# Pelmet

> A free, open-source macOS menu bar organizer that hides the icons you rarely
> need — and is the only tool that tells you which icons the MacBook notch hid.

Current version: 0.6.1. macOS 13+. MIT licensed. No permissions required.

Pelmet is a free, open-source menu bar organizer for macOS 13 and later.

It does two things. First, it hides the menu bar icons you rarely use behind a
divider, and brings them back with the ⌥⌘B shortcut, a click, or an
optional hover. Second — and this is what no other tool does — it detects when
macOS has silently hidden menu bar icons behind the MacBook notch, shows a "+N"
count, and names the missing applications in a panel called the Shelf.

Key facts:
- Price: free. MIT licensed. No paid tier, no subscription, no account.
- Requires: macOS 13 or later, Apple silicon or Intel.
- Permissions: none for any core feature. It needs no Screen Recording and no
  Accessibility permission to hide icons, count notch overflow, or show the
  Shelf. Only the optional one-click access feature requests Accessibility.
- Install: brew install --cask ismatBabirli/pelmet/pelmet — or a signed, notarized DMG.
- Privacy: no accounts, no third-party analytics SDK. One anonymous event per
  day, opt-out, documented field by field.
- Source: https://github.com/ismatBabirli/pelmet
- Author: Ismat Babirli

## Start here

- [Pelmet home](https://pelmet.xyz/): what it does, how the divider and the notch counter work.
- [Download](https://pelmet.xyz/download): Homebrew one-liner, signed DMG, and building from source.
- [Features](https://pelmet.xyz/features): the complete shipped feature set, and an honest list of what is not built yet.
- [The Shelf](https://pelmet.xyz/features/shelf): how notch overflow is detected and reported without Screen Recording.
- [Pointer-safe one-click access](https://pelmet.xyz/features/one-click): opening a hidden item using advertised Accessibility actions only.
- [Privacy](https://pelmet.xyz/privacy): every telemetry field, and three ways to switch it off.
- [FAQ](https://pelmet.xyz/faq): 22 answers on permissions, the notch, shortcuts and comparisons.
- [Changelog](https://pelmet.xyz/changelog): every release.

## Guides to the underlying macOS behaviour

- [Why the MacBook notch hides your menu bar icons](https://pelmet.xyz/guides/macbook-notch-hiding-menu-bar-icons): macOS never draws status items in the notch region, so the overflow is dropped without warning. Six fixes, from a scaled resolution to a manager that reports the shortfall.
- [How to hide menu bar icons on a Mac](https://pelmet.xyz/guides/how-to-hide-menu-bar-icons-on-mac): Control Center for Apple's icons, Command-drag for third-party ones, and a menu bar manager for everything you want back on a shortcut.
- [Menu bar icons missing on macOS?](https://pelmet.xyz/guides/menu-bar-icons-missing-macos): Eight checks, ordered by how often each turns out to be the cause. Start with the notch and a menu bar manager before suspecting the app.
- [How to fit more icons in the macOS menu bar](https://pelmet.xyz/guides/mac-menu-bar-icon-spacing): The four levers that create menu bar width: scaled resolution, removing icons, tightening per-item padding, and hiding the remainder.
- [How to rearrange menu bar icons on macOS](https://pelmet.xyz/guides/rearrange-menu-bar-icons-mac): Command-drag reorders, Command-drag-down removes. On a notched MacBook the order decides which icons macOS drops first.
- [Pelmet troubleshooting](https://pelmet.xyz/guides/troubleshooting): Nothing in the menu bar, a +N badge you have not seen before, a lost divider, or a build that quits with your terminal — each with its fix.

## Comparisons with other menu bar managers

- [Pelmet vs Bartender](https://pelmet.xyz/vs/bartender): Bartender is paid, closed source, and needs Screen Recording. Pelmet is free, MIT, permission-free — and reports the icons the notch hid.
- [Pelmet vs Ice](https://pelmet.xyz/vs/ice): Ice is the most feature-complete free Mac menu bar manager. Pelmet is smaller, MIT licensed, and reports the icons the notch hid.
- [Pelmet vs Hidden Bar](https://pelmet.xyz/vs/hidden-bar): Hidden Bar is the classic minimal Mac menu bar hider. Pelmet uses the same technique and adds notch detection, the Shelf, and hover reveal.
- [Pelmet vs Vanilla](https://pelmet.xyz/vs/vanilla): Vanilla keeps hotkeys, auto-hide and launch-at-login behind a Pro upgrade. Pelmet ships all of it free under MIT, plus notch detection.

## Optional

- [Source code](https://github.com/ismatBabirli/pelmet)
- [Full text of every page](https://pelmet.xyz/llms-full.txt)