OSX Notifier

A lightweight macOS menu bar application written in Go that displays a bell icon in the menu bar with "About" and "Quit" options. Built with the systray library for true menu bar-only behavior.

Features

✅ True Menu Bar-Only App - No Dock icon, runs silently in the menu bar ✅ Bell Icon - Template-styled PNG icon that adapts to dark/light mode ✅ Native Dialogs - Uses macOS native dialogs via osascript ✅ Lightweight - Minimal dependencies (~10 packages) ✅ Clean Architecture - Channel-based event handling ✅ Comprehensive Tests - Full test coverage with TDD approach

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Building & Running

Development

# Run tests
make test

# Build binary only
make build

# Build app bundle
make app

# Build and run
make run

# Clean build artifacts
make clean

Running the App

open osxnotifier.app

To stop the app, click the bell icon and select "Quit".

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Project Structure

osxnotifier/
├── main.go              # App initialization and lifecycle
├── icon.go              # Bell icon (template-styled SVG)
├── menu.go              # Menu creation and items
├── about.go             # About dialog logic
├── main_test.go         # App initialization tests
├── icon_test.go         # Icon and system tray tests
├── menu_test.go         # Menulifecycle using systray.Run()
├── icon.go              # Bell icon (embedded PNG)
├── menu.go              # Channel-based menu handling
├── about.go             # Native osascript dialogs
├── bell-icon.png        # 22x22px template-styled icon
├── generate_icon.go     # Icon generator utility
├── main_test.go         # Lifecycle tests
├── icon_test.go         # Icon validation tests
├── menu_test.go         # Menu structure tests
├── about_test.go        # Dialog tests
├── Info.plist           # macOS app bundle config (LSUIElement=true)
├── Makefile             # Build automation
└── plans/               # Implementation documentation
**Current:**
- **Language:** Go 1.26
- **Menu Bar Library:** fyne.io/systray v1.12.0
- **Icon:** Template-styled PNG (22x22px, black on transparent)
- **Dialog:** Native macOS osascript
- **Dependencies:** Minimal (~10 packages total)
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## Development History

### Completed Phases

1. ✅ **Phase 1:** Setup Dependencies and Basic App Structure
2. ✅ **Phase 2:** Implement Menu Bar Icon
3. Architecture

### Lifecycle
- Uses `systray.Run(onReady, onExit)` for clean lifecycle management
- No hidden windows or Dock icons
- Minimal resource footprint

### Menu System
- Channel-based event handling via `systray.AddMenuItem()`
- Goroutine listens to click channels using select statement
- Clean separation between UI and business logic

### Icon
- 22x22px PNG embedded with `//go:embed`
- Template-styled (black on transparent) for automatic dark/light mode adaptation
- Generated programmatically with `generate_icon.go`

### Dialogs
- Native macOS dialogs via `osascript` command
- No external dependencies for UI elements
- Consistent with system appearance
```bash
make test
# or
go test ./...

Test Coverage:

• App initialization (headless compatible)
• Icon resource validation and template styling
• System tray setup
• Menu structure and items
• About dialog content and execution
• Window lifecycle management

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Contributing

When making changes:

1. Write tests first (TDD approach)
2. Run make test before committing
3. Run make build to verify compilation Run all tests with:

make test
# or
go test ./...

Test Coverage:

• Lifecycle functions (onReady, onExit)
• Icon validation (PNG format, embedded data)
• Menu creation and structure
• About dialog content and osascript formatting
• All tests pass without requiring UI interaction

Test-Driven Development: This project was built using strict TDD principles - all tests were written before implementation. Development History

This app was originally built with Fyne framework and later migrated to systray for true menu bar-only behavior. The migration eliminated the Dock icon issue and reduced the dependency footprint by ~70%.

Migration Documentation:

• Initial Plan
• Migration Plan
• Migration Complete

Contributing

When making changes:

1. Write tests first (TDD approach)
2. Run make test to verify all tests pass
3. Run make build to verify compilation
4. Test manually with open osxnotifier.app
5. Update documentation as needed

License

[Add your license here]