boltbar Ask anything, from anywhere.
Boltbar is a small, native chat bar for macOS. Press ⌥ Space in any app, ask GPT or Claude, and get back to what you were doing.
New in 0.6: agent mode. Press ⌘ J and Claude Code or Codex does the work in a project folder, asking before it acts as much as you want it to.
brew install --cask juanluisrto/boltbar/boltbar
or
download the app
macOS 13+ · Apple Silicon and Intel · signed and notarized · MIT
Try it
This is the bar itself, rebuilt in your browser. Replies are canned and no model is called, but the keys work as they do on your Mac. Agent mode runs a scripted agent in a pretend project; nothing touches your files.
ask:
agent:
theme:
| ⌥ Space | Open Boltbar over any app. If a reply is still coming, it returns where you left it. |
|---|---|
| esc | Hide it. |
| ↵ | Send. ⇧ ↵ adds a line. |
| ↵ again | While it answers, queue your next message. It goes out when the reply ends. |
| ↑ ↓ | Switch model, with the field empty. |
| ← → | Then set the thinking effort. |
| → | Open your previous chats. |
| type, → | Search every message and reopen a chat. ← takes you back to the list. |
| ⌘ J | Agent mode: the terminal chip shows the project and its permission light. Click the terminal icon to turn it off. |
| tab | With the field empty, outline the model chip, then the agent chip. ⇧ tab goes back. |
| ← → on it | Change the permission. ↑ ↓ change project, ↵ turns agent mode on or off. |
| ⌘ ↵ | Allow what the agent asks for. ⌥ ⌘ ↵ allows it for the rest of the chat, esc denies. |
| /terminal | Copy the command that continues this agent chat in your terminal. |
| /help | Every key and command, inside the bar. Type / to see the commands. |
Agent mode
Turn it on and your request goes to the Claude Code or Codex CLI you already use, working in a project folder you choose. Each action shows as one line above the reply, and it asks before it acts as much as you want it to.
- look
- Reads files and runs read-only commands; anything else is refused.
- ask
- Asks before every command or change: ⌘ ↵ allows, ⌥ ⌘ ↵ allows it for the rest of the chat, esc denies.
- edit
- Changes files in the project without asking, deletes included, and asks before anything else.
- full
- Never asks, and can run any command anywhere on your Mac. It takes a second press, and goes back to Ask after 24 hours unless you turn that off in Settings.
- projects
- Your Documents folder to start. Drop a folder on the bar to add it; each one remembers its permission.
- rules
- It follows the
CLAUDE.mdorAGENTS.mdat the top of the project, whichever it has. - terminal
- Every agent chat is a real Claude Code session or Codex thread.
/terminalcopies the command that picks it up where Boltbar left off. Switching project or CLI starts a new one. - needs
- The Claude Code or Codex CLI, signed in. Web search is off while it works.
Also
- accounts
- Your OpenAI or Anthropic API keys, kept in the Keychain, or the Codex and Claude Code logins you already have.
- attachments
- Paste, drop or pick images, PDFs and text files. They stay with the message for follow-up questions. PDFs need an API key; with a CLI login, images and text files work.
- web
- Hover + for the globe: turn it on and the model searches when it needs to, citing its sources. With Codex, search needs an OpenAI API key.
- commands
- Type /:
/help,/new,/agent,/terminal. - themes
- Paper, Mist, Graphite and Midnight, with any accent colour.
- size
- Swift and AppKit. About 12 MB installed, under 4 MB to download. No Electron, no account.
- updates
- Signed, in-app, installed when you choose.
Privacy
Your keys stay in the Keychain. Chats and attachments stay on your Mac, in ~/Library/Application Support/Boltbar. Boltbar talks to the provider you choose and to GitHub to check for updates. There are no analytics. In agent mode, the Claude Code or Codex CLI runs on your Mac in the folder you choose and sends what it reads to its provider, as it does in your terminal. The permission light decides what it may do without asking; in Full, that is anything. Its sessions stay in its own history on your Mac.
Install
With Homebrew:
brew install --cask juanluisrto/boltbar/boltbar
Boltbar keeps updating itself, so brew upgrade leaves it alone unless you pass --greedy. Without Homebrew, download the signed DMG or ZIP from the latest release, or run:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/juanluisrto/boltbar/main/install.sh | sh
The script checks the release checksum and keeps any previous version as a backup. Boltbar needs macOS 13 Ventura or later, and an OpenAI or Anthropic API key or a Codex or Claude Code login.
Support
Boltbar is free, MIT licensed and works fully without paying. If it's useful to you, a one-off supporter license, €19 or $19, keeps it going and turns off the occasional reminder. Stripe takes the payment and handles VAT, and your key appears as soon as you've paid. Paste it in Settings → License; it's checked on your Mac and never sent anywhere.