explaingit

kevinbudz/quickbar

★ 17C++Audience · developerComplexity · 3/5Setup · moderate

TLDR

A KDE Plasma 6 panel widget that moves application menu bars into your desktop panel, similar to how macOS menus work, with more appearance and behavior options than the default Global Menu widget.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((quickbar))
    What it does
      Replace Global Menu
      Move app menus to panel
      macOS style menus
    Tech stack
      C++
      KDE Plasma 6
      DBus
      CMake
    Installation
      AUR for Arch Linux
      Install script
      Manual cmake
    Requirements
      Plasma 6 or newer
Click or tap to explore — scroll the page freely

Code map

Detail Auto

An interactive map of this repo's files and how they connect — its source is parsed live in your browser. Click Visualize to build it.

filefunction / class

Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Replace Plasma's built-in Global Menu widget with one that gives you more control over how the menu bar looks and behaves in your panel.

USE CASE 2

Install the widget on Arch Linux with a single AUR package manager command without compiling anything manually.

USE CASE 3

Build and install the widget from source on Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, or openSUSE using the included install script that detects your distro and handles dependencies automatically.

Tech stack

C++QMLCMakeKDE PlasmaDBus

Getting it running

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Requires KDE Plasma 6.0 or newer, non-Arch users must compile from source using the provided install script or manual cmake steps.

In plain English

Quickbar is a panel widget for the KDE Plasma 6 desktop on Linux. It replaces Plasma's built-in Global Menu widget. The Global Menu is the feature that moves an application's menu bar (the File, Edit, View strip) out of the application window and into the desktop panel at the top or bottom of the screen. This is similar to how macOS works, where menus always appear at the top of the screen regardless of which application is in focus. Quickbar does the same job but gives you more control over its appearance and behavior than the default widget provides. The README is short and does not list which specific appearance or behavior options are extended. What it does make clear is that quickbar uses the same underlying system (the DBus app-menu protocol) as the official KDE widget, so it should be compatible with the same applications. Installing on Arch Linux is straightforward through the AUR package manager using the package name plasma6-applets-quickbar. For Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, and openSUSE, the repository includes an install script that detects your distribution, installs the required build dependencies, and compiles the widget automatically. After installation you restart Plasma and add quickbar from the widget gallery under the Windows and Tasks category. A manual cmake build path is also documented for users who prefer to control the process step by step. Plasma 6.0 or newer is required. The project is written in C++ and the author notes that binary packages for more distributions are planned.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
I installed quickbar on KDE Plasma 6 but I can't find it in the widget gallery. What category is it listed under and how do I add it to my panel?
Prompt 2
I want to build quickbar from source using cmake on my Fedora system. Walk me through the manual cmake build steps documented in the repository.
Prompt 3
The quickbar widget uses the DBus app-menu protocol the same way as the official KDE Global Menu. How do I check whether my application is exporting its menu bar over DBus so quickbar can pick it up?
Prompt 4
I added quickbar to my Plasma panel but some apps still show their menu bar inside the window instead of in the panel. What determines whether an app's menu is exported to the panel widget?
Open on GitHub → Explain another repo

← kevinbudz on gitmyhub — every repo by this author, as a profile.

Verify against the repo before relying on details.