Frost

A lightweight, open-source menu bar manager for macOS Tahoe (26.x) and later.

Frost is a minimal alternative to Ice and Bartender built specifically for macOS Tahoe, where Ice 0.11.x fails with Missing control item for hidden section errors due to the redesigned menu bar.

Why Frost?

Ice hasn't been updated since October 2024 and crashes on macOS Tahoe. Bartender costs $16. Frost is free, open-source, and built with Swift 6 / SwiftUI targeting macOS 14+ (Sonoma, Sequoia, Tahoe).

Features

v1.1.0

• Physical menu bar hiding — Uses the "wide item push" technique: creates an extremely wide NSStatusItem that pushes items to its left off-screen. No private APIs — 100% public AppKit.
• Persistent state — Hidden/always-hidden item IDs saved to UserDefaults. Your hide/show configuration survives restarts.
• Launch at login — Toggle via Settings or menu. Uses SMAppService (macOS 13+).
• Accessibility permission detection — Checks on launch, shows a prompt with deep-link to System Settings. Monitors for permission changes automatically.
• App icon — Custom snowflake icon generated programmatically as .icns, integrated into the .app bundle.
• Three-section model — Visible, Hidden, and Always Hidden sections (like Ice/Bartender).
• Tabbed settings window — General, Items, and About tabs.
• Menu bar item detection via the Accessibility API (AXUIElement)
• Auto-hide polling every 2 seconds to detect new menu bar items
• Snowflake icon drawn programmatically (no asset dependencies)
• Accessory activation policy (no dock icon, no app in app switcher)

v1.0.0

• Menu bar item detection via Accessibility API
• Hide/unhide items from dropdown menu
• Hidden section toggle with chevron icon
• SwiftUI settings window
• 15 unit tests passing

Requirements

• macOS 14.0+ (Sonoma, Sequoia, Tahoe)
• Xcode 16+ / Swift 6.0+ (for building from source)
• Accessibility permission required for menu bar item detection

Installation

Option 1: Pre-built Release

1. Download Frost.app.zip from the latest release
2. Unzip and drag Frost.app to /Applications/
3. Launch Frost
4. Grant Accessibility permission when prompted:
   • System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility
   • Add Frost (or toggle it on)

Option 2: Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/KevinOBytes/frost.git
cd frost
swift build -c release

The binary will be at .build/release/Frost. Run it directly:

.build/release/Frost

Option 3: Build .app Bundle

git clone https://github.com/KevinOBytes/frost.git
cd frost
./scripts/build-app.sh

This produces Frost.app in the build/ directory with a custom icon, which you can drag to /Applications/.

Usage

Action	How
Open Frost menu	Click the snowflake icon in the menu bar
Hide an item	Frost menu > hover item name > "Hide"
Always hide an item	Frost menu > hover item name > "Always Hide"
Unhide an item	Frost menu > Hidden section > click item name
Toggle hidden section	Click the chevron icon next to snowflake
Open Settings	Frost menu > Settings...
Toggle auto-hide	Frost menu > Auto-hide enabled
Launch at login	Frost menu > Launch at Login, or Settings > General
Quit	Frost menu > Quit Frost (Cmd+Q)

How It Works

Physical Hiding (Push Technique)

Frost uses three NSStatusItem instances:

1. Main status item (snowflake icon) — dropdown menu with item management
2. Hidden section control (left chevron) — when collapsed, expands to 10,000pt width, pushing all items to its left off-screen
3. Always-hidden control (left chevron) — same technique for always-hidden items

This is the same technique Ice uses (confirmed in Ice issue #378). No private APIs, no undocumented frameworks — just public NSStatusItem.length.

Persistent State

Hidden and always-hidden item IDs are stored in UserDefaults and restored on launch. The polling timer re-scans menu bar items every 2 seconds, and the persisted IDs are matched against detected items to determine visibility.

Accessibility Permission

Frost uses AXIsProcessTrustedWithOptions to check permission on launch. If not granted, it shows an alert with a button that deep-links to x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.security?Privacy_Accessibility. A 5-second monitoring timer detects when permission is granted and automatically refreshes.

Launch at Login

Uses SMAppService.mainApp (macOS 13+) — the modern replacement for the old Login Items approach. Toggle from the menu or Settings > General.

App Icon

The snowflake icon is generated programmatically via Swift code that draws to an NSImage, then sips + iconutil convert it to a proper .icns file with all required sizes (16x16 through 512x512@2x). See scripts/generate-icon.sh.

Known Limitations

• Item IDs are position+title based: If an item changes position or title significantly, its persisted ID may not match on next launch.
• Item icons not yet captured: The Accessibility API exposes titles but not icons reliably across all items.
• No drag-to-reorder: Items are listed in the order the Accessibility API returns them.

Project Structure

frost/
├── Package.swift                    # Swift Package Manager manifest
├── README.md                        # This file
├── LICENSE                          # MIT
├── scripts/
│   ├── build-app.sh                 # Build script for .app bundle with icon
│   └── generate-icon.sh             # Generate .icns from Swift-drawn snowflake
├── Sources/
│   └── Frost/
│       ├── FrostApp.swift           # SwiftUI app entry point
│       ├── FrostDelegate.swift      # App delegate, status items, hiding, AX, SMAppService
│       └── FrostSettingsView.swift  # SwiftUI settings window (3 tabs)
└── Tests/
    └── FrostTests/
        └── FrostTests.swift         # 18 unit tests (state, items, persistence, hide/unhide)

Development

Build (debug)

swift build

Build (release)

swift build -c release

Run tests

swift test

Run directly

swift run

Build .app bundle with icon

./scripts/build-app.sh

Tech Stack

• Language: Swift 6.2
• UI Framework: SwiftUI + AppKit (NSStatusItem, NSMenu)
• Menu Bar Detection: Accessibility API (AXUIElement)
• Launch at Login: ServiceManagement (SMAppService)
• Persistent State: UserDefaults
• Icon Generation: sips + iconutil
• Package Manager: Swift Package Manager
• Minimum Target: macOS 14.0 (Sonoma)
• Built/Tested On: macOS 26.5 (Tahoe), Xcode 26.3

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Contributing

PRs welcome for:

• Drag-to-reorder support
• Item icon capture
• Search/filter in the dropdown
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Profiles (save/restore configurations)
• Rules engine (conditional auto-hide)
• Sparkle update framework
• CI/CD via GitHub Actions

Changelog

v1.1.0

• Physical menu bar hiding via wide-item push technique (no private APIs)
• Persistent state via UserDefaults (hidden/always-hidden item IDs survive restarts)
• Launch at login via SMAppService
• Accessibility permission detection with auto-monitoring
• App icon (.icns) generated programmatically
• Three-section model (Visible / Hidden / Always Hidden)
• Tabbed settings window (General / Items / About)
• 18 unit tests (up from 15)

v1.0.0

• Initial release
• Menu bar item detection via Accessibility API
• Hide/unhide from dropdown menu
• Hidden section toggle with chevron
• SwiftUI settings window
• 15 unit tests