Tiny native macOS chat bar in Swift — press ⌥Space in any app to ask GPT or Claude, and agent mode hands a project folder to Claude Code or Codex with Look, Ask, Edit or Full permissions.
Boltbar is a tiny native macOS chat bar written in Swift, not Electron: press ⌥Space in any app and ask GPT or Claude without leaving what you are doing.
Agent mode hands a project folder to Claude Code or Codex with Look, Ask, Edit or Full permissions, and the app is signed and notarized, free and open source under MIT, installable by DMG or Homebrew.
| Pricing | Open Source |
|---|---|
| Category | Productivity |
| Platforms | mac |
| Company | Boltbar |
| Best for | Mac users who want instant AI chat in any app without an Electron app eating resources |
| Official website | github.com |
When choosing a productivity tool, look first at how it fits the way you already work. The best tools connect with the apps you use every day — email, calendar, documents and chat — instead of becoming one more place to check. Automation matters most where work repeats: summaries, reminders, scheduling and turning notes into tasks are where AI genuinely saves time. Check whether the free tier covers your real usage, how the tool handles your data and privacy, and whether it works on the platforms you live on — web, desktop and mobile. A slightly less powerful tool that your whole team actually adopts beats a feature-rich one nobody opens.
Boltbar is a tiny native macOS chat bar written in Swift, not Electron: press ⌥Space in any app and ask GPT or Claude without leaving what you are doing.
Boltbar offers ⌥Space chat in any app, without switching windows, GPT and Claude support in one bar, Agent mode hands a project folder to Claude Code or Codex, Look, Ask, Edit and Full permission levels for agent mode, Native Swift build, signed and notarized and Install by DMG or Homebrew.
Boltbar is open source, so the software itself is free to download, use and self-host. Your only costs are the infrastructure you run it on and any paid services you connect to it.
Strengths of Boltbar include Native Swift — light, not another Electron app; Works in any app via one shortcut; Permission levels keep agent mode controlled. On the downside, macOS only; The supporter licence is an optional paid extra.
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