holzBar keeps your menu bar tidy: hide what you don't need, reveal it when you do,
and make the bar look the way you like — on the notch, on every display, on macOS 27.
Install · Features · Comparison · Privacy · Troubleshooting · Credits
Important
🪵 holzBar is a fork of the wonderful Ice by Jordan Baird
Ice is one of the best menu bar managers ever made for the Mac, and nearly everything you see here is Jordan's work. holzBar only keeps it going on macOS 27 while upstream development is slow. If you enjoy holzBar, please ⭐ star Ice and consider sponsoring Jordan. holzBar is independent and not affiliated with or endorsed by the Ice project.
An independent fork of Ice, kept alive for macOS 27:
| 🪵 macOS 14 to 27 | A dedicated backend for the redesigned macOS 27 menu bar. Every pull request launches the app on macOS 14, 15, 26 and 27 and runs the unit tests. |
| 🔒 Never online | No update checks, telemetry or analytics. A CI check proves there is no network code in the app. |
| 📦 Zero dependencies, modern Swift | Built with Swift 6.4 and Xcode 27, Swift 6 language mode, no third-party packages. |
| 🛡️ Least privilege | Only Accessibility at first launch; Screen Recording only when a feature needs it. |
| ✨ More features | Profiles, folders, spacers, Zen mode, Shortcuts actions, a black menu bar, URL commands, settings sync through any folder. |
| 🌍 Five languages | English, German, French, Italian and Romansh. |
— means not available or not documented. 🔜 means planned: not available yet. The full comparison has every row.
| Ice 0.11.12 | Thaw 3.0 beta | holzBar | |
|---|---|---|---|
| macOS 14 – 26 | ✅ | macOS 26 only | ✅ |
| macOS 27 | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Layout profiles, groups, spacers | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Zen mode, URL commands, Shortcuts actions | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Settings sync: iCloud Drive or any synced folder | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Network connections | Sparkle update checks | Sparkle update checks | none |
| Swift packages | 5 | 10 | none |
| Swift language mode | Swift 5 | Swift 6 | Swift 6 |
| Rules (Wi-Fi, app, time, power, display, Focus) | ❌ | ✅ | 🔜 |
brew tap holzcloud/holzbar https://github.com/holzcloud/holzBar
brew trust --cask holzcloud/holzbar/holzbar
brew install --cask holzbarbrew trust is needed once: Homebrew only installs casks from third-party taps that you have trusted. Quit Ice, Thaw, Bartender or Hidden Bar first; your Ice settings are imported on the first launch.
Update: brew update && brew upgrade --cask holzbar. Coming from 0.0.5? It was a different app and cask; the 0.0.6 release notes list the steps.
If macOS says holzBar "can't be opened":
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/holzBar.appThen open it again. The release is signed with holzBar's own certificate and carries a build provenance attestation; certificate SHA-256 e55f0df15060b8c06c6842ccee85e6bc9f86cbbda3bd408abf991457840b1d95; see docs/signing.md. To build from source, see Build and troubleshooting.
Warning
macOS 27: while holzBar hides menu bar items, Control Centre does not show its camera, microphone and screen recording indicator (the green dot beside the clock still shows the camera). holzBar cannot prevent this; it comes back while no item is hidden. Details
Not available yet. Plans can change; spike = only built if a short test shows it works well.
| ⚙️ Automation | Rules (Wi-Fi, app, time, power, display, Focus; spike first: Focus) · per-item conditions · scripts (only from a folder you choose, after you confirm) · widgets · AppleScript dictionary · command palette |
| 🛟 Safety | Layout snapshots with a one-click restore · shareable profiles · Touch ID to show hidden items · copy diagnostics (redacted, nothing is sent) |
| 🪄 Convenience | First-launch assistant · opt-in usage suggestions (counters stay on your Mac) · smooth show and hide |
| 🪵 macOS 27 and polish | Native overflow button support · Reduce Transparency · SwiftUI reordering (spike) · Control Center control (spike) · keyboard and VoiceOver audit · Swift 6.4 clean-up |
Details: docs/features.md.
Features and gallery · macOS 27 notes · Privacy and permissions · Troubleshooting · Full comparison
- Ice by Jordan Baird — the app holzBar is built on: its design, its features and almost all of its code. Thank you, Jordan! 💙 If you like it, sponsor Jordan or buy him a coffee.
- RabenkoYevhenii — the macOS 27 backend (jordanbaird/Ice#995).
- Barometer by mackid1993 and Thaw by thaw-app — the macOS 27 assertion code holzBar's hiding is adapted from.
holzBar links no third-party package. The adapted projects and their licenses are listed in the app under Settings → About → Acknowledgements.
holzBar is available under the GPL-3.0 license, like Ice. See NOTICE for attribution and a summary of the changes made in this fork.