SwiftBar 2.1.1 requires macOS 12 or later. This patch release fixes two regressions introduced in SwiftBar 2.1.0.

Fixes

• Fixed plugins being skipped when the configured plugin directory is the conventional ~/.swiftbar path. #508 #510
• Restored Base64, template, and color images in dropdown menu items on macOS 26 and later, including correct sizing, appearance, highlighting, and incremental refresh behavior. #507 #509

Contributors

Thank you to @EhsanAzish80 for the menu-image fix.

Full changelog: https://github.com/swiftbar/SwiftBar/compare/v2.1.0…v2.1.1

SwiftBar 2.1.0 requires macOS 12 or later.

New features

• Added packaged .swiftbar plugin bundles with bundled resources and metadata. #481
• Added folding and accordion-style menu sections with the fold=true parameter. #480
• Added menu-item badges, explicit vertical text alignment, variable-color SF Symbols, and the alwaysVisible metadata option. #460 #401 #405 #475
• Added standard-input actions for streamable plugins and support for xbar.var plugin variables. #461 #472
• Added Kitty terminal support and configurable web-view zoom.

Improvements

• Reworked incremental menu updates to reuse menu items, preserve open-menu state, and correctly refresh nested submenus. #479 #484 #499
• Added diagnostics and recovery for menu bar items disabled or hidden by macOS. #501
• Improved the plugin-variable editor and plugin repository image presentation. #448 #468
• Added German localization and completed missing Spanish translations. #504

Fixes

• Fixed refresh timers that stopped after cancellation, incorrect wake refresh reasons, and plugins without schedules failing to refresh after sleep. #489
• Fixed split UTF-8 characters in streaming output and startup crashes when the plugin directory cannot be observed. #502 #500
• Fixed memory leaks during status-item creation and menu rebuilds. #476
• Fixed paired menu bar images and SF Symbols failing to update when the system appearance changes. #505
• Fixed menu bar item ordering and visibility regressions, plugin-browser hit testing, actionless item colors, and actions that both open a link and refresh a plugin. #458 #462 #465 #471
• Fixed environment-value escaping, tab handling, .swiftbarignore, duplicate plugin listings, shortcut metadata, multi-line clipping, and several launch-at-login and crash cases. #447
• Fixed About-window activation and version-label alignment. #492 #495

Contributors

Thank you to @andyearnshaw, @Gabe-Mitnick, @seren, @wojo, @dnicolson, and @hadzicni for their contributions to this release.

Full changelog: https://github.com/swiftbar/SwiftBar/compare/v2.0.1…v2.1.0

• New: Added ENV variable containing plugin refresh reason\trigger SWIFTBAR_PLUGIN_REFRESH_REASON #404 #429
• New: Added support for Ghostty #431
• New: Seconds support for scheduling with cron syntax #408
• New: Web view popover can be detached from the menu bar and will persist as a floating window until closed #397
• Fixed: Icon stays in dock after quitting preference window #396
• Fixed: Shell escaping improvements #402
• Fixed: Plugin metadata is broken after changing plugin settings #428
• Fixed: Better escaping in shell scripts and parameters #426 #421 #402
• Fixed: About doesn’t show all plugin metadata #416
• Fixed: SwiftBar doesn’t request access to calendar #411
• Fixed: Light/dark theme change kills web views #406
• Fixed: Quitting SwiftBar with the shortcut CMD+Q from the menubar hides the dock #394

External Contributions

• Fixed typos in Russian localization by @yolonir in https://github.com/swiftbar/SwiftBar/pull/413
• Reduced item’s padding by @smartrejames in https://github.com/swiftbar/SwiftBar/pull/430

New Contributors

• @yolonir made their first contribution in https://github.com/swiftbar/SwiftBar/pull/413
• @smartrejames made their first contribution in https://github.com/swiftbar/SwiftBar/pull/430

Full Changelog: https://github.com/swiftbar/SwiftBar/compare/v2.0.0…v2.0.1

• New: First class Shortcuts support #344
• New: Ephemeral plugins #357
• New: Add .swiftbarignore #358
• New: Add SFImage pallette rendering #354
• New: Web popover is detachable #374 and persistent #359
• New: Adding support for custom Plugin Repositories #351 #361
• New: Improved Dim on refresh
• New: Added “About” screen to Settings
• New: Added “Advanced” screen to Settings
• New: Improvements to Chinese #349 and Portugese translation
• New: Add support on sfcolor when using sfimage (#370)
• New: Append read stream buffer to ongoing response for long items (#372)
• New: refresh URL Scheme pass parameters as ENV variables to plugin #369
• New: Opt-out crash reporting
• New: Add support light/dark image #395
• Fixed: Simple quotation for shell script parameters #366
• Fixed: SwiftBar may parse update schedule incorrectly #340
• Fixed: Inconsistent title cycling #347
• Fixed: Wrong titlecase in Settings #352
• Fixed: Tooltips do not display new-line #382

