AI-assisted, open-source macOS menu bar companion, CLI, MCP server, and arcade for Busy Bar over USB or Wi-Fi.
A macOS menu bar companion for the Busy Bar — control your bar over USB or Wi-Fi, automate your busy status, and turn the little LED display into a proper developer peripheral.
Core device control needs no BarKeep cloud, account, or telemetry: BarKeep talks directly to the bar's local HTTP API over USB (http://10.0.4.20/api, no authentication) or Wi-Fi (the bar's local IP address and local HTTP API password). Optional Slack sync, weather, and update checks contact their respective external services only when you enable or request those features.
BarKeep is free and open-source software under the MIT License. You are welcome to use it, fork it, modify it, redistribute it, or build your own project from it. Contributions are welcome.
BarKeep was built with substantial assistance from generative AI tools, primarily OpenAI ChatGPT/Codex and Anthropic Claude. AI assisted with product exploration, implementation, debugging, tests, documentation, and release automation.
Brian Phillips is the human maintainer and reviews, tests, signs, and takes responsibility for every official release. This disclosure describes how the software was developed: BarKeep does not require or contact an AI service during normal operation. Its optional hooks and MCP server only connect to AI tools when you explicitly configure them.
Menu bar app (tabbed popover: Device / Message / Timers / Arcade / Settings)
- 🎙 Auto On-Call — flips the bar to On Air the moment any app opens your microphone (Teams, Zoom, FaceTime…), clears when the mic goes idle. Uses CoreAudio device state — no microphone permiss
From the project README.
Add the radar badge to your README — it shows your project was picked up by MCP Radar and links to this page:
[](https://mcp.liqiwa.com/s/unipheas--barkeep.html)
Native macOS video editor that coding agents can drive: everything the UI does, Claude Code and Codex can do through the bashcut CLI or MCP server. Layered timeline, captions, voiceover, plugins.
lcandy2/sim-agentationAnnotate a running iOS simulator in your browser, and hand the notes to your coding agent.
amber-notes/amber-notesAmber Notes: the free, open-source notes app for iPhone and Mac that ChatGPT and Claude can use (MCP).
ostapondo/PlonkA macOS window manager with snap zones you draw yourself and workspaces that reopen your apps on the right monitor — plus on-device OCR, keep-awake, screenshot annotation, pointer tools, a shortcut gu
migsilva89/loadoutSee and manage what your coding assistants load — skills, commands, subagents, plugins and MCP servers, with real usage.
jonymusky/indicatorsAI usage and cost in your macOS menu bar: live rate limits for Claude, OpenAI and Gemini, ccusage-style costs from local logs, MCP server for model routing
The top new MCP servers of the week, every Monday. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.