CodexBar Development Guide

July 9, 2026 · View on GitHub

Quick Start

Building and Running

# Full build, package, and launch (recommended)
./Scripts/compile_and_run.sh

# Also run the sharded test suite before packaging/relaunching
./Scripts/compile_and_run.sh --test

# Just build and package (no tests)
./Scripts/package_app.sh

# Launch existing app (no rebuild)
./Scripts/launch.sh

Development Workflow

  1. Make code changes in Sources/CodexBar/
  2. Run ./Scripts/compile_and_run.sh --test to test, rebuild, and launch
  3. Check logs in Console.app (filter by "codexbar")
  4. Optional file log: enable Debug → Logging → "Enable file logging" to write ~/Library/Logs/CodexBar/CodexBar.log (verbosity defaults to "Verbose")

Keychain Prompts (Development)

First Launch After Fresh Clone

You'll see one keychain prompt per stored credential on the first launch. This is a one-time migration that converts existing keychain items to use kSecAttrAccessibleAfterFirstUnlockThisDeviceOnly.

Subsequent Rebuilds

The migration flag is stored in UserDefaults, so migrated CodexBar-owned items should not prompt again. Ad-hoc signing can still prompt for other keychain surfaces; use ./Scripts/compile_and_run.sh --clear-adhoc-keychain when you intentionally want to reset ad-hoc keychain state.

Why This Happens

  • Ad-hoc signed development builds change code signature on every rebuild
  • macOS keychain normally prompts when signature changes
  • We use ThisDeviceOnly accessibility to prevent prompts
  • Migration runs once to convert any existing items

Reset Migration (Testing)

defaults delete com.steipete.codexbar KeychainMigrationV1Completed

How It Works

CodexBar checks Augment through the provider fetch pipeline. Auto mode tries the Augment CLI first, then the browser-cookie web path. The web path reuses cached cookies when possible and imports from supported browsers when the cache is missing or rejected.

Refresh Frequency

  • Default: Every 5 minutes (configurable in Preferences → General)
  • Minimum: 1 minute
  • Cookie import happens automatically when cached cookies need refresh

Supported Browsers

  • Safari, Chrome variants, Edge variants, Brave, Arc variants, Dia, and Firefox.

If automatic import fails:

  1. Open Preferences → Providers → Augment
  2. Change "Cookie source" to "Manual"
  3. Paste cookie header from browser DevTools

Project Structure

Key source, test, and packaging paths (not exhaustive):

CodexBar/
├── Sources/CodexBar/          # Main app (SwiftUI + AppKit)
│   ├── CodexbarApp.swift      # App entry point
│   ├── StatusItemController*.swift  # Menu bar icon, menu rendering, and actions
│   ├── UsageStore*.swift      # Usage refresh, caching, widgets, and history
│   ├── SettingsStore*.swift   # User preferences and config persistence
│   ├── Providers/             # App-side provider settings/runtime glue
│   └── Resources/             # Assets and localized strings
├── Sources/CodexBarCore/      # Shared business logic used by app, CLI, and widgets
│   ├── Config/                # Config file model, reader, writer, and validation
│   ├── Providers/             # Provider descriptors, fetchers, parsers, and status probes
│   ├── OpenAIWeb/             # OpenAI dashboard integration helpers
│   ├── WebKit/                # Web session helpers
│   └── Vendored/              # Embedded support code
├── Sources/CodexBarCLI/       # Bundled codexbar command-line tool
├── Sources/CodexBarWidget/    # WidgetKit support
├── WidgetExtension/           # Xcode wrapper for the packaged widget extension
├── Tests/CodexBarTests/       # macOS app/core test suite (XCTest + Swift Testing)
├── TestsLinux/                # Linux-specific CLI/core test coverage
└── Scripts/                   # Build and packaging scripts

Common Tasks

Add a New Provider

See the canonical provider authoring guide for the complete flow.

