Output
The name of the application owning the menu bar, with an optional native colour icon.
Temporary launchers such as Conjuror leave the underlying application’s name and icon in place when menu-bar ownership stays with that application. This also works when a launcher hides its window but retains keyboard focus.
Example
{
"id": "frontApplication",
"type": "frontApplication",
"frontApplication": { "showIcon": true }
}
Configuration
Use the item-level text template to customise or hide the label. The provider options below control its data, symbols, colours, and visibility.
| Property | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
text | Menu-bar owner’s name | Fixed text or a template replacing the name; use "" for an icon-only item. |
frontApplication.showIcon | false | Show the menu-bar owner’s native colour icon. |
Icon appearance
The native icon replaces the item’s symbol. If macOS provides no icon, the item uses its configured symbol as a fallback. The icon retains its original colours. Its size follows style.fontSize, then the theme font size. There is no separate icon-size option. Item tint and symbolFontWeight do not recolour or change the weight of the native image; they still apply to an SF Symbol fallback.
Set the item’s symbolPosition to right to put the icon after the application name. It defaults to left and also controls the fallback symbol. See symbol placement.
Icon-only item
{
"id": "app",
"type": "frontApplication",
"symbol": "app",
"frontApplication": {
"showIcon": true
},
"text": ""
}
The empty text hides the application name. The configured SF Symbol provides a fallback when the native icon is unavailable.
Shared item options cover styling, symbols, actions, priority, and enabled state.
Text templates
The item-level text setting supports id, value, symbol, name. See text templates for syntax and field meanings. name follows the menu-bar owner, even when text supplies a fixed label. Templates retain the native icon.
Updates
The provider reads the menu-bar owner at startup, then observes changes to that ownership. The icon and name follow the refresh policy together, including interval and manual snapshots. See refresh policies for snapshot and trigger behaviour.
Current limits
A fixed text replaces the application name. There is no window-title option or independent icon-size setting. Change frontApplication.showIcon in the configuration file and let it reload; the frontApplication block cannot be changed with sbar set.