A small collection of SwiftBar plugins for the macOS menu bar.
- Prerequisites
- SwiftBar Now Playing Menu Bar Widget
- SwiftBar Pomodoro Menu Bar Timer
- SwiftBar Obsidian Daily Note
- SwiftBar Obsidian Work Hours
- SwiftBar Remote PC Stats
# Install SwiftBar
brew install --cask swiftbar
# Launch SwiftBar, then set a plugin directory when prompted (e.g. ~/swiftbar_plugins)obsidian_daily.30s.zsh and obsidian_work_hours.30s.zsh pull and push data to my Obsidian vault.
Script: now_playing.5s.zsh
Displays the currently playing track in the menu bar with playback controls (play/pause, next, previous) and a dropdown showing title, artist, album, and a progress bar. Supports Spotify and Apple Music via AppleScript out of the box, and any audio source (browsers, Podcasts, etc.) when nowplaying-cli is installed.
# Symlink the plugin into your SwiftBar plugin directory
ln -s "$(pwd)/now_playing.5s.zsh" ~/swiftbar_plugins/
chmod +x now_playing.5s.zsh
# Optional: install nowplaying-cli for system-wide support (browsers, Podcasts, etc.)
brew install nowplaying-cli
# Required for the AppleScript fallback to parse track info
brew install jq
# CLI control (also available from the menu bar dropdown)
./now_playing.5s.zsh playpause # toggle play/pause
./now_playing.5s.zsh next # next track
./now_playing.5s.zsh prev # previous track
./now_playing.5s.zsh open # open the source appScript: pomodoro.1s.zsh
A Pomodoro timer that lives in the menu bar. Shows the current phase icon (focus / break / paused) with MM:SS countdown, fires a system notification at each phase transition, and exposes start / pause / skip / restart / stop controls plus duration + cycle settings from the dropdown. State persists in /tmp/pomodoro_swiftbar.state; settings persist in ~/.config/pomodoro_swiftbar.conf.
Standing-desk mode adds a nested layer for regulating standing-desk use. When enabled, each cycle (round) is tagged standing or sitting, running in repeating blocks — by default 2 standing rounds then 2 sitting rounds — and you get a notification to change posture at each switch. Configurable from the dropdown: toggle the mode, choose whether to start with standing or sitting, and set the number of stand / sit rounds per block.
# Symlink the plugin into your SwiftBar plugin directory
ln -s "$(pwd)/pomodoro.1s.zsh" ~/swiftbar_plugins/
chmod +x pomodoro.1s.zsh
# Override defaults with environment variables (optional)
export POM_WORK_MIN=25 # focus duration in minutes
export POM_BREAK_MIN=5 # break duration in minutes
export POM_CYCLES=4 # number of cycles
export POM_DESK_MODE=1 # enable standing-desk alternation (0/1)
export POM_STAND_ROUNDS=2 # consecutive standing rounds per block
export POM_SIT_ROUNDS=2 # consecutive sitting rounds per block
export POM_START_POSTURE=stand # first round posture (stand or sit)
# CLI control (also available from the menu bar dropdown)
./pomodoro.1s.zsh start # start a pomodoro session
./pomodoro.1s.zsh pause_resume # toggle pause/resume
./pomodoro.1s.zsh skip # skip to next phase
./pomodoro.1s.zsh reset # restart from cycle 1
./pomodoro.1s.zsh stop # stop and resetScript: obsidian_daily.30s.zsh
Single-click editor for today's Obsidian daily note. Clicking the menu bar icon (square.and.pencil SF Symbol) opens a dark-themed dialog pre-filled with one or more ## sections from today's note (defaults: Work log, Tasks, Scratch). Cmd+S saves all sections back in place; Esc cancels. Other daily note sections, frontmatter, and surrounding content are left untouched.
