SketchyBar README

The project's README from github.com/FelixKratz/SketchyBar. As one markdown file: README.md.

Install • Documentation • Setups • Plugins

This bar project aims to create a highly flexible, customizable, fast and powerful status bar replacement for people that like playing with shell scripts.

More Setups

Features

The main design principle of this project is that all elements of the bar can be added, removed and freely changed at any point in time. Thus, the configuration of the bar is not static, rather it is possible to adapt the appearance of the bar completely dynamically with the help of a powerful event-driven scripting system at any point in time using the highly configurable basic building blocks SketchyBar offers.

Getting Started

Refer to the installation guide in the documentation to get the program set up. Once this is sorted you can start to become familiar with the syntax of sketchybar by going through the default sketchybarrc file and the default plugin scripts, which are located in ~/.config/sketchybar/ and look like this:

All commands and options are explained in detail in the relevant sections of the configuration documentation. You can try the commands directly from the commandline to see which affect they have and how they alter the bar. Once you have become familiar with the syntax you can look for a config to start from here or start from scratch and customize everything to your liking.

You might also enjoy looking at the Tips & Tricks section for some further tips on your journey. If you are searching for functional items you might want to check the plugins section if someone has already created what you are looking for.

Should you encounter things not working as you expect them to, please do not hesitate to open an issue, as this is either a bug or a documentation problem and relevant in any case.

Documentation

For the full documentation of all commands and properties please refer to the website.

If questions remain, feel free to consult the Q&A section.

Supporting

You can support this project is many ways:

Credits

This project was forked from spacebar and completely reimagined and rewritten.
The original idea is based on the status bar that was included in yabai before getting removed.

Some animation examples

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/22680421/211198711-45318f04-e96f-4aa1-a0ba-c7f30f050902.mp4

SketchyBar (FelixKratz/SketchyBar)

tiling-window-manager
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12.5K ·GitHub
SketchyBar
What is this?SketchyBar is a highly customizable macOS status bar replacement built for people who like to shape their bar with shell scripts.
Do I configure this through a GUI, or by writing scripts?There is no settings GUI — the bar is driven entirely by a shell config file (sketchybarrc) and plugin scripts, and it uses an event-driven scripting system so elements can be added, removed or changed at any time while running.
How do I get it running on my Mac?Follow the installation guide in the official documentation to install the binary, then start editing the default sketchybarrc and plugin scripts located in ~/.config/sketchybar/.
Does it require yabai or another tiling window manager?No, SketchyBar runs standalone, but it grew out of the status bar that yabai used to ship with before that feature was removed, so it's commonly paired with yabai setups.
Who is this really for?It's aimed at macOS 'ricing' enthusiasts and tiling-window-manager users who enjoy tweaking shell scripts to get a fully custom status bar rather than a default one.
Does this work on any OS besides macOS?No, it's macOS-only — it replaces the native macOS status bar.
Can I show app icons or custom graphs in the bar?Yes — SketchyBar can alias running macOS menu bar apps into the bar, draw arbitrary graphs, and show on-demand popup menus for items.
What is SbarLua?SbarLua is a companion Lua API for scripting SketchyBar configs in Lua instead of shell, and there's also a sketchybar-app-font project providing app icon glyphs for the bar.
Why was SketchyBar created instead of using an existing bar?It was forked from the 'spacebar' project and completely reimagined; the original idea traces back to the status bar that used to ship with yabai before that feature was removed.
What are similar projects?polybar, serpantinum, AgentOS, dots-hyprland, rift, ImmersionBar, rumps, shell
Which topics is it in?bar, status, statusbar, ricing, tiling-window-manager, window-manager, event-driven, scripting, dotfiles, menu-bar, interactive, shell
Creator
FelixKratz
Size
16.1 MB
Stars
12.5K
Updated
CommitOct 14Releasev2.24.1Oct 09
Age
5y
Commits · 90 Days