Menu bar mode puts Command Book in the menu bar, so you can check on your commands and start or stop them without finding the app in a crowded Dock.
Turning It On
Open Settings → General and turn on Show Command Book in the menu bar. It's off by default.
To turn it off, switch the setting back off, or hold ⌘ and drag the icon out of the menu bar.
The Menu Bar Icon
The icon tells you how things are going without opening anything:
| Icon | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Terminal glyph | Nothing is running |
| Terminal glyph + number | That many commands are running |
| Warning triangle | At least one command has crashed |
The warning stays until you restart or dismiss the crashed command.
The Panel
Click the icon to open the panel. It lists the saved commands in your sidebar, in the same order, with your sidebar separators as section headings. Ad-hoc commands aren't listed.
Each row shows the command's status (and memory use while it runs):
- Play starts a stopped or crashed command.
- Stop stops a running command. If a command is counting down to an auto-restart, stop cancels the restart.
- Click the row itself to open the main window with that command selected, so you can read its output.
At the bottom of the panel are Open Command Book, Settings…, and Quit Command Book.
The Dock Icon
With menu bar mode on, Command Book hides its Dock icon while its window is closed. Your commands keep running and their output keeps being captured.
The Dock icon comes back whenever a Command Book window is open (the main window, Settings, or About). That way the menus and keyboard shortcuts such as ⌘K and ⌘R are there whenever you're using the app.
Quitting
Quit from the panel's Quit Command Book, or with ⌘Q while a Command Book window is active. If commands are still running, you'll get the usual confirmation first. See Quitting Command Book.