Full Changelog: https://github.com/swiftbar/SwiftBar/compare/v1.4.4…v2.0.0

• New: Manual refresh indicator #321
• New: Multiple Cron schedules support #336
• New: Added :england: emoji 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 : #335
• New: Spanish Localization #296
• New: Chinese Localization #309
• New: Opt-in crash reporting #319
• New: Updated <swiftbar.environment> syntax, use = instead of : as key\value separator #322
• New: Less offensive error icon in menu bar #315
• New: Improved Plugins screen usability #301
• Fix: Improved refresh interval detection in plugin name
• Fix: Crashing with extremely large plugin #313 #294
• Fix: Add percent encoding for local file URLs #261
• Fix: Fixed support for dropping items on the menu bar item #104
• Fix: Better handling of URL scheme for Notifications #324
• Fix: Unnecessary excessive logging #333
• Fix: Calendar permission (for icalbuddy) stopped working after update to Ventura #328
• Fix: Improper unescaping of notification body #324
• Fix: Memory corruption in long-running binary plugins #319

Full Changelog: https://github.com/swiftbar/SwiftBar/compare/v1.4.3…v1.4.4

• New: WebView popover #261
• New: Option to switch streaming plugin to trailing separator useTrailingStreamSeparator #273
• New: Enabled Refrresh for streamable plugins #281
• New: Run command on notification click #274
• New: Add new environment variables #284
• New: Make Bool parameters case insensitive #278
• New: Add preference to update to beta versions #250
• New: Capture plugin’s STDERR to log and debug view #257
• Fixed: Changed menu bar item color handling on selection #156 #272
• Fixed: Plugin errors being ignored #287
• Fixed: Update lifestyle category icon to match Plugin Repository aesthetic standard #288
• Fixed: URL Scheme parameters inconsistency #280
• Fixed: Binary plugins not updating #259
• Fixed: Improving refreshOnOpen #272
• Fixed: Fixed menubar color when using right click #260

Contributors: @sejmann @fenhl @matopeto @cycle4passion @nicoster @xilopaint

• Fixed: SwiftBar ignores \n in plugin output #253
• Fixed: STDERR should be ignored #255
• Fixed: SF Symbols starting with numbers not being detected #256

• New: Update menu on open #241
• New: Support for bold and italic text in menu title #168
• New: Plugins list in Preferences live update with Plugin Folder changes #235
• New: New URL scheme endpoints to enable, disable and toggle plugins #239
• New: Improved multi-screen support #249
• New: App icon #224
• Fixed: Right click on menu bar item should always show menu #244
• Fixed: SFImage honors width and height parameters #245
• Fixed: trim parameter not working in some cases #237
• Fixed: Menu bar item may move on click when using SF Symbols #224
• Fixed: Streaming plugins are not started after sleep #179

Full Changelog: https://github.com/swiftbar/SwiftBar/compare/v1.4.1..v1.4.0

New App Icon

Italic and Bold

#!/bin/bash
echo "*Italic* and **Bold**"

Refresh on click

<swiftbar.refreshOnOpen>true</swiftbar.refreshOnOpen>

New URL Scheme Endpoints

Call it like this open -g "swiftbar://toggle?name=cal"

Contributors: @fabiospampinato, @mlcampbe, @fenhl, @es183923, @astrowonk, @bilal-fazlani, @earslap

• New: Added support for macOS Monterey #210
• New: Automate SwiftBar with Shortcuts
• New: Plugin specific Cache and Data directories #200
• New: Russian Localization #200
• New: Support for unlimited shell parameters #219
• New: Plugin Repository Categories are now localized #207
• New: Support for shell parameter alongside with bash #204
• New: Option to set shell of choice to bash or zsh #227
• New: sfsize parameter to customize SF Symbol size within text independently of font size #230
• Fixed: Narrower minimum width for Repository Browser window #195
• Fixed: SF Symbol should honor the font size parameter #230
• Fixed: Menubar opens on MouseDown event #217
• Fixed: author.github not parsed in plugin metadata #215
• Fixed: swiftbar.environment not available as environment variable #214
• Fixed: Menu bar item with image and text missing padding #228

