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 v0.8.1 — 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. This is how every menu bar manager hides icons, and it needs one window per icon: macOS 27 composites the whole bar into a single window, so hiding is unavailable there and Pelmet says so instead of pretending otherwise.
Shortcuts you choose
⌥⌘B and ⌥⌘N are only the defaults. Record your own in Settings, or clear a shortcut entirely and use the chevron instead. Pelmet checks a combination before it accepts one and says what is in the way: macOS itself, its own other action, or another app that already claimed it. Registration still uses Carbon, so this needs no Accessibility permission, and labels follow your keyboard layout rather than assuming a US one.
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 obstruction-aware features
Every menu bar manager can hide icons. Pelmet also reports when a physical notch or enabled software island takes their space.
Notches and islands
The coverage counter and the Shelf
macOS can hide icons beside a camera housing, while software islands can cover them on any display. Pelmet counts the affected icons, shows +N above its chevron, and opens a frosted panel naming every one, without a screen capture or 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 |
| Change either shortcut | Settings → General → Shortcuts, then type the new keys (⌫ removes one) |
| 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 | Open the Shelf when the toggle 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 an obstruction | Settings → Menu Bar Space → 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.
- Menu bar search. There is no way to find a hidden item by typing its name. The Shelf lists what the notch hid, and that is all.
- 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 menu bar search 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