Coat Check Download

Free · Open source · macOS 14+

The notch hides your menu bar icons. Coat Check hands them back.

On a MacBook, any menu bar icon that doesn’t fit beside the notch simply disappears. Click the hanger to see every one of them, and open its menu right from there.

Download for Mac Install with Homebrew

Free with no account · 1.5 MB download · macOS 14+ on Apple silicon

Coat Check’s menu, illustrated: icons the notch hides come first, each with its real menu. Hover a row to open one.

13 of 58

Menu bar icons visible on a 16-inch MacBook Pro using only its built-in screen. The other 45 were hidden, with no sign they existed.

The problem

“Where did that icon go?”

The notch takes the middle of your menu bar and app menus take the left, so menu bar icons get a strip about 770 points wide on the right. Anything that doesn’t fit is gone. There’s no overflow arrow, no warning, and no way to click it.

That’s your VPN, your password manager, the timer you started an hour ago. Plug into a big display and most of them come back. Unplug, and they vanish again.

How it works

Set it up once. Reach any icon in two clicks.

  1. No. 1

    Install and allow access

    Move Coat Check to Applications and allow Accessibility once, so it can see other apps’ icons. Its hanger appears at the right end of the menu bar, where the notch can’t reach.

  2. No. 2

    Click the hanger

    Icons macOS had no room for are listed first, by app name and icon. The ones you can already see follow.

  3. No. 3

    Choose from the real menu

    Hover an app to see its own menu right under the hanger. Choose an item, and Coat Check clicks it for you.

Real menus

The app’s own menu, right under the hanger.

Most apps share their menu bar menu with macOS, even while it’s closed. Coat Check shows that same menu as a submenu, with the same items in the same order, and clicks the real item when you choose it. No more hunting under the notch.

Apps that open a panel instead of a menu open where macOS placed their icon.

Nothing moves

Your menu bar stays exactly how you arranged it.

Coat Check doesn’t drag icons around, swap them in and out, or capture your screen to draw copies. It reads what’s there and clicks what you choose. Close the menu and everything is where you left it.

Zero setup

No sections to arrange and no rules to write. Coat Check opens at login and finds every icon on its own.

An optional divider

Want a cleaner bar too? Turn on the divider to hide the icons left of it, by hand or whenever only the laptop screen is in use.

Updates itself

New versions arrive signed and notarized, straight from GitHub, with one click to install.

Is it for you?

Made for crowded MacBook menu bars.

Coat Check is for you if

  • Your MacBook has more menu bar icons than room beside the notch.
  • You’d rather reach hidden icons than reorganize them.
  • You want something free, small, and open source.

Look elsewhere if

  • You want to sort icons into sections and saved layouts.
  • You want icons to change with your Wi-Fi network, Focus, or the time of day.
  • You want hidden icons shown in a second bar.

Full menu bar managers like Bartender, Ice, and Thaw do these well.

Command line

Hidden icons, one command away.

The coatcheck command comes with the Homebrew install, or add it from Settings. Then you or your AI agent can list every menu bar icon and open the hidden ones from Terminal. Add --json for machine-readable output.

$ coatcheck list
 Midnight Oil
 Disk Forecast (84 GB)
 Green Room
  Wi‑Fi (connected)
  Clock

* hidden: macOS had no room for it.

$ coatcheck click "disk forecast"
Opened Disk Forecast.

Privacy

One permission, for one job.

Coat Check asks for Accessibility so it can list other apps’ menu bar icons and click them for you. That’s all it uses it for.

  • No Screen Recording. Coat Check never captures your screen.
  • No analytics, accounts, or network calls, apart from checking for updates.
  • MIT-licensed and written from scratch, so you can read exactly what it does.

Questions

Before you check in.

Does Coat Check hide my icons?

Not unless you ask it to. Its main job is the opposite: reaching the icons macOS already hid. If you want a cleaner menu bar, turn on the optional divider in Settings.

Is it safe to give it Accessibility?

macOS only shares other apps’ menu bar icons, their menus, and the ability to click them through Accessibility. Coat Check uses it to list icons and click the ones you choose, nothing else. It never asks for Screen Recording, and the code is open for anyone to check.

Why do some apps open where their icon is?

A few apps show a custom panel instead of a standard menu, and macOS doesn’t share those panels. Coat Check clicks the app’s icon instead, so the panel opens where macOS placed it.

Will it slow down my Mac?

No. Coat Check sits idle until you click the hanger. Then it reads the menu bar once, shows you the list, and goes back to waiting.

How is it different from Bartender, Ice, or Thaw?

Those apps rearrange and hide icons, and several draw hidden icons in a second bar. Coat Check does one thing: it lists every icon, including the ones behind the notch, and opens them, without moving anything.

Does it work without a notch?

Yes. On any Mac, icons that collide with a long row of app menus get hidden too. Coat Check lists those the same way.

Does it run on Intel Macs?

Not yet. Coat Check needs an Apple silicon Mac with macOS 14 or later.

How do I uninstall it?

Choose Quit Coat Check from the hanger’s menu and drag the app to the Trash. If you installed it with Homebrew, run brew uninstall --cask coatcheck.

What does it cost?

Nothing. Coat Check is free and open source under the MIT license, with no account and no subscription.

Get Coat Check

Get every menu bar icon back.

Free, with no account and no subscription. It takes a minute to install, and if it isn’t for you, it uninstalls just as fast.

Download for Mac View source code

Or install with Homebrew

brew install --cask coreyhaines31/tap/coatcheck

Version 0.1.1 · macOS 14 or later · Apple silicon · Signed and notarized