Does Pelmet need any macOS permissions?

No, not for its core features. Hiding and showing icons, the notch overflow counter, and the Shelf all run with zero special permissions. Only the optional one-click access feature asks for Accessibility, and declining it leaves everything else working.

Does Pelmet include Google Analytics, Amplitude, or any tracking SDK?

No. Pelmet embeds no third-party analytics SDK. It sends one small JSON event per day from a single file of its own code, to a PostHog Cloud US endpoint, and that is the entirety of its analytics.

How do I turn telemetry off?

Toggle it off in Settings → General → Privacy, run `defaults write com.ismatbabirli.Pelmet telemetryEnabled -bool NO`, or set the DO_NOT_TRACK=1 environment variable. Any one of the three is enough.

How long is the data kept?

Raw events are deleted after at most 12 months. IP addresses are discarded on arrival and never stored alongside events.

Are crash reports uploaded automatically?

No. Crash data never leaves your Mac by itself. After a crash Pelmet offers to open a prefilled GitHub issue, which you read and submit yourself.

Zero permissionsNo accountsNo tracking SDKs

Exactly what Pelmet sends, and how to stop it

Pelmet is a menu bar utility, not a data business. It makes two kinds of network call — update checks and one anonymous daily ping — and you control both. Every field is listed below, and the sending code is one small file you can read.

Update checks

Handled by Sparkle. Pelmet asks you once before enabling checks, then looks every 6 hours. If a scheduled check hits a temporary network failure it performs at most three recovery checks and shows the retry state in Settings. An ↑ in the menu bar means an update is ready to review — Pelmet never installs one without your approval, and downloads are EdDSA-signed.

One anonymous ping a day

A single small event, at most once a day, so the project knows how many people use Pelmet and what to prioritise. An in-app notice appears before the first one is ever sent. It goes over HTTPS to PostHog Cloud US, and IP addresses are discarded on arrival.

Every field

The complete contents of that event

Nothing here is abbreviated for the website. This is the whole payload.

Field	Value	Why it is collected
distinct_id	A random UUID	Counts one Mac once per day and month. Not derived from any hardware identifier, and resettable.
app_version	e.g. 0.6.1	Shows which versions are still in use, so old ones can be supported or retired knowingly.
macos	Major.minor only	Decides which macOS versions are worth continuing to support.
arch	Apple silicon or Intel	Tells us whether Intel builds still matter.
notch	true / false	Measures how relevant the notch-specific features actually are.
shelf_enabled	true / false	Feature adoption — is the Shelf being used?
one_click_enabled	true / false	Feature adoption for the opt-in Accessibility feature.
auto_rehide	true / false	Feature adoption for auto-rehide.
manages_items	true / false	Whether Pelmet is actually managing anything, or was installed and forgotten.
prev_session_clean	true / false	A single boolean standing in for a crash rate. No stack traces, no crash contents.

The authoritative version of this table lives in docs/TELEMETRY.md in the repository. If the two ever disagree, the repository is correct.

Never collected

What is not in that list, and never will be

Your name, email address, or any account
The contents of your menu bar
Anything about the other applications you run
File paths or window titles
Hardware identifiers or serial numbers
Location data
A behavioural stream — no clicks, no timings, no sessions

Opting out

Three ways, pick any one

In the app. Settings → General → Privacy, and turn it off.

In Terminal.

defaults write com.ismatbabirli.Pelmet telemetryEnabled -bool NO

With an environment variable. Set DO_NOT_TRACK=1 and Pelmet respects it without any further configuration.

This website

And what pelmet.xyz collects

This site uses PostHog for basic page analytics, configured with memory-only persistence: no cookies and no local storage are written to your browser, which is why you are not being asked to dismiss a consent banner.

Analytics requests are proxied through this domain rather than sent to a third-party host directly. There are no advertising trackers, no social embeds, no external fonts, and no third-party scripts of any kind.

FAQ

Privacy questions

Does Pelmet need any macOS permissions?: No, not for its core features. Hiding and showing icons, the notch overflow counter, and the Shelf all run with zero special permissions. Only the optional one-click access feature asks for Accessibility, and declining it leaves everything else working.
Does Pelmet include Google Analytics, Amplitude, or any tracking SDK?: No. Pelmet embeds no third-party analytics SDK. It sends one small JSON event per day from a single file of its own code, to a PostHog Cloud US endpoint, and that is the entirety of its analytics.
How do I turn telemetry off?: Toggle it off in Settings → General → Privacy, run `defaults write com.ismatbabirli.Pelmet telemetryEnabled -bool NO`, or set the DO_NOT_TRACK=1 environment variable. Any one of the three is enough.
How long is the data kept?: Raw events are deleted after at most 12 months. IP addresses are discarded on arrival and never stored alongside events.
Are crash reports uploaded automatically?: No. Crash data never leaves your Mac by itself. After a crash Pelmet offers to open a prefilled GitHub issue, which you read and submit yourself.

Questions or corrections? Open an issue on GitHub, or read the general FAQ.