Free macOS menu bar app
BuildBar
Netlify sites and build status in the macOS menu bar
List every Netlify site and the latest deploy without opening a dashboard. The icon turns blue while anything is building.
v0.1.5 · 14.3 MB · macOS · Apple silicon · free for personal and public use
What it does
Netlify builds from your menu bar
- All sites and latest deploys from the menu bar
- Blue while building, red if a latest deploy failed
- Auto-Import from Netlify CLI, browser, or a pasted token
Install
Get BuildBar running in under a minute
Terminal install · BuildBar
After downloading the zip
Ad-hoc signed apps are not Apple-notarized. Paste these commands if Gatekeeper blocks launch — same flow across all tools.
1. Unzip into Applications
unzip -o "$HOME/Downloads/BuildBar-0.1.5-macos-arm64.zip" -d /Applications/2. Remove Gatekeeper quarantine (if macOS blocks launch)
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/BuildBar.app"3. Open BuildBar
open -a "BuildBar"
Version history
BuildBar release notes
Every published version, newest first.
v0.1.5
Current9 Oct 2026- You now see when an update is out. When the background check finds a new version, the “Update available” dialog (Install & restart… / Not now) now opens by itself, in front of other windows, once per version. Until now it only posted a notification, which macOS never showed.
- Notifications go through Apple's current API (UNUserNotificationCenter). rumps used the deprecated NSUserNotificationCenter, whose notifications current macOS drops without an error, so the Building / Deployed / Failed deploy notices never appeared either. macOS only shows them for Developer ID signed apps; this ad-hoc build logs the reason to its error log instead.
- HTTPS works on Macs without Homebrew: the bundled OpenSSL only looked for certificates in Homebrew's folder, so requests (update checks included) failed certificate verification there. macOS's own `/etc/ssl/cert.pem` is now trusted as well.
v0.1.4
9 Oct 2026- Built with current dependencies: `packaging` 26.3, `python-dotenv` 1.2.4, `pycryptodomex` 3.24.0, PyInstaller 6.22.3. `requirements.txt` now allows `packaging` 26.x (was capped below 26).
- The build no longer logs `Hidden import 'Crypto' / 'keyring' not found`: those leftover hidden imports were dropped from `build_bar.spec`. browser-cookie3 uses `Cryptodome`, which is still bundled.
v0.1.3
16 Sep 2026- Auto-check for BuildBar updates every 6 hours (was 12). A failed check (offline right after login, server error) is retried up to 3 times, 10 minutes apart, instead of waiting for the next interval.
- Source installs need Python 3.10+: `install.sh` skips Apple's bundled 3.9 and rebuilds a virtualenv created with it (the .app is unaffected).
- The first silent update check really waits a minute after launch. rumps timers fire as soon as they start, so it used to run immediately — twice — often before Wi-Fi was up after login.
v0.1.2
12 Sep 2026- Auto-check for BuildBar updates every 12 hours (first check about a minute after launch). A purple dot on the menu-bar icon plus a notification when a new version is ready; Check for Updates… becomes “Update x.y.z available…”.
v0.1.1
12 Sep 2026- Quit no longer reopens BuildBar. Launch at login used `KeepAlive`, so launchd started the app again. Match RunBar: `KeepAlive` off, unload the login item on Quit (plist stays for the next login).
v0.1.0
10 Sep 2026- First release: menu-bar Netlify build monitor (no Dock icon)
- Lists all sites with latest deploy Ready / Failed / building…
- Blue icon while any site is building, red if the latest deploy failed
- Auto-Import from Netlify CLI, browser `_nf-auth` cookies, or a pasted PAT
- Poll every 30s (15 / 60 / 120 in Settings); 10s while a build is in progress
- Launch at login, notifications, and BuildBar self-update plumbing
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