Hideout is a lightweight macOS utility that lets you hide unwanted menu bar icons and keep your Mac interface clean and organized.
It is designed for people who have too many background apps, system utilities, and status icons competing for space in the macOS menu bar.
Includes compatibility work for macOS 27 "Golden Gate" and wide screens like QHD, UltraWide QHD, 4K UHD, Super UltraWide, 5K2K/WUQHD, etc.
These builds are ad-hoc / unsigned (CODE_SIGNING_ALLOWED=NO) — no Developer ID
signature, no notarization. (Support the project to purchase a signature from Apple.)
macOS ties the Accessibility permission to the code signature, so after every update re-grant it in System Settings when prompted (first collapse asks again); that is expected, not a bug.
This fork ships its own Homebrew cask so you install this build — not the upstream one:
brew install --cask https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xvoland/hideout/master/Casks/hideout.rb
This pulls the latest macOS 27 "Golden Gate" build from the xvoland/hidden Releases page. The build is unsigned, so before the first launch run:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Hideout.app
- Download latest version
- Open and drag the app to the Applications folder.
- Launch Hideout and drag the icon in your menu bar (hold CMD) to the right so it is between some other icons.
macOS 27 Golden Gate rebuilt the menu bar as a single window. Hiding is always native since v1.19: Hideout asks macOS's private MenuBarClientCore (assessment mode) to keep only an allow-list visible. macOS does the hiding/reflow itself — independent of display width, notch, or front app.
Requirements: the direct (non-sandboxed) build on macOS 27 (this GitHub/ad-hoc release, compiled with HIDDENBAR_NATIVE_VISIBILITY=1), plus Accessibility permission (prompted on first collapse). Where unavailable (sandboxed builds, pre-27), collapsing reports unavailable and the arrow stays put.
macOS historically had no public API to hide other apps' menu-bar icons. Hideout used a geometry hack: inflate a separator NSStatusItem so icons to its left slide out of view.
| macOS era | What changed | Consequence |
|---|---|---|
| ≤ 26 (Ventura/Sonoma/Sequoia) | Each status item = its own window. Inflating the separator pushes icons off-screen. | Geometry hiding worked. |
| 27 Golden Gate | Menu bar became one window with a native overflow («). Inflating past half the screen width drops the item instead of clamping, and length changes no longer displace neighbours. |
Geometry hiding is dead on 27 — hiding must go through the system. |
| 27 + private API | macOS 27 introduced MenuBarClientCore (assessment mode) — a private framework that can restrict the menu bar to an allow-list. |
Native hiding — asks macOS to hide everything except the allow-list. Width-independent, notch-aware. |
Native requires the direct (non-sandboxed) build, macOS 27+, and Accessibility permission. It uses a private API Apple may change. For macOS ≤ 26, upstream dwarvesf/hidden remains the path.
⌘+ drag icons across the|separator: left of it hides on collapse. A second, translucent|(enable Always hidden section in Preferences) marks a zone that stays hidden even when expanded.- Click the Arrow icon to hide menu bar items.
- Option-click the arrow or a separator to show/hide separators for
arranging (reveals everything for
⌘-dragging). If Option-click does nothing on your setup, use Preferences → Show All Icons for Arranging. - Missing an icon after quit/update? Check the system
«overflow first — macOS parks displaced icons there and doesn't always re-seat them.
- Manual: every setting, the hidden Terminal-only options, and troubleshooting.
- Architecture: how the hiding trick works, topology, and known limits.
- Maintainer runbook: build, behavioral verification, and release process.
macOS version >= 13.0 (Ventura)
Running an older macOS? The last release supporting macOS 10.13 High Sierra
through 12 Monterey is upstream v1.10
(published by the original Dwarves Foundation project; this fork does not ship
pre-Ventura builds). Later versions require macOS 13 because autostart moved to the
SMAppService API introduced there.
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⚠️ WARNING: UNOFFICIAL BUILDThis is a community fork of Hidden Bar maintained by Vitalii Tereshchuk (xVoLAnD) — https://dotoca.net, with added support for macOS 27 Golden Gate.
It is NOT the official Dwarves Foundation release. Download the fork build from the Releases page.
| Role | Name | Contact |
|---|---|---|
| Fork maintainer, build & macOS 27 verification | Vitalii Tereshchuk (xVoLAnD) | https://dotoca.net/hideout |
Upstream project: dwarvesf/hidden © Dwarves Foundation. The macOS 27 Golden Gate hide-mechanism fix originates from upstream PR #396 by Skyler (skuthus); this fork packages, builds, and verifies it for macOS 27.
MIT © Dwarves Foundation