TIL #3: Using xbar to build ArgoCD deployment monitor

This week I was going over the latest edition(Volume 27) of Thoughtworks Technology Radar and found the addition of xbar in their Tools section. xbar lets you put output from any script/program in your macOS menu bar. I first wrote about it in October 2021 when I showed how you can use it show WordPress page views analytics in your macOS menu bar.

From the Thoughtworks Radar entry on xbar

On remote teams, we sorely lack having a dedicated build monitor in the room; unfortunately, newer continuous integration (CI) tools lack support for the old CCTray format. The result is that broken builds aren’t always picked up as quickly as we’d like. To solve this problem, many of our teams have started using xbar for build monitoring. With xbar, one can execute a script to poll build status, displaying it on the menu bar.

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Playing with xbar: Showing WordPress Site Page Views In Menu Bar

Today while reading a tech newsletter I discovered xbar. xbar[1] lets you put output from any script/program in your macOS menu bar. Xbar is built using Wails. Wails[2] allows you to build desktop apps using Golang and Web technologies.

Xbar has a plugin based architecture. There are hundreds of pre-built plugins that help you view information about AWS, cryptocurrency, weather, date & time, and many others.

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