v0.25: Menu bar icon does not appear, CLI Operates

[anthonyjclarke]

Installed latest version, previous update did not fix visibility of app in Menu Bar

MacOS 26.4.1, MacBook M2 Pro
Downgrading to 0.24 or 0.23 made no difference

`codexbar --version

CodexBar
`
No Version number displayed?

defaults read com.steipete.codexbar
{
    KeychainMigrationV1Completed = 1;
    "NSStatusItem VisibleCC Item-0" = 1;
    "NSWindow Frame CodexBar.HiddenWindowView-1-AppWindow-1" = "-5000 -5019 20 20 0 0 1352 848 ";
    SUAutomaticallyUpdate = 1;
    SUEnableAutomaticChecks = 1;
    SUHasLaunchedBefore = 1;
    SULastCheckTime = "2026-05-10 00:29:46 +0000";
    SUUpdateGroupIdentifier = 898761555;
    appGroupMigrationVersion = 1;
    claudeOAuthDelegatedRefreshCooldownIntervalSecondsV1 = 300;
    claudeOAuthDelegatedRefreshLastAttemptAtV1 = "1778431858.94306";
    claudeWebExtrasEnabled = 0;
    "codexbar.legacySecretsMigrationCompleted" = 1;
    debugDisableKeychainAccess = 0;
    debugLogLevel = verbose;
    openAIWebAccessEnabled = 1;
    openAIWebBatterySaverEnabled = 0;
    providerDetectionCompleted = 1;
    providerStorageFootprintsEnabled = 0;
    refreshFrequency = fiveMinutes;
    sessionQuotaNotificationsEnabled = 1;
    showOptionalCreditsAndExtraUsage = 1;
    tokenCostUsageEnabled = 1;
    weeklyLimitResetDetectorStates = {length = 368, bytes = 0x7b22636c 61756465 3a666262 39306137 ... 3a66616c 73657d7d };
}

Other observations, there is no "~/.codexbar/config.json" or folder created

Not sure if this relevant but when quitting and restarting codexbar.app and running CLI codexbar --status get these 3 permission requests

[pdurlej]

Found the root cause + fix for this issue ✅

After ~4 hours of deep diagnosis on macOS Tahoe 26.5 (MacBook Pro M1 Max), the actual cause turned out to be macOS itself, not CodexBar.

Root cause

macOS Tahoe introduced a new gatekeeper panel:

System Settings → Menu Bar → Allow in the Menu Bar

This is a system-level allow-list for menu bar agents. CodexBar was set to OFF in this list (likely got toggled during the Tahoe 26.x menu bar workflow migration — defaults read com.apple.controlcenter shows HasAttemptedMenuBarWorkflowMigration = 1 + MenuBarCustomizationState key).

When an app is blocked here:

• Process runs normally
• All logs look clean (no errors)
• defaults shows NSStatusItem VisibleCC Item-0 = 1 (app thinks it's visible)
• NSWindow Frame CodexBar.HiddenWindowView is set
• codesign, spctl, Gatekeeper all happy
• macOS silently refuses to render the icon — no signal back to the app

Fix

System Settings → Menu Bar → scroll to bottom → "Allow in the Menu Bar" → toggle CodexBar ON.

Icon appears immediately, no restart needed.

What we ruled out before finding it

• ✅ Fresh download of 0.25.1, 0.24, 0.23 from GitHub releases (all 3 versions broken the same way)
• ✅ Quarantine xattr removed (xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine)
• ✅ spctl --assess accepted (Notarized Developer ID, Y5PE65HELJ)
• ✅ tccutil reset All com.steipete.codexbar
• ✅ Full Disk Access granted
• ✅ defaults delete com.steipete.codexbar + killall cfprefsd
• ✅ rm -rf ~/Library/Containers/com.steipete.codexbar
• ✅ killall SystemUIServer + killall ControlCenter
• ✅ Bartender 6 quit + plist rollback to pre-manipulation backup
• ✅ macOS Tahoe 26.4.1 → 26.5 system update + reboot
• ✅ Cleared NSStatusItem VisibleCC Item-0..40 entries
• ✅ Removed Widget Extension (CodexBarWidget.appex)

Minimal Swift NSStatusItem canary app (40 LoC) also failed to show in menubar at the time — which is the signal that pointed us at system-level gating, not CodexBar specifically.

Suggestion for CodexBar

Could the app detect this state at startup and show a one-time guidance dialog? Something like:

// After NSStatusBar.system.statusItem(withLength:) call
DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: .now() + 2.0) {
    if statusItem.button?.window == nil || statusItem.button?.window?.screen == nil {
        // Likely blocked by macOS Tahoe Menu Bar allow-list
        showAllowListGuidanceDialog()
    }
}

Detection heuristic: button's window isn't attached to a screen → likely blocked. Show a small alert pointing users to System Settings → Menu Bar → Allow in the Menu Bar.

This would save users (and your support inbox) a lot of time on Tahoe.

Credits

Root cause identified via diagnostic suggestion from GPT-5.5 Pro after exhausting standard troubleshooting paths.

[steipete]

Fixed on main via PR #945.

• Merge commit: e6ea0ae Add Tahoe menu bar visibility guidance
• Behavior: CodexBar now detects the macOS Tahoe hidden menu bar / low contrast state and surfaces guidance instead of silently looking missing while the CLI still works.
• Regression coverage: MenuBarVisibilityWatcherTests covers the visibility guidance path.

Verified with make check and full swift test.