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Asaf Manassen
Asaf Manassen

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BriefBar: A native macOS menu bar & widget for GitHub PRs, Azure DevOps, and Copilot sessions

#swift #showdev #opensource #ai

Constantly jumping between browser tabs and terminal windows just to check if an Azure DevOps pipeline finished, a GitHub PR needs review, or a local GitHub Copilot session is waiting on input kills focus.

I built brief-bar to put all of that into a single glanceable macOS menu bar popover and desktop widget.

What it does

brief-bar is a native Swift/SwiftUI utility designed around opt-in developer data sources and strict local privacy:

  • Unified Dev Status: Track GitHub PRs, Azure DevOps items/pipelines, and local GitHub Copilot sessions from one menu bar icon or macOS desktop widget. Every source is strictly opt-in—you only enable what you actually use.
  • On-Device Apple Intelligence Summaries: Instead of dumping raw notification lists, brief-bar uses Apple's on-device Foundation Models to generate a quick brief of what needs your attention. Because it runs 100% locally via Apple Intelligence, there are no extra API keys to configure and your work metadata never leaves your Mac.
  • Zero Electron Bloat: Built natively with SwiftUI and WidgetKit so it uses minimal memory and feels like a built-in part of macOS.

Try it out (Homebrew or Build from Source)

You can install it directly via Homebrew or compile it from source:

brew tap mnsn/brief-bar [https://github.com/mnsn/brief-bar](https://github.com/mnsn/brief-bar)
brew install --cask brief-bar
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(Note on macOS Gatekeeper: This is a free hobby project, so I'm holding off on paying the $99/year Apple Developer notarization fee until I see if other engineers find it useful. Every release is built transparently via GitHub Actions—if macOS flags the unsigned app on first launch, run xattr -cr /Applications/BriefBar.app or allow it under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway, or build it straight from source.)

Looking for feedback
This is my first time sharing brief-bar publicly, and I'd love honest feedback from other macOS developers:

If you juggle multiple tools during the day, which data sources or status triggers would make this a daily driver for you (e.g., GitLab, Jira, Linear, local Docker/K8s status)?

How does the on-device summary feel on your setup?

Repo & source code: github.com/mnsn/brief-bar

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