dwarvesf/hidden

Hidden Bar is a macOS utility application designed to manage the menu bar, specifically addressing the challenge of icons hidden behind the camera notch on newer Macs. It provides users with controls to auto-hide the menu bar, configure global shortcuts, and access overflow items through a dedicated menu. The system supports a wide range of languages and adapts its hiding mechanism based on the macOS version to ensure reliable operation.

16 changes.

The project rebranded from 'Hidden' to 'Hidden Bar' and overhauled its internal architecture by removing legacy components and adopting a new engine-based system for menu bar hiding. This period focused on modernizing the codebase for newer macOS versions, introducing features like Notch Overflow support, and improving user experience through better preferences handling and localization.

10 changes.

This period focused on expanding the application's global accessibility by adding localization support for Japanese, Traditional Chinese, Vietnamese, French, Arabic, German, Croatian, and Polish. Concurrently, the codebase was strengthened through the addition of unit tests covering the auto-start logic, menu-bar layout resolution, and the notch-overflow feature components.

Hidden Bar now includes a complete Arabic localization, adding Arabic translations for the user interface, settings, and tutorial text to make the app accessible to Arabic-speaking users.

hidden/ar.lproj · high confidence

Hidden Bar now includes Croatian language support. Users with their system language set to Croatian will see the interface, settings, and tutorial text translated into Croatian, including labels for features like 'Always Hidden', 'Auto Collapse', and global shortcuts.

hidden/hr.lproj · high confidence

The application now includes English language support for its interface strings, specifically introducing new options and descriptions for the 'Notch Overflow' feature (allowing access to menu bar icons hidden behind the camera notch) and providing step-by-step tutorial text to guide users on enabling and using the 'always hidden' icon collapse functionality.

hidden/en.lproj · high confidence

Hidden Bar now includes a French language option. Users with their system language set to French will see the interface, menus, and tutorial instructions translated into French, including specific guidance on using the 'Always Hidden' bar feature.

hidden/fr.lproj · high confidence

Hidden Bar now includes a German localization, providing translated strings for the user interface, preferences, and tutorial instructions for German-speaking users.

hidden/de.lproj · high confidence

This change introduces a new HyperlinkTextField component that allows users to click on text to open a specified URL in their default browser, enhancing the interactivity of preference UI elements. Additionally, copyright headers in NSBarButtonItem+Extension.swift and NSView+Extension.swift have been updated to reflect ownership by Dwarves Foundation.

hidden/Views · high confidence

Hidden Bar now supports the Japanese language. Users with their system language set to Japanese will see the application interface, including menus, settings, and tutorial text, translated into Japanese.

hidden/ja.lproj · high confidence

Hidden Bar now includes a Polish translation for its user interface, covering menu items, settings labels, and tutorial text, allowing Polish-speaking users to interact with the app in their native language.

hidden/pl.lproj · high confidence

Hidden Bar now supports Simplified Chinese (zh-Hans), providing translated strings for the main interface, preferences, and the tutorial text explaining the 'Auto Collapse' feature.

hidden/zh-Hans.lproj · high confidence

Users can now see the Hidden Bar interface in Traditional Chinese (zh-Hant) and Vietnamese (vi). This update adds the necessary string resources for the settings panel, menu items, and tutorial instructions in these languages, making the app accessible to speakers of these locales.

hidden/zh-Hant.lproj · high confidence

Hidden Bar now includes a Notch Overflow feature that detects menu bar items hidden behind the camera notch on newer Macs and makes them accessible via a dedicated menu. The app now ensures only a single instance runs at a time, automatically opening the Preferences window on launch if configured, and registering default settings for auto-start and auto-hide. Additionally, the app is now categorized as a utility in the App Store, and the Info.plist has been updated to use dynamic versioning and set LSUIElement to true, indicating it is a menu-bar-only app without a main window.

hidden · high confidence

The legacy LauncherApplication bundle, which previously served as a wrapper to launch the main 'Hidden' application and manage its lifecycle via notifications, has been completely removed. This eliminates the intermediate launch step and associated background process, simplifying the application startup flow.

