CPU at a glance
A tiny graph of the last 20 samples or a percentage in the menu bar. The dropdown splits user and system load and adds per-core bars, load average and the five busiest processes.
Open source · macOS 14+ · Universal binary · System Monitoring
Your Mac's vitals,
always in view.
Live CPU, memory and disk meters sit in your menu bar. Click any one for per-core load, a memory breakdown, disk throughput and the busiest processes.
Free & MIT licensed · Apple Silicon & Intel · Latest release
Features
Three resources, done well.
Each meter is its own menu bar item, and each opens a dropdown with the detail Activity Monitor buries.
Memory pressure, not just usage
A status dot follows kernel memory pressure and your own threshold. The dropdown breaks memory into app, wired, compressed, cached and free, plus swap used.
Disk space and throughput
See free space on the startup volume in the menu bar. Open it for capacity, used and free, and a live read/write throughput chart.
Settings that stay simple
Toggle each menu bar item, set the update interval to 1, 2 or 5 seconds, tune warning thresholds, pick Classic, Ocean or Mono, and launch at login.
Quit Process, with confirmation
Each listed process has a Quit Process button that asks first, then sends a terminate request. It is disabled for root-owned processes and for the app itself.
Light on resources
Updates slow to every 5 seconds while no dropdown is open, and samples after a long gap such as waking from sleep are discarded. Universal binary, no Dock icon.
Screenshots
See it in action.
Install
Up and running in a minute.
ResourceGlanceBar is open source and not notarized with a paid Apple Developer ID, so macOS needs one extra step the first time.
- Download ResourceGlanceBar-macOS.zip and unzip it.
- Move ResourceGlanceBar.app to your Applications folder.
- Clear the quarantine flag once, then right-click the app and choose Open:
xattr -cr /Applications/ResourceGlanceBar.app
- No special permissions are required.
Download
Get ResourceGlanceBar for macOS
Free, forever. Built for macOS 14 Sonoma or newer, Apple Silicon and Intel.
Not notarized: on first launch right-click ResourceGlanceBar.app → Open.
- macOS 14 Sonoma+
- Universal (Apple Silicon + Intel)
- MIT licensed · open source
- No ads, no accounts, no telemetry
- Built with Claude Code · how and why
FAQ
Questions, answered.
Is ResourceGlanceBar really free and open source?
Yes. It is MIT licensed, free to use, and the full source is on GitHub. If it is useful to you, there is a Support button in Settings and in each dropdown.
What permissions does it need?
None. It does not ask for Accessibility, Screen Recording or any other privacy permission. It reads standard system counters and lists only processes your user can see. Launch at login is optional and uses a standard login item.
Where is my data stored?
Nowhere beyond your Mac. There is no server, account or telemetry. The only thing saved is your settings, such as interval, thresholds and theme, in the app's standard macOS preferences.
Why isn't the app notarized?
Notarization requires a paid Apple Developer account, and this is a free project. Right-click the app and choose Open once to approve it, or build it yourself from source with Xcode.
Was this written by AI?
Yes. ResourceGlanceBar was generated by Claude Code from a written spec as a clean-room reimplementation, with no code or assets from any commercial app. The full source is on GitHub under MIT, so you can read every line before you run it. It has had less human review than a hand-written app, so bug reports are welcome.
Support ❤️
Built by one person, given away for free.
ResourceGlanceBar is a free, open-source alternative to paid utilities. If it earns a spot on your Mac, a coffee keeps the updates coming.
☕ Support Or on Ko-fi