Contributors: @gingerbeardman, @xilopaint, @Scartiloffista, @milotype, @JeroenVdb, @astrowonk, @shassard, @darmen, @jyxijij, @rarango9, @moshed

Full Changelog: https://github.com/swiftbar/SwiftBar/compare/v1.4.0..v1.3.0

• New: Plugin Debug View #182
• New: Multiple SF Symbols with different colors #180
• New: Added support for xbar-plugins repository #183
• New: Preferences UI #181
• Fixed: Correct handling of a sleep\wake cycle #179
• Fixed: Color names work in lowercase but not in mixed case #197
• Fixed: Image tint in menu bar should match text color when selected #196
• Fixed: Manual refresh leads to excessive scheduled refreshes #194
• Fixed: Plugin menu items don’t align with SwiftBar menu items #186

Contributors: @disappearinjon @nacho @shepazon @xilopaint @MaxGiting @carumusan @bilal-fazlani

• New: Improved Plugin Repository, including search #130
• New: Improved Preferences, including an ability to change some of plugin’s parameters
• New: Option to not run plugins in bash #163
• New: Custom shortcuts appear on menu items #154
• New: Support for milliseconds in refresh interval #166
• New: Plugins should remember position in the menu bar and work nicely with Bartender/Dozer/etc. #2
• ** New**: User friendly alert for an unsupported folder for Plugins (i.e. /Applications or /Library) #165
• Fixed: Preferences and Plugin Repository can be opened in more than one window #164
• Fixed: Inconsistent menu title color when using ‘reduce transparency’ on Big Sur #156
• Fixed: SwiftBar should handle the sleep-wake cycle correctly #147
• Fixed: Proper dismiss for About Plugin pop-up #169

User interface updates are mostly Big Sur only, Catalina get’s all the features, but UI is different.

Known issues:

• Plugin search is dumb
• Plugin Browser UI is a little wonky
• Preferences is not “mac like” and rough on the edges
• No localization for new UI

Contributors: @bilal-fazlani, @Cygnusfear, @xilopaint, @fenhl, @samnunn

• New: Shortcuts support for F-keys #139
• Fixed: Refresh intervals in symlinked plugin files get ignored #142
• Fixed: SwiftBar should show “⚠️” after streaming plugin has crashed #132
• Fixed: Menu item vertical position with custom font size on Catalina #111
• Fixed: Inflated binary size due too Swift bug #109
• Improved: About Window Copyright and formatting #135 #137

Contributors: @fenhl, @bilal-fazlani, @cliss

• New: Streaming plugin support #118
• New: Nested symlinked directories in Plugin Folder properly traversed #112
• New: Calendar access support #127
• Fixed: Shortcuts action is broken for menu bar item #123
• Fixed: SwiftBar doesn’t ask for notification permissions #122
• Fixed: SwiftBar sometimes hangs when opening a URL #88 (Not sure about this one, please report if you see this happening)

Contributors: @bilal-fazlani, @xilopaint, @mdbraber, @crcastle

• New: URL Scheme for sending notifications #112
• New: Plugin metadata support for binary plugins #105
• New: Support dropping stuff on menu bar #104
• New: Localization support #36
• New: Display metadata in Preferences: Plugins #97
• New: Enable/disable plugins via checkbox #98
• New: SF Symbols can be tinted with color using sfcolor= parameter #86
• New: Menu bar item now supports actions(href, bash, refresh) #110
• New: Time based plugin refresh #102
• New: symbolize is always false on Catalina #114
• New: Dutch localization
• Fixed: Reset to default background ANSI color doesn’t work #93
• Fixed: “Run in Terminal” Doesn’t Appear to Set Environment Variables #96

Contributors: @bilal-fazlani, @JayBrown, @yanzhang0219, @cliss, @jasonsnell, @lksoft, @bjinse

• New: OS_APPERANCE environment variable containing current macOS appearance #87
• Improved: Custom baseline offset for custom font sizes #85
• Improved: Environment variables inheritance from system shell #77
• Improved: Plugin list scrolls to top on category change #80
• Improved: SF Symbols have priority, emoji will work only if SF Symbols explicitly disabled. #46
• Fixed: Plugin directory doesn’t support symlinks #76
• Fixed: “Get Plugins” sidebar is far too narrow by default #81
• Fixed: Background & foreground ANSI colors are not supported together #82
• Fixed: Extra space with image menus #84
• Fixed: Disabled plugins run on SwiftBar start #89