LauncherApplication · high confidence

The \StatusBarController\ and \ViewController\ files in the \hidden/ViewControlllers\ directory have been deleted. This removes the previous implementation of the macOS status bar item management (including auto-hide timers and menu popups) and the associated preferences view that handled settings for auto-start, auto-hide, and dock visibility. Users will no longer interact with these specific legacy components, which are likely replaced by a new architecture elsewhere in the application.

hidden/ViewControlllers · high confidence

The Xcode project configuration file for the 'hidden' target has been deleted from the repository. This change removes the build settings, source file references (including AppDelegate, ViewController, and StatusBarController), and framework dependencies (Cocoa, ServiceManagement) associated with this specific project, effectively removing it from the build system.

hidden.xcodeproj · high confidence

The default \Main.storyboard\ file for the LauncherApplication has been deleted. This removes the standard macOS application menu structure (including File, Edit, and Application menus) that was previously defined in this interface builder file, indicating a shift away from using this specific storyboard for the app's UI.

LauncherApplication/Base.lproj · high confidence

This change introduces a set of Swift extension files in the hidden/Extensions directory to support application functionality. It adds convenience methods for Bundle (accessing version numbers), Date (formatting date and time strings), NSWindow (bringing the app to the front), Notification.Name (defining prefsChanged and alwayHideToggle notifications), NSStackView (safely removing subviews to prevent constraint leaks), and String (localization). Additionally, it centralizes UserDefaults keys in UserDefault+Extension.swift, defining keys for global shortcuts, auto-hide settings, separator visibility, always-hidden sections, full status bar expansion, hover-to-expand, and notch overflow features.

hidden/Extensions · high confidence

The application now correctly displays F1–F20 keys in the global shortcut settings instead of showing them as generic 'Fn' labels. This fix ensures that users see the proper function key names (e.g., 'F1', 'F12') when viewing or configuring global hotkeys, resolving a display issue where F-keys were previously mislabeled.

hidden/Models · high confidence

The Xcode project file has been updated to include new source files such as MenuBarEngine, NativeVisibilityEngine, and NotchOverflowController, alongside test files for these components. The project now references additional frameworks including ServiceManagement and Cocoa, and includes localization files for multiple languages (hr, pl, vi, ar, de, fr, zh-Hans, zh-Hant, ja). New build phases and file references have been added to support these features and tests.

Hidden Bar.xcodeproj · medium confidence

The app now requires macOS 13 and uses the modern SMAppService API for login items, replacing the deprecated helper-app approach; this change is reflected in the new AutoStart.swift module and the simplified Util.swift. Additionally, the app now supports Right-to-Left (RTL) languages by dynamically swapping expand/collapse icons based on language direction, and introduces new user preferences for hover-to-expand, full status bar on expand, notch overflow, and always-hidden sections.

hidden/Common · high confidence

The app now uses a new engine-based architecture to hide the menu bar. On macOS 27+ (direct builds), it switches to a native visibility API that restricts visible items, avoiding the old separator-inflation method which no longer works reliably. For older macOS versions, the legacy separator-length method is retained but improved with better handling of multi-display setups and hot-plug events. Additionally, auto-collapse is now deferred while the pointer is in the menubar or the preferences window is open, and a new opt-in 'hover-to-expand' feature allows the bar to reveal itself when the mouse hovers over the menubar area.

hidden/Features/StatusBar · high confidence

Users can now close the Preferences window using the Cmd+W keyboard shortcut, which was previously unsupported. Additionally, if enabling the login item fails, the app now displays an alert explaining the issue and directing users to System Settings, rather than silently reverting the setting.

hidden/Features/Preferences · high confidence

The application's display name has been updated from "Hidden" to "Hidden Bar" across the main menu, submenu items, and the About panel. Additionally, the default File and Edit menus have been removed from the main menu bar, leaving only the application-specific menu, which aligns with the app's utility-focused design.

hidden/Base.lproj · high confidence

The project workspace now includes a standard contents file, and the application's entitlements have been modified to remove the app sandbox and file access restrictions, which may affect how the app interacts with system resources and user files.

