapses when you hide; everything to the right always stays put.
- What is the keyboard shortcut?
- ⌥⌘B toggles the managed icons and ⌥⌘N opens the Shelf, but those are only the defaults. Record your own in Settings → General → Shortcuts, or clear one entirely and use the chevron instead. Pelmet refuses a combination macOS already owns and tells you when another app has claimed one.
- What does the +3 or +4 next to the chevron mean?
- That many menu bar items do not fit beside the physical notch or intersect an enabled software island's calibrated resting width. Click the count to open the Shelf and see exactly which apps they are.
- I lost the ╱ divider. How do I get it back?
- Right-click Pelmet's chevron and choose Reset Divider Position. That puts the divider back next to the toggle.
- Yes, it is opt-in. Turn on “Show hidden items on hover” in Settings → General, then move the pointer into the menu bar. Auto-rehide puts them away again afterwards.
- Pelmet's items are seeded right next to the clock, so this is rare. If your menu bar is packed edge to edge there may be no room at all — quit another menu bar app to free space, then relaunch Pelmet.
- Can I run two copies of Pelmet at once?
- No. Two instances fight over the same status items and saved positions. Quit the first one — right-click the chevron and choose Quit Pelmet, or press Ctrl-C in its terminal if you started it with `swift run`.
Comparisons and updates
- How is Pelmet different from Bartender?
- Bartender is a paid, closed-source app that asks for Screen Recording and Accessibility permission in exchange for a much larger feature set, including per-app rules and menu bar search. Pelmet is free, MIT licensed, needs no permissions for its core features, and reports icons hidden by a physical notch or covered by a calibrated software island.
- How is Pelmet different from Ice?
- Ice is the most feature-complete free option and is GPL-3.0 licensed: it has three sections, its own Ice Bar panel, search, and appearance controls. Pelmet is deliberately smaller, MIT licensed, and focused on reporting icons hidden by a physical notch or covered by a calibrated software island. If you want maximum features, use Ice; Pelmet's own docs say so.
- How does Pelmet update itself?
- Through Sparkle, opt-in, checking every 6 hours once you allow it. Downloads are EdDSA-signed, an ↑ appears in the menu bar when an update is ready to review, and nothing installs without your explicit approval.
- Where can I report a bug or request a feature?
- On GitHub. Bug reports, ideas, and small pull requests are all welcome — CONTRIBUTING.md has a two-minute guide and a map of the codebase.
Still stuck? The troubleshooting guide walks through the specific failures, the privacy page lists every telemetry field, and the guides cover the underlying macOS behaviour.
Get your menu bar back
Free, open source, and signed by Apple. Two lines of terminal or one drag to Applications.
$brew install --cask ismatBabirli/pelmet/pelmetDownload Pelmet 0.8.1macOS 13+ · Apple silicon & Intel · 4.6 MB