TopShelf
Reclaim your menu bar from the notch.
The MacBook's camera notch eats ~30% of your menu bar — TopShelf makes it the divider. Hold ⌘ and drag icons across the notch to pin them to Always-Show. Save up to 5 layouts for Coding, Meetings, or Recording. Free 6 hours/day, or $9.99 lifetime Pro.
The free version is the full app
Every feature works. Every setting works. The only thing that changes after upgrading is the daily 100-use cap. Most people never hit it. You can use the free version indefinitely.
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Universal Binary · macOS 11+ · No App Store required
Three zones, one divider
TopShelf turns your menu bar into a shelf. One thin divider splits it into three zones, and on a notch MacBook that divider lines up with the notch itself.
No-notch Mac (iMac · external display)
The divider is an ordinary vertical line. Identical behaviour.
Notch Mac (MacBook Pro 2021+ · MacBook Air 2022+)
The notch lines up exactly with the divider. It becomes the natural boundary.
Always Show
Right of the divider. Important icons live here — battery, clock, the apps you use every moment. Cmd+drag an icon across the divider to pin it, and it stays visible even when everything else collapses.
Cmd + drag across divider
Auto-hide
Left of the divider. Occasionally-used icons live here. Click the tray icon (or press Cmd+Shift+M) and this whole zone slides off-screen; click again and it returns.
Click tray or Cmd+Shift+M
Always Hide
Far left. Private icons — 1Password, banking, personal cloud drives — live here, permanently off-screen. Screen recordings, demos, and shares can never leak them.
Cmd + drag into zone
See it work
Six operations, animated. Each one is exactly how TopShelf behaves.
One-click collapse / expand
Click the tray icon or press Cmd+Shift+M. The auto-hide zone slides out of view; the divider inflates to push it off-screen. Click again and it all returns.
Cmd+drag across the divider
Cmd+drag an icon across the divider (the notch on a MacBook). It crosses into Always Show and stays pinned — even when everything else collapses.
The notch eats nothing that matters
On a notch MacBook the auto-hide zone folds into the notch when collapsed, while the Always Show zone stays pinned to its right. Important icons are never covered.
Hide sensitive icons for good
Cmd+drag 1Password, banking, or a personal cloud drive into the far-left Always Hide zone. It vanishes off-screen — screen recordings, demos, and shared screens can't leak it.
Switch context in one tap (Pro)
Work, Meeting, Recording — each is a saved layout. Switch with Cmd+Shift+L or the tray. Pro saves up to 5, synced across your Macs.
The tray icon never hides itself
TopShelf's own tray icon lives to the right of the divider, in Always Show — so even when everything collapses, you can always re-expand or open settings.
Native macOS, zero permission theater
TopShelf uses only public, permission-free APIs. It reads window owner/PID and geometry — nothing invasive.
How the menu bar trick works
TopShelf uses two invisible native status items: a divider and an always-hidden line. When you collapse, the divider inflates to full screen width, pushing the auto-hide and always-hide icons off-screen. On a notch MacBook, the notch lines up exactly with that divider.
To know where each app's icon lives, TopShelf reads window ownership via the standard CGWindowListCopyWindowInfo API — owner PID and geometry only, which need no TCC permission and no Input Monitoring. All public APIs, no private interfaces.
Everything you need, nothing you don't
Focused on the core experience. Every feature earns its place.
What does it take to fix a crowded menu bar on a notched MacBook? Six things, and nothing more: a notch-based divider, a three-zone model, up to five switchable layout presets, a tiny memory footprint, a Universal Binary, and a generous free daily quota. TopShelf delivers all six without asking for a single system permission.
Solves the MacBook notch problem
TopShelf turns the notch into a divider. Drag icons past the notch with ⌘ and they live in the Always-Show zone — permanently visible. Anything left of the notch collapses on click.
3-zone menu bar model
Always Show (right of the notch), Auto-hide (left, hidden on click), and Always Hide (far left, always off-screen). Native macOS, no overlay hack, no overlap with the camera notch.
Up to 5 layout presets (⌘⇧L)
Save a Coding layout with Terminal + GitHub visible. Switch to a Meeting layout with Slack + Zoom only. Switch to a Recording layout that hides 1Password and banking. Switch instantly from the tray menu.
Under 10MB of RAM
Designed for old Intel iMacs. Sits quietly in your menu bar with effectively zero CPU usage. No background processes.
Universal Binary
One download for both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs. No Rosetta translation needed. macOS 11 Big Sur and later.
6 hours free every day
The free version is the full app — every feature works. You get 6 hours/day of menu bar management. Upgrade to Pro ($9.99 lifetime) for unlimited daily usage and all 5 layout slots.
Where it shines
The menu bar is the most-used part of your Mac. Keep it clean.
Who is a menu bar manager for? Anyone with a notch MacBook who keeps losing icons behind the camera cutout — developers jumping between Coding and Meeting layouts, and anyone screen-sharing who needs 1Password or banking icons off-screen before a recording starts. Three use cases cover the most common ones.
MacBook Pro / Air with notch
Stop losing icons behind the camera notch. TopShelf makes the notch a divider so you see what you need.
Developers switching contexts
Save a Coding preset (Terminal + Git + Editor). A Meeting preset (Slack + Zoom). A Recording preset (everything sensitive hidden). Switch with one keystroke.
Screen sharing & privacy
Recording a screencast or joining a Zoom call? Switch to the Recording layout and TopShelf hides 1Password, banking apps, and personal cloud drives before your audience sees them.
Free, forever. Pay only if you want unlimited.
Core features are never crippled. The free tier exists to get you using TopShelf — not to pressure you into paying.
Free gives you 6 hours/day of menu bar management.
Pro unlocks unlimited daily usage, up to 5 layout presets, and cross-device sync — one-time, $9.99, no subscription.
See the full Free vs Pro comparison →System requirements
TopShelf runs on virtually any Mac released in the last decade. We support the oldest Intel iMacs as well as the latest Apple Silicon machines.
Common questions
Have more? See the full FAQ orcontact us.
What's new
Latest release notes for TopShelf.
Free, forever. Pay only if you want unlimited.
The free version of TopShelf is the full app — every feature, every setting, every detail. The only difference is a generous daily cap of 6 hours/day of menu bar management that most people never reach. Use it as long as you want. Upgrade only if you need unlimited usage across multiple Macs.
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