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sketchetc

Themeable SketchyBar Menu Bar for macOS

Utilities Free Open source by Himanshu 54 views · 1 clicks out

Get sketchetc

At a glance

  • macOS
  • Utilities
  • Free Forever

About sketchetc

sketchetc is a themeable, fully interactive replacement for the macOS menu bar, built on SketchyBar. It ships a Vice City neon theme (plus Cyberpunk, Matrix, Catppuccin, and Miami Sunset), more than twenty toggleable widgets, an Option+V clipboard history, aura points that score your focus sessions, and a tamper-evident daily journal. Free forever, with the full source public.

Features

  • Full Menu Bar Replacement: Built on SketchyBar, with reserved space so windows tile below the bar instead of behind it.
  • Five Themes + Theme Studio: Hot-swap Vice City, Cyberpunk, Matrix, Catppuccin, or Miami Sunset, or duplicate one and recolor every role in the built-in studio.
  • 20+ Toggleable Widgets: Network speed, CPU temps and fan RPM, caffeinate, speedtest, pomodoro, meetings, GitHub PRs, dev ports, weather, battery health, media controls, and more, turn off anything you don't want.
  • Clipboard History: Press Option+V anywhere for a native picker of your last five copies, with image thumbnails, it works in terminals too.
  • Aura Points: Finish a 25-minute pomodoro and it's scored on real local activity (keystrokes, clicks, running agents, PRs opened), with shareable PNG summary cards.
  • Tamper-Evident Journal: One markdown entry per working day, locked with the macOS immutable flag and committed to a hash chain you can re-verify later.
  • Window Snapping & Quick Switches: Halves, thirds, maximize, and center the front window; toggle dark mode, hide desktop icons, or empty the Trash from the bar.
  • Screenshots to Clipboard: Area, window, full screen, or 5-second timer, every shot also lands on the clipboard, ready to paste.
  • AI Agent Monitor: See running Claude Code, Codex, and Gemini sessions with uptime and today's token totals, read from the session files already on your Mac.
  • Mirrors Other Menu Bar Icons: Docker, Cursor, Dropbox and friends get pulled into the bar, with a chevron that collapses them into a tray.
  • Leave Anytime: One menu item reverts you to the native macOS bar, and uninstall.sh removes everything cleanly.
  • Free Forever: Licensed CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, free to use on as many of your own Macs as you like, with the source public.

Why sketchetc?

A stock menu bar shows you the time and a battery percentage. sketchetc turns that same strip into something interactive and themed, system stats, clipboard history, window snapping, and focus tracking, covering ground that would otherwise take a handful of separate paid utilities.

Install

Run the install script, it pulls SketchyBar and its dependencies through Homebrew and starts the bar.

Theme It

Pick Vice City or another theme, choose an icon set, and toggle off any widget you don't want.

Use It

Option+V for clipboard history, run pomodoros for aura points, and log your day in the journal.

Questions

What is sketchetc?

It's a complete macOS menu bar setup built on SketchyBar, themes, widgets, clipboard history, aura points, and a journal, rather than a single-purpose app you drag to Applications.

What do I need to install it?

macOS and Homebrew. The install script pulls in SketchyBar, skhd, and the other dependencies for you, and re-running it upgrades in place.

Is it really free?

Yes, and the project states it will never be sold. It's licensed CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, which the authors describe as "free and source-visible" rather than open source in the strict OSI sense, because it restricts commercial use and redistributing modified copies.

What themes are included?

Vice City, Cyberpunk, Matrix, Catppuccin, and Miami Sunset, all hot-swappable. A built-in Theme Studio lets you duplicate one and recolor it, and there are six icon sets.

What permissions does it need?

Screen Recording to mirror other apps' menu bar icons, Accessibility for space switching and the fullscreen guard, and Calendar for the meetings widget. It degrades gracefully if you decline any of them.

Can I go back to the normal macOS menu bar?

Yes. There's a "Revert to macOS bar" menu item that restores the native bar instantly, and an uninstall.sh for full removal.

Does it phone home?

Only an anonymous install counter, which you can skip with --no-count or by setting SKETCHETC_NO_TELEMETRY=1. Aura and journal data stay on your Mac as plain files.

Where can I get it?

From the project site at himanshu007-creator.github.io/sketchetc, with the source on GitHub.

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