Menu bar icon

Menu Bar Icon States

Author: steipete · Updated: 2025-12-06 · Scope: macOS app (

• Idle: Normal icon animation (blink, occasional wiggle).
• Paused: Status item uses
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  appearsDisabled
  ; no motion.
• Voice trigger (big ears): Voice wake detector calls
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  AppState.triggerVoiceEars(ttl: nil)
  when the wake word is heard, keeping
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  earBoostActive=true
  while the utterance is captured. Ears scale up (1.9x), get circular ear holes for readability, then drop via
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  stopVoiceEars()
  after 1s of silence. Only fired from the in-app voice pipeline.
• Working (agent running):
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  AppState.isWorking=true
  drives a “tail/leg scurry” micro-motion: faster leg wiggle and slight offset while work is in-flight. Currently toggled around WebChat agent runs; add the same toggle around other long tasks when you wire them.

Wiring points

• Voice wake: runtime/tester call
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  AppState.triggerVoiceEars(ttl: nil)
  on trigger and
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  stopVoiceEars()
  after 1s of silence to match the capture window.
• Agent activity: set
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  AppStateStore.shared.setWorking(true/false)
  around work spans (already done in WebChat agent call). Keep spans short and reset in
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  defer
  blocks to avoid stuck animations.

Shapes & sizes

• Base icon drawn in
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  CritterIconRenderer.makeIcon(blink:legWiggle:earWiggle:earScale:earHoles:)
  .
• Ear scale defaults to
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  1.0
  ; voice boost sets
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  earScale=1.9
  and toggles
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  earHoles=true
  without changing overall frame (18×18 pt template image rendered into a 36×36 px Retina backing store).
• Scurry uses leg wiggle up to ~1.0 with a small horizontal jiggle; it’s additive to any existing idle wiggle.

Behavioral notes

• No external CLI/broker toggle for ears/working; keep it internal to the app’s own signals to avoid accidental flapping.
• Keep TTLs short (<10s) so the icon returns to baseline quickly if a job hangs.

Related

• Menu bar
• macOS app