  1. Add the provider identity to Sources/CodexBarCore/Providers/Providers.swift.
  2. Add the descriptor and the fetcher, parser, settings-reader, or status-probe pieces the provider needs under Sources/CodexBarCore/Providers/YourProvider/.
  3. Register the descriptor from Sources/CodexBarCore/Providers/ProviderDescriptor.swift.
  4. Add an app-side ProviderImplementation under Sources/CodexBar/Providers/YourProvider/; implementations can use protocol defaults when no custom UI or macOS integration is needed.
  5. Add the provider's exhaustive switch case to Sources/CodexBar/Providers/Shared/ProviderImplementationRegistry.swift.
  6. Add icon assets under Sources/CodexBar/Resources/.
  7. Add focused tests under Tests/CodexBarTests/ and, for CLI/core behavior that must run on Linux, TestsLinux/.
  1. Enable Debug → Logging → "Enable file logging" or raise verbosity in the app settings.
  2. Reproduce with ./Scripts/compile_and_run.sh.
  3. Check logs in Console.app:
    • Filter: subsystem:com.steipete.codexbar category:augment
    • Importer messages include the [augment-cookie] prefix

Run Tests Only

make test

Format Code

swiftformat Sources Tests
swiftlint --strict

Distribution

Local Development Build

./Scripts/package_app.sh
# Creates: CodexBar.app with ad-hoc signing by default

Release Build (Notarized)

./Scripts/sign-and-notarize.sh
# Creates: CodexBar-<version>.zip and CodexBar-<version>.dSYM.zip

See docs/RELEASING.md for full release process.

Troubleshooting

App Won't Launch

# Check crash logs
ls -lt ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/CodexBar* | head -5

# Check Console.app for errors
# Filter: process:CodexBar

Keychain Prompts Keep Appearing

# Verify migration completed
defaults read com.steipete.codexbar KeychainMigrationV1Completed
# Should output: 1

# Check migration logs
log show --predicate 'category == "keychain-migration"' --last 5m

Cookies Not Refreshing

  1. Check the browser is supported by the Augment provider metadata
  2. Verify you're logged into Augment in that browser
  3. Check Preferences → Providers → Augment → Cookie source is "Automatic"
  4. Enable debug logging and check Console.app

Main-Thread Hangs

Debug builds start the hang watchdog automatically. To diagnose a release build, enable it explicitly and restart CodexBar:

defaults write com.steipete.codexbar debugMainThreadHangWatchdog -bool true

Hangs are written to the app log. Hangs over two seconds also request a process sample under ~/Library/Logs/CodexBar/. Disable the release opt-in with:

defaults delete com.steipete.codexbar debugMainThreadHangWatchdog
``$

## \text{Architecture} \text{Notes}

### \text{Menu} \text{Bar} \text{App} \text{Pattern}
- \text{No} \text{dock} \text{icon} (\text{LSUIElement} = \text{true})
- \text{Status} \text{item} \text{only} (\text{NSStatusBar})
- \text{SwiftUI} \text{for} \text{preferences}, \text{AppKit} \text{for} \text{menu}
- \text{Hidden} 1 \times 1 \text{window} \text{keeps} \text{SwiftUI} \text{lifecycle} \text{alive}

### \text{Cookie} \text{Management}
- \text{Automatic} \text{browser} \text{import} \text{via} \text{SweetCookieKit}
- \text{Keychain} \text{cache} \text{for} \text{some} \text{imported} \text{browser} \text{cookies} \text{and} \text{OAuth}/\text{device}-\text{flow} \text{credentials}
- $~/.codexbar/config.json` for provider settings, manual cookies, and stored API keys
- Manual override for debugging
- Browser-cookie import when cached sessions need refresh

### Usage Polling
- Background timer (configurable frequency)
- Parallel provider fetches
- First failure can be suppressed when prior data exists
- WidgetKit snapshot for macOS widgets