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jas952/codex-status-bar

Analysis updated 2026-05-18

0SwiftAudience · developerComplexity · 2/5LicenseSetup · moderate

TLDR

A native macOS menu bar app showing live status for Codex Desktop and CLI tasks, including tool use, approvals, timers, and MCP server health.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((Codex Status Bar))
    What it does
      Menu bar task status
      MCP server health
      Approval alerts
    Tech stack
      Swift
      AppKit
      macOS
    Use cases
      Watch Codex without switching apps
      Check MCP server state
      Track multiple active tasks
    Audience
      Codex users
      macOS developers
      Power users

Code map

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What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

See at a glance whether your Codex Desktop or CLI task is working, waiting for approval, or idle

USE CASE 2

Track which MCP servers are healthy and which tool Codex is actively using

USE CASE 3

Monitor multiple active Codex tasks and their git branch, project, and model from the menu bar

What is it built with?

SwiftAppKitmacOS

How does it compare?

jas952/codex-status-baraiduckman/claudeusage_latest_may2026arnabau/thermalpulse
Stars000
LanguageSwiftSwiftSwift
Setup difficultymoderateeasymoderate
Complexity2/52/53/5
Audiencedevelopervibe coderdeveloper

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

No packaged release yet, requires building from source with the Swift toolchain and Node.js.

MIT license: use, modify, and share freely, including commercially, as long as you keep the copyright notice.

In plain English

Codex Status Bar is a native macOS menu bar app that keeps you posted on what OpenAI's Codex Desktop or Codex CLI is doing, without needing to switch back to the app itself. A small animated cloud icon in your menu bar shows whether Codex is thinking, actively using a tool like reading or editing a file or running a command, waiting for your approval, or sitting idle. It can also show when a task is using an MCP server and tool, and how many delegated subagents are currently active. Each active Codex task gets its own row in the dropdown, showing the real chat title, the git branch and project it belongs to, whether it is running in the desktop app or the CLI, which model is in use, and any active MCP tool. When more than one task is running at once, the icon prioritizes showing an approval request over ongoing work, and ongoing work over idle. A separate section lists every MCP server Codex is configured to use and its current state, such as starting, ready, failed, or needing authentication, along with how many tools each one offers. This live health information comes from a small local sidecar process, and sensitive details like URLs, credentials, and prompt or response content are deliberately left out of anything the app saves to disk. The app requires macOS 12 or newer and a recent version of Codex Desktop or Codex CLI. There is no packaged release yet, so it needs to be built from source using a bundled script, which also handles installing its hooks into Codex's configuration. It can alternatively be installed as a Codex plugin instead of the full app bundle, though the README warns not to run both the app and the plugin's hooks at the same time, since that produces duplicate updates. The project is a fork of an existing Claude focused status bar tool, rebuilt for Codex, has no analytics beyond a once a day update check, and is released under the MIT license as an unofficial, community project not affiliated with OpenAI.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Show me how to build and run Codex Status Bar from source on macOS
Prompt 2
Explain how Codex Status Bar tells the difference between Codex Desktop and Codex CLI tasks
Prompt 3
Help me install Codex Status Bar as a Codex plugin instead of the full app bundle
Prompt 4
What privacy boundaries does Codex Status Bar have around MCP server data

Frequently asked questions

What is codex-status-bar?

A native macOS menu bar app showing live status for Codex Desktop and CLI tasks, including tool use, approvals, timers, and MCP server health.

What language is codex-status-bar written in?

Mainly Swift. The stack also includes Swift, AppKit, macOS.

What license does codex-status-bar use?

MIT license: use, modify, and share freely, including commercially, as long as you keep the copyright notice.

How hard is codex-status-bar to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated moderate, with roughly 30min to a first successful run.

Who is codex-status-bar for?

Mainly developer.

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