Hidden Bar.xcodeproj/project.xcworkspace · medium confidence

The Xcode project has been renamed from 'Hidden' to 'Hidden Bar', updating the application bundle name, scheme names, and container references throughout the build configuration. The 'Hidden Bar App Store' scheme was migrated from the old project structure, upgrading the Xcode version target to 11.3.0 and cleaning up test references to align with the new project layout.

Hidden Bar.xcodeproj/xcshareddata · high confidence

Added unit tests for auto-start, menu-bar layout, and native visibility engine; Added unit tests for notch-overflow feature components.

Written by watchdog.canine.dev from the codebase's own history, inside the signed delivery this page is composed from.

• CAI 48 → 64 (+15.6)
• Rubric changed (rubric-2026.08.15 → rubric-2026.09.15) — scores are not directly comparable.

• Code Health 100 → 99 (-0.8)
• Architecture 94 (new)
• Maturity 65 → 68 (+2.9)
• Readiness 15 → 43 (+28.6)
• Security 100 → 100 (+0.0)

• Dimension evaluation failed
• No automated tests
• No exposed public API
• No tests found
• Test reliability not included

• Duplicated block (26 lines × 2) (hidden/Features/Preferences/PreferencesViewController.swift)
• Duplicated block (7 lines × 2) (hidden/Features/Preferences/PreferencesViewController.swift)
• Low cohesion: PreferencesViewController (LCOM4 8) (hidden/Features/Preferences/PreferencesViewController.swift)
• Low cohesion: PreferencesWindowController (LCOM4 4) (hidden/Features/Preferences/PreferencesWindowController.swift)
• No ADRs found
• NotchOverflowController.getAllMenuBarExtras (cognitive 16) (hidden/Features/NotchOverflow/NotchOverflowController.swift)
• Off-boarding risk: anonymized user #1
• Outdated: hotkey
• TodoComment (hidden/Views/HyperlinkTextField.swift)

• 13 commits — 8 feature/other, 5 fixes

• hidden/Features — 5 commits
• (root) — 2 commits
• Hidden Bar.xcodeproj/xcshareddata — 2 commits
• hidden/AppDelegate.swift — 1 commit
• hidden/Base.lproj — 1 commit
• hidden/Common — 1 commit
• hidden/pl.lproj — 1 commit

• fix: fix: close the preferences window with Cmd+W (#417)
• fix: fix: hide placeholder label on preferences toolbar tabs (#406)
• fix: fix: let VoiceOver toggle the bar via AXPress (#415)
• fix: fix: prevent multiple instances of Hidden Bar running simultaneously (#419)
• fix: fix: surface login-item registration failures in prefs (#416)
• change: chore: add Hidden Bar Direct scheme for the GitHub build (#407)
• change: chore: make Hidden Bar the direct-build scheme (#408)
• change: chore: release v1.11 (build 15)
• change: chore: release v1.11.1 (build 16)
• change: feat: Notch Overflow — access menu bar icons hidden behind the camera notch (#420)
• change: feat: Polish translation with project registration (#418)
• change: feat: native menu-bar hiding on macOS 27 (direct build) (#403)
• change: refactor: isolate menu-bar hiding behind engine (#402)

Written by watchdog.canine.dev from the codebase's own history, inside the signed delivery this page is composed from.

dwarvesf/hidden was measured the same way every project in this corpus was: the same rubric, at a pinned commit, with the result published in full. Point a surveyor at a repository you know and see whether you agree with it.