# Symlink the plugin into your SwiftBar plugin directory
ln -s "$(pwd)/obsidian_daily.30s.zsh" ~/swiftbar_plugins/
chmod +x obsidian_daily.30s.zsh
# Override defaults with environment variables (optional)
export OBS_VAULT_PATH=/Users/you/Obsidian/MyVault # absolute path to vault root
export OBS_DAILY_SUBDIR=0_periodic/daily # daily notes folder, relative to vault
export OBS_DATE_FORMAT=%Y-%m-%d # strftime format for filename
export OBS_SECTIONS="Work log,Tasks,Scratch" # comma-separated H2 sections to edit
export OBS_TEMPLATE_FILE=/path/to/template.md # optional template for new notesScript: obsidian_work_hours.30s.zsh
Shows how many hours you've worked today vs how many you planned to work, sourced from your Obsidian daily and weekly notes. Menu bar reads worked/planned h (e.g. 3.7/8.0h) with an hourglass SF Symbol. The dropdown lists per-project hours (via the ## Work Codes table in 5_system/tags.md) and offers quick links to open today's daily note or this week's weekly note in Obsidian.
Worked hours are summed from HH:MM-HH:MM bullets in today's daily note ## Work log section that include an #abmi/ tag (excluding #abmi/sick_day and #abmi/vacation_day), matching the calculation used in the weekly note's Planned Hours block. Planned hours are parsed from rows[N].hours = X.X; in this week's weekly note, where N is today's day-of-week index (0=Sun .. 6=Sat).
# Symlink the plugin into your SwiftBar plugin directory
ln -s "$(pwd)/obsidian_work_hours.30s.zsh" ~/swiftbar_plugins/
chmod +x obsidian_work_hours.30s.zsh
# Override defaults with environment variables (optional)
export OBS_VAULT_PATH=/Users/you/Obsidian/MyVault # absolute path to vault root
export OBS_DAILY_SUBDIR=0_periodic/daily # daily notes folder, relative to vault
export OBS_WEEKLY_SUBDIR=0_periodic/weekly # weekly notes folder, relative to vault
export OBS_VAULT_NAME=MyVault # vault name used in obsidian:// URLs
Scripts: remote_stats.30s.zsh (mac) + remote_stats/write_stats.ps1 (Windows PC)
Shows a remote Windows PC's CPU and memory in the menu bar (server.rack 23% / 47%). The PC pushes its stats out through Dropbox: a per-minute scheduled task writes a stats file into this repo's Dropbox-synced remote_stats/ folder, and the mac widget reads it from the same folder.
The reading turns orange/red as usage gets high. The dropdown adds used/total GB and the last update time. If updates stop (PC off/asleep, or Dropbox not syncing) it shows stale with the last known values; before any data syncs, no data.
Windows PC setup (one time, no admin needed): make sure Dropbox is installed and signed in to the same account as the mac (so this repo's remote_stats/ folder syncs onto the PC), then register a per-user scheduled task to run the synced script every minute. Point -File at wherever your Dropbox keeps this repo.
Open Command Prompt and paste the below script as one line. It runs the script through run_hidden.vbs (a tiny wrapper in the same folder) via wscript, so no console window flashes each minute:
schtasks /create /tn "Dropbox PC Stats" /sc minute /mo 1 /f /ru "DOMAIN\user" /it /tr "wscript \"%USERPROFILE%\Dropbox\3_resources\menu_bar_apps\remote_stats\run_hidden.vbs\""Replace DOMAIN\user with your own account (e.g. %USERNAME% for the current user). You should see SUCCESS: The scheduled task "Dropbox PC Stats" has successfully created.
To remove it later:
schtasks /delete /tn "Dropbox PC Stats" /fIt writes <COMPUTERNAME>.dat next to itself in remote_stats/ (line format: cpuPct;memPct;usedGB;totalGB;epoch;hostname; ignored by git). Full setup notes, including how to test and remove the task, are in the header of remote_stats/write_stats.ps1.
# Symlink the plugin into your SwiftBar plugin directory
ln -s "$(pwd)/remote_stats.30s.zsh" ~/swiftbar_plugins/
chmod +x remote_stats.30s.zsh
# Override defaults with environment variables (or ~/.config/remote_stats_swiftbar.conf)
# By default reads the newest *.dat from the repo's remote_stats/ folder.
export STATS_DIR=~/Dropbox/3_resources/menu_bar_apps/remote_stats # folder holding the .dat files
export STATS_FILE=.../remote_stats/ABMI1026.dat # optional; default: newest *.dat in STATS_DIR
export REMOTE_LABEL=ABMI # optional short label in the menu bar
export STALE_SECS=180 # flag data as stale after N seconds
export WARN_PCT=75 # colour reading orange at/above this %
export CRIT_PCT=90 # colour reading red at/above this %