Everything Pelmet does, and nothing it doesn't
Pelmet is a single-purpose utility: give the menu bar back to the icons you actually use. Here is the complete feature set of v0.6.1 — no roadmap items dressed up as features, no paid tier holding anything back.
Hidden by the notch
- Screen recorder
- AI assistant
- Container runtime
- Dictation
Make Room…
Core
The everyday behaviour
The divider
Pelmet adds a ╱ separator to your menu bar. Everything to its left is managed; everything to its right is yours forever. Command-drag any icon across to change its side — macOS remembers the order, so your layout survives restarts.
Collapse and expand
Click the chevron or press ⌥⌘B. Pelmet inflates the separator's width so managed icons are pushed past the screen edge, then shrinks it to bring them back. Nothing is quit, killed, or restarted — the apps never notice.
Auto-rehide
Reveal your icons, use the one you needed, and Pelmet puts them away again on its own. Configurable in Settings, off if you prefer to toggle manually.
Show on hover
Opt in and the managed icons reappear the moment your pointer enters the menu bar, with no click at all. Off by default, because hover reveals are not for everyone.
Launch at login
A single switch in Settings, using the modern macOS login items API. No helper app to approve, no login script.
Opt-in updates
Sparkle checks every 6 hours once you allow it, retries a bounded number of times after a network failure, and shows an ↑ in the menu bar when something is ready. Downloads are EdDSA-signed, and nothing installs without your approval.
Where Pelmet is different
The notch features
Every menu bar manager can hide icons. These are the parts no other tool does.
Notch
The overflow counter and the Shelf
macOS silently drops menu bar icons that do not fit beside the camera housing. Pelmet counts them, shows +N next to its chevron, and opens a frosted panel naming every one — without a screen capture, and without a Screen Recording prompt.
Read moreAccessibility
Pointer-safe one-click access
Open a hidden item without expanding the whole group. Pelmet uses only the actions an item advertises to macOS Accessibility — it never synthesises a mouse event and never moves your pointer. Entirely opt-in.
Read moreMake Room
Fit more icons in the first place
Settings → Make Room tightens system menu bar spacing and points at the other levers macOS gives you, so fewer icons end up behind the notch at all.
Read moreCheat sheet
Every action, and how to do it
| Action | How |
|---|---|
| Show or hide managed icons | Click the ‹ / › toggle, or press ⌥⌘B |
| Reveal on hover | Settings → Show hidden items on hover, then move the pointer into the menu bar |
| Keep an icon always visible | ⌘-drag it to the right of the ╱ divider |
| See why icons are missing | Hover or right-click the toggle when it shows +N |
| Open the Shelf | Click the +N count, or press ⌥⌘N |
| Lost the divider | Right-click the toggle → Reset Divider Position |
| Fit more icons beside the notch | Settings → Make Room… |
| Settings | Right-click the toggle → Settings… |
| Quit | Right-click the toggle → Quit Pelmet |
Not yet
Honest about what is missing
Two things people ask for that Pelmet does not do today. Both are on the roadmap; neither is shipped, so neither is advertised as a feature.
- Custom hotkey recorder. The shortcut is currently fixed at ⌥⌘B.
- Per-item rules and presentation modes. Things like “always hide this one” or “hide sensitive items” are planned, not built.
If either is a dealbreaker, Ice has custom hotkeys today, and Bartender has per-app rules.
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/pelmet