I wanted to share a new open source project I’ve been working on called NotesBar — a macOS menu bar app that gives you super quick access to your Obsidian notes without breaking your flow or switching contexts.
Why NotesBar?
If you’re anything like me, you live in Obsidian and often need to reference your notes while working in other apps. NotesBar is built to make that frictionless by putting your notes just a click away — right in your macOS menu bar.
Features
Blazing Fast Access: Jump into any note from the menu bar in seconds.
Multiple Vault Support: Switch between different Obsidian vaults easily.
Instant Smart Search: Real-time fuzzy search across your vault.
File Browser: Browse your vault’s folder structure from the menu.
Markdown Preview: Hover to preview note contents without opening Obsidian.
Seamless Integration: Uses Obsidian URI scheme to open notes directly.
Secure Vault Handling: Safe, persistent file access using security-scoped bookmarks.
Beautiful Native UI: Built with SwiftUI for a clean macOS-native feel.
Hello amansepai, as far as I understand it, this is exactly what I am looking for. So thanks for publishing and developing this feature. I have been an very early Evernote, but sometime ago EN lost me with pricing and stuff. Recently my wife pointed me to Obsidian and love it from first glance on, but a little obsidian icon in the menu bar was missing
So I am trying out the app on my mac, but it complains about the app could not get checked for malware, yada, yada, yada … (see the screenshot, in German though) So I assume it need notarization and stuff.
Nonetheless - I am happy to test it Need to figure out, how to. But I do not have an Apple Dev-Account.
Go to Settings > Privacy and Security (or is it Safety) > … scroll baby scroll down to the bottom of the list. There it shows after the first failed attempt to start, that it prevented it from being executed, but offers the option to do nonetheless.
After playing around with it, here are some feature requests
a minimized obsidian icon (gladly try - not a pro on that - to make one) instead of the sheet with a magnifying glass
optionally not show the vault-name (only have one, so far ) - would safe some space
So my idea is to make this run on start up and stay in the menu bar. With opening it, it would start Obsidian, if not started yet. So if it’s up there in the menu Obsidian is always just a click away, without having it in the dock.
I do this for ollama, brain.fm, flow.app, Postgres, and a few other utilities too.
obisidian_menu_bar_icon.zip (44.6 KB)
Under the CC BY 4.0 licensse adapted from these original sources of obsidian (cannot link here though)
Found some info, that 19px height is ideal for menu bar items, but can scale them of course.
Cheers,
Ulf
Why NotesBar?
Features
Blazing Fast Access: Jump into any note from the menu bar in seconds.
Multiple Vault Support: Switch between different Obsidian vaults easily.
Instant Smart Search: Real-time fuzzy search across your vault.
File Browser: Browse your vault’s folder structure from the menu.
Markdown Preview: Hover to preview note contents without opening Obsidian.
Seamless Integration: Uses Obsidian URI scheme to open notes directly.
Secure Vault Handling: Safe, persistent file access using security-scoped bookmarks.
Beautiful Native UI: Built with SwiftUI for a clean macOS-native feel.
Tech Stack
Check it out here: 
Need to figure out, how to. But I do not have an Apple Dev-Account.
