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HANDOFF.md

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Handoff — MenuBarBuddy

Generated: 2026-03-23

Last Working On

Debugging a collapse bug on macOS 26 (Tahoe). The app's core mechanism — setting a huge NSStatusItem.length on the separator to push other menu bar items off-screen — is broken. Clicking the dot clears the separator text but items don't get pushed, leaving the separator invisible and unclickable.

Status

  • App architecture: Working — Swift Package, two status items (dot toggle + separator), HotKey for global shortcut, SwiftUI settings window
  • Collapse mechanism: BROKEN on macOS 26.2. The width-push trick that worked on macOS 14-15 no longer hides items. This is the same class of bug as the "status items breaking after reboot" fix (commit abe77d5)
  • Installed copy: /Applications/MenuBarBuddy.app/ (stale binary from before this debug session)

Investigation Done

  • Tried replacing the isCollapsed computed property (reads back separatorItem.length) with a stored _collapsed boolean — didn't fix it alone, confirming the issue is the collapse mechanism itself, not just state tracking
  • Added debug prints but didn't get to read the output before closing
  • macOS 26 likely clamps or ignores very large NSStatusItem.length values

Next Steps

  1. Add debug logging and run from terminal to confirm what separatorItem.length actually reports after being set
  2. Research how other menu bar hider apps (Ice, Hidden Bar) handle macOS 26 — they use the same width trick
  3. Possible alternative approaches: multiple filler status items, NSStatusItem.isVisible, or new macOS 26 APIs
  4. The autosaveName keys cleared in setupUI() use "mbb3-toggle"/"mbb3-separator" but no autosaveName is set on the items — verify those UserDefaults keys are even doing anything

Open Branches

  • main only (up to date with origin)

Key Commands

swift build
cp .build/debug/MenuBarBuddy MenuBarBuddy.app/Contents/MacOS/MenuBarBuddy
open MenuBarBuddy.app

Resume Notes

  • The app needs Accessibility permissions — when rebuilding, remind user to remove old entry from Privacy > Accessibility before replacing the binary
  • The installed app is at /Applications/MenuBarBuddy.app/
  • There was also a copy at /Users/cf/Projects/MenuBarBuddy/ (capital P) with its own .build dir — that's likely the original dev directory