smabar

Your app dock. Extendable with your own plugins.

Linux · Windows · macOS (beta)

Download · Docs · Plugin Store · Changelog

Pin apps, folders, files and websites to one edge of the screen. Add plugins
for whatever you want to keep an eye on: clock, system, media, weather, crypto
and todos come built in, more are in the store, and a coding agent can write
you a new one over MCP. smabar runs beside your system taskbar; it shows no
window list and no tray.

Install

Packages, checksums and release notes: https://smabar.com/download/

Direct installations check for signed updates and install them only after you
confirm. Plugins need Python; smabar sets it up on first use.

Plugins

A plugin is a tile on the bar, a flyout for the details and a popup when
something happens. Everything about it lives in your home directory:
~/.smabar/plugins/<id>/ holds the code, ~/.smabar/data/<id>/ its data,
~/.smabar/logs/ its log. Edit a file and the plugin reloads.

Any language. A plugin is a process that speaks JSON-RPC 2.0 over stdin
and stdout, one message per line: it receives its settings, renders HTML and
hears about clicks. "runtime": "exec" starts whatever program you name, in
Go, Rust, Node or a shell script.

Python without setup. smabar ships uv and installs its own Python 3.14
under ~/.smabar/tools/, separate from anything on your system.
"runtime": "python" runs your script with uv run --script, so dependencies
are declared in the script header (PEP 723) and installed on first start. The
SDK in sdk/ (MIT) handles the protocol; a plugin is render(),
log() and on_action(). The six bundled plugins in plugins/
(MIT) are the reference.

    

More plugins and themes are in the Plugin Store.
They live in public GitHub repositories; the catalog is signed, and the app
asks before it installs anything.

MCP: your agent builds and uses plugins

The bar runs an MCP server at http://127.0.0.1:7627/mcp, localhost only.
Connect Claude Code, Codex or any MCP client you run locally
(setup). It can do two things.

Build a plugin. Describe what you want to see:

Show the next departures of bus 412 from Marktplatz on the bar. Count the
minutes down and send a popup two minutes before.

The agent reads the built-in guide (plugin_guide), writes the files into
~/.smabar/plugins/ (plugin_write_file) and the plugin runs without a
restart. Every write answers with the plugin's warnings and render status, so
the agent checks its own work.

Use a plugin. A running plugin can register commands with JSON Schemas;
the agent discovers them with plugin_commands and calls them with
plugin_call. The bundled Todos plugin registers todos.list, todos.create,
todos.update, todos.complete, todos.reopen, todos.delete and
todos.snooze. The tasks live in ~/.smabar/data/todos/ and never leave your
machine. One paragraph in your project's CLAUDE.md, and your agent plans
against the same list you see on the bar:

My tasks live in smabar's Todos plugin. Before planning, read them through the
smabar MCP tool `plugin_call` (plugin `todos`, command `todos.list`). Create
the next steps with `todos.create`, with a reminder where it helps, and
complete finished ones with `todos.complete`.

Make it yours

Top or bottom edge. Reserve space, float freely or auto-hide. A fisheye that
magnifies the tile under the pointer. Four themes built in; a theme is one
JSON file with colours, fonts and behaviour, so describing a look to your agent
is enough to get a new one.

Boring where it counts

• Every plugin is its own process. A crashing plugin never takes the bar with it.
• Plugins deliver HTML, no JavaScript. The bar sanitises the markup and provides the interactions itself.
• No cloud, no account. The MCP server listens on localhost only.
• Plugin processes run with your user rights, so read a plugin before you install it. The source is here: read every line before you trust it.

Build from source

Stable Rust (rust-toolchain.toml), Bun, uv and just. Linux additionally
needs the Tauri system libraries listed in .github/workflows/ci.yml.

just check   # every gate: format, lint, tests
just dev     # the app against the Vite dev server
just build   # release bundles for this machine

Contributing

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

PolyForm Shield 1.0.0. The plugin SDK in sdk/ and the bundled
plugins in plugins/ are additionally available under the MIT license.