Open Dashboard and Gateway window actions use the Web experience by default. Enable Native experience (Experimental) under Dashboard → Settings → This Mac → App to use native chat windows. The preference applies to the menu bar, Dock, main Gateways menu, and File → New Gateway Window… (Cmd-N). Settings always opens the web Dashboard settings page. See WebChat for switching behavior and native chat features.

What is shown

• The menu bar icon and the first status row of the menu show the current agent work state.
• Health status is hidden while work is active. It returns once all sessions are idle.
• A root "Context" item opens a submenu with recent sessions instead of expanding them in the root menu.
• A "Devices" block in the root menu lists paired devices only (from node.list), not client/presence entries.
• A root "Usage" section appears below Context when provider usage snapshots are available, followed by cost details when available. Cost totals for Today and the daily chart use the Mac’s local time zone.
• When two or more Gateways are available, the first status row includes the primary Gateway name. A root "Gateways" section then lists every Gateway with its health and primary marker. Select a row to open or focus that Gateway in the chosen experience. Hold Option to reveal "Set as Primary…" for eligible saved Gateways.
• Quick Chat opens the floating main-session composer. Its current global shortcut appears beside the item.
• Settings… (Cmd-,) opens Dashboard settings. App and device preferences live under This Mac, voice controls under Talk, and app update preferences under Updates.
• Connection… opens the native Connection window. This is a standard macOS settings window with Connection and Gateways toolbar tabs. Debug also appears while the developer toggle is enabled. The window remains available when the Gateway is unreachable.
• About Apus selects About in the native Connection window, with the app version, build information, resource links, and Copy Build Info. It works without a Gateway connection.

The app's main Gateways menu is always present. It lists the primary Gateway, when configured, followed by This Mac when it also hosts a local Gateway, then saved Gateways, with Command-1 through Command-9 assigned in that order. Each card shows health, version and shortened build ID, endpoint, latency, and the number of open windows in the selected experience when available. Browser-authenticated profiles also show Access and their session expiry. A Primary badge identifies the primary Gateway. A front-window marker follows the selected experience's frontmost Gateway window. Selecting a card opens that Gateway in the chosen experience or brings its existing window to the front. Hold Option to reveal New … Window, or press Option-Command with the same digit. Both open another independent window for that Gateway. Manage Gateways… opens Connection → Gateways and remains available when no Gateways are configured.

Right-click the Apus Dock icon for Open Dashboard and Settings…. When more than one Gateway is configured, the Dock menu also lists every Gateway from the same catalog, including the primary Gateway, This Mac when available, and saved profiles. Selecting one opens or focuses it in the chosen experience; a checkmark identifies that experience's frontmost Gateway window.

Gateway status dots follow each open Dashboard’s live connection, including saved Gateways that are not primary. Green means connected, red means a connection error, and gray means no current connection result. If multiple windows show the same Gateway, it stays green while any of them is connected. The checkmark identifies the selected window’s Gateway; Primary is a separate setting.

Gateway health checks run only while the main Gateways menu is open. Cards show cached facts while refreshing, or checking… before the first result. After a failure they show unreachable with the last successful contact time. Closing the menu cancels its checks and disconnects saved Gateways used for those checks with no open Web or Native windows. The primary connection stays connected, and cached facts remain available until the app quits.

The Devices and Automations summaries refresh while the menu is open. Closing it stops their menu-owned polling. Cached summaries remain available when reopening the same Primary Gateway. Changing Primary refreshes Devices, Automations, Usage, and cost details from the newly selected Gateway. Manage jobs in the Dashboard's Cron Jobs page.

The Automations summary shows the full enabled-job count and previews up to eight jobs, ordered by next run.

Manual Cron refreshes and successful job changes supersede older reads. An in-flight response therefore cannot restore a deleted job to the list.

State model

• Source: WorkActivityStore (apps/macos/Sources/Apus/WorkActivityStore.swift).
• Events arrive as ControlAgentEvent with a runId. The handler (ControlChannel.routeWorkActivity) reads sessionKey from the event payload and defaults to "main" if absent.
• Priority: the main session (sessionKey == "main" by default) always wins. If main is active, its state shows immediately. If main is idle, the most recently active non-main session shows instead. The store does not flip mid-activity. It only switches when the current session goes idle or main becomes active.
• Activity kinds:
  • job: high-level command execution (state: started|streaming|done|error|...).
  • tool: phase: start|result with name, optional meta/args.

IconState enum (Swift)

• idle
• workingMain(ActivityKind)
• workingOther(ActivityKind)
• overridden(ActivityKind) (debug override)

ActivityKind -> badge symbol

ActivityKind wraps a ToolKind (bash, read, write, edit, attach, other) or a bare job. Each maps to an SF Symbol badge drawn over the critter icon (IconState.badgeSymbolName):

Visual mapping

• idle: normal critter, no badge.
• workingMain: badge with symbol, full tint (.primary prominence), leg "working" animation.
• workingOther: badge with symbol, muted tint (.secondary prominence), no scurry.
• overridden: uses the chosen symbol/tint regardless of real activity.

Context submenu

• The root menu shows one "Context" row with a session count/status. That row opens a submenu (MenuSessionsInjector).
• The submenu header shows the active session count for the last 24 hours.
• Each session row keeps its token bar, age, preview, thinking/verbose toggle, reset, compact, and delete actions.
• Loading, disconnected, and session-load error messages render inside the Context submenu.
• Usage and cost sections stay root-level below Context so they remain glanceable without opening the submenu.

Status row text (menu)

• With two or more Gateways, the connection label appends the primary Gateway's catalog display name, such as Apus Active — Mac Studio.
• While work is active: <Session role> · <activity label> ("\(roleLabel) · \(activity.label)" in MenuContentView), where role label is Main or Other.
• When idle: falls back to the health summary.

Event ingestion

• Source: control-channel agent events, routed by ControlChannel.routeWorkActivity(from:).
• Parsed fields:
  • stream: "job" with data.state for start/stop.
  • stream: "tool" with data.phase, data.name, optional data.meta/data.args.
• Tool labels come from ToolDisplayRegistry.resolve(name:args:meta:). Unresolved names fall back to the raw tool name.

Debug override

• Enable the developer toggle in Dashboard → Settings → This Mac → Developer. Then open Connection… → Debug → Icon override:
  • System (auto) (default)
  • Working: main / Working: other (per tool kind: bash, read, write, edit, other)
  • Idle
• Stored under UserDefaults key apus.iconOverride, and mapped to IconState.overridden.

Testing checklist

• Trigger main session job: icon switches immediately and status row shows the main label.
• Trigger non-main session job while main is idle: icon/status shows the non-main session and stays stable until it finishes.
• Start main while another session is active: icon flips to main instantly.
• Rapid tool bursts: badge does not flicker (2s grace window before clearing a finished tool, WorkActivityStore.toolResultGrace).
• Health row reappears once all sessions are idle.

Related

• macOS app
• Menu bar icon
• Usage tracking