ShadowBar
ShadowBar
A floating menu bar panel for Notes, ChatGPT & Claude, and your files. Pull it up instantly, even over fullscreen apps.
macOS 14+ · 8-hour free trial · One-time purchase, no subscription
ShadowBar sits quietly in your menu bar until you need it. Then it's just one keystroke away.
Press ⌘S and it grabs your screen and drops it right into your ChatGPT or Claude tab. No screenshot app, no dragging a file in, no copy-paste.
Jot stuff down without opening a whole separate app. It saves as you type, so you're not the one who has to remember to hit save.
Real browser tabs for both, and you stay logged in between launches. Add more tabs if there's another AI tool you use too.
Drag anything into ShadowBar and preview it right there. PDFs, images, docs, whatever, no need to leave the panel.
Pull up ShadowBar from any app with a keystroke, even fullscreen apps and games. Rebind it to whatever feels natural.
Adjustable transparency, a frosted-glass look, and a panel that stays wherever you leave it.
No subscriptions, no recurring charges. Just one price, paid once.
8 hours of full access
No subscription, ever
Yes, and this warning isn't macOS flagging malware. It shows up because we're not selling through the App Store, and Apple only skips this popup for apps it has personally reviewed and taken a cut of. Every developer who sells directly gets the same message, from tiny one-person apps up to some genuinely huge software companies.
We built ShadowBar as students, mainly for other students, and priced it as a one-time $15.99 instead of paying Apple's yearly fee just to make a warning disappear. There's no account, no data collection, nothing sent off your Mac. Your notes and files stay exactly where they are.
You only deal with this once. After that it opens like any other app.
Option A, using Finder:
Option B, using System Settings:
Takes about ten seconds and you won't see it again.
Just for the ⌘S screenshot shortcut, macOS asks for Screen Recording access. ShadowBar walks you through turning it on the first time, right from Settings inside the app.
Two. If you land on a third Mac for some reason, email us and we'll sort it out, no hassle.
Your notes, files, and browser sessions stay on your Mac in their own sandboxed storage. Nothing gets uploaded anywhere. There's no server on our end for it to even go to.
Yep, every download comes with a full 8-hour trial, everything unlocked. No credit card, no sign-up, just download it and try it out.
Download the free trial and see what a menu bar can actually do.