Contributors: @yanzhang0219, @gilbarbara, @kdeldycke, @kemayo, @jmjordan, @cheshire, @incanus

• New Option to hide system menu items #29
• New Support SF Symbols in item title #46
• New SwiftBar environment properties passed to plugin scope #50
• New Improved support for binary plugins #60
• New Plugins with no output are automatically hidden from the menu bar, instead of showing ⚠️ #39
• New Ignore contents of hidden subfolders in the Plugin Folder #49
• New ANSI colors support #1
• New Opt-out from SwiftBar making files executable in the Plugin Folder #51
• New Separate color options for dark/light appearance #67
• New Auto-update mechanisms #40
• Fixed: Allow icon and text in the menu bar #37
• Fixed: Crash on start if the Plugin Folder was removed #41
• Fixed: Plugins are not recognized when Plugin Folder path contains spaces #48
• Fixed: Refreshing repository data lasts forever … #35
• Fixed: “Run in Terminal” creates new tabs both for Terminal and iTerm #58
• Fixed: Couldn’t get plugins from Plugin Repository #59
• Fixed: Executable and parameters contains spaces is not escaped #53

Contributors: @jasonsnell @cliss @matopeto @oefe @bilal-fazlani @JayBrown @tomads @alexp2ad @jmjordan @quarterdeck @yanzhang0219

Demo:

Option to hide system menu items

# <swiftbar.hideAbout>true</swiftbar.hideAbout>
# <swiftbar.hideRunInTerminal>true</swiftbar.hideRunInTerminal>
# <swiftbar.hideLastUpdated>true</swiftbar.hideLastUpdated>
# <swiftbar.hideDisablePlugin>true</swiftbar.hideDisablePlugin>
# <swiftbar.hideSwiftBar>true</swiftbar.hideSwiftBar>

Support SF Symbols in item title

#!/bin/bash
echo "Test :sun.max: :cloud.fill: :gamecontroller.fill: :bookmark: :sun.dust:"
echo "---"
echo "Test :bookmark:"
echo "Test :sun.max:"

Allow icon and text in the menu bar

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ANSI colors

#!/bin/bash
echo -e "\033[38;5;82mHello \033[38;5;198mWorld | ansi=true"
echo "---"
echo -e "\033[40;38;5;82m Hello \033[30;48;5;82m World \033[0m | ansi=true"

• New: Added “Send Feedback” menu item which opens issues page in this repository #13
• New: Option to hide SwiftBar icon from the menu #23
• Fixed: Script output parsing #19
• Fixed: Image retention in the menu bar #8
• Fixed: Separator not showing in submenus correctly #17
• Fixed: Parameters refresh=true and bash=... don’t work together #22
• Fixed: Default menu font size #11
• Fixed: Plugin Repository is not showing if plugin folder is not selected #16
• Fixed: Don’t allow set /Application folder as plugin folder #24
• Fixed: Invert font in menu bar when selected #12

Huge shoutout to this release contributors: @JayBrown, @krubenok, @jasonsnell, @jdeweese1

• Fixed: Template Images not Displaying #4
• Improved: Changing plugin folder reloads plugins automatically
• Improved: Not time plugins, i.e. plugin.sh run one time on launch(technically every 100 days)

Release Goals

First release aims to implement most of BitBar’s API to support most of the plugins in BitBar repository. This should ease the transition for users.

Changelog:

• New: BitBar 1.9.2 API compatibility(see below)*
• New: Plugin folder monitored for changes, new plugins are loaded automatically
• New: Enable\Disable plugin
• New: About Menu based on plugin metadata
• New: Opt-in to use iTerm instead of Terminal
• New: Define image size with width and height parameters to
• New: Set image using SF Symbols with sfimage parameter
• New: Set tooltip using tooltip parameter
• New: Global Shortcuts. New shortcut parameter assigns a global shortcut to the menu item. If menu item is a title shortcut will open menu, if menu item is not a title and has an associated action, then shortcut will run this action. Example: shortcut=CMD+OPT+T
• New: checkmark=true parameter to show checkmark in menu item
• New: Support for multiline menu item titles, just add \\n as a line break
• New: When plugin fails to update a special Error menu item is shown
• New: Launch at Login
• New: Plugin Repository

Known Plugin API Discrepancies

• No support for ANSI codes
• No $BitBarDarkMode