Menu bar

Pincer can put an item in the Mac menu bar. It gives you Quick Capture and shows what needs you, what’s running, what’s unread and how each gateway is doing, without opening Pincer’s window. It’s macOS only.

Turn it on

Open Settings → General → Menu Bar and turn on Show Pincer in the menu bar. It’s off until you turn it on.

The item shows up right away, and turning the setting off removes it. You don’t need to relaunch. The setting is kept on this Mac only and isn’t synced to your gateways.

To move the item, hold ⌘ and drag it along the menu bar. Dragging it out of the menu bar turns the setting off.

Pincer’s Dock icon stays either way.

To have the menu bar item ready after you log in, turn on Open at Login in Settings → General → Launch. See Start Pincer at login.

The icon

The icon follows the menu bar’s light or dark look. Next to it is the number of unread chats plus the approvals and questions waiting for you, shown as 99+ above 99. There’s no number when there’s nothing to show.

While an approval or question is waiting, the icon changes to a speech bubble with an exclamation mark.

What’s in the menu

Item	What it does
Quick Capture…	Opens Quick Capture. It shows your shortcut, such as ⌃ ⇧ Space, and works even when the shortcut is turned off.
Open Pincer	Brings Pincer’s main window to the front. It opens a new one if you closed it, or restores it from the Dock if it’s minimized.
Needs You	Approvals and questions waiting for your answer.
Running	Chats where the agent is replying right now.
Unread	Chats with messages you haven’t read.
Gateways	Each saved gateway and its status.
Settings…	Opens Pincer’s Settings window, in front of other apps.
Quit Pincer	Quits Pincer.

This is the menu bar extra, separate from the Gateway menu in Pincer’s own menu bar, which switches gateways (including Next Gateway and Previous Gateway) while Pincer is the front app.

The menu works with Pincer’s main window closed, and it keeps up to date while Pincer runs.

Needs You, Running and Unread

• Needs You lists exec approvals first, then agent questions. Each row shows the command or question and the chat it’s in, for example Approve: rm -rf ./build — 🛠️ Main · Forge. Approvals that have expired and questions that were answered or have expired aren’t listed. Up to 5 rows.
• Running lists chats with a reply in progress, newest first. Up to 5 rows.
• Unread lists unread chats, newest first. Up to 8 rows.

With Animated avatars on in Settings → Appearance, each row starts with a small still pet for its agent, posed for the row: waiting for approval for approvals, asking a question for questions, thinking for running chats and idle for unread ones. It doesn’t animate. The pets follow the menu’s light or dark appearance even when Pincer’s window theme is fixed. With avatars off, rows are text only. The menu bar icon itself stays a plain symbol.

Helper (subagent) runs and archived chats aren’t listed. A chat shows up only once. If it has an approval or question waiting it’s under Needs You, otherwise under Running if a reply is in progress, otherwise under Unread. A chat with two approvals gets two rows.

When a section has more rows than fit, its last row says N more… and opens Pincer.

Chat rows look like notification titles: the agent’s emoji, the chat’s name and the agent’s name, such as 🦞 home-lab · Claw. Long names, commands and questions are cut at 40 characters. With more than one gateway, each row ends with the gateway’s name, such as — Home.

Only gateways that are connected add rows, so you won’t see chats you can’t open yet. A gateway that’s offline just shows its status. When nothing is waiting, running or unread on a connected gateway, the menu says You’re all caught up.

Click a row to open that chat in Pincer’s main window, on the right gateway. Approvals and questions aren’t answered from the menu. The chat shows the full command, its folder and any warning, so you can decide there. You can also answer approvals from notifications.

Rows with a pet show the chat and agent name without repeating the agent’s emoji. Rows without a pet keep their emoji and reserve the same leading column, so the text stays aligned.

Gateway status

Each saved gateway is listed with one of these:

Status	Meaning
Connected	Connected and healthy.
Degraded	Connected, but something on the gateway isn’t working. See Gateway health.
Restarting…	The gateway is restarting.
Connecting…	Pincer is connecting.
Reconnecting…	The connection dropped and Pincer is trying again.
Waiting for approval	The gateway has to approve this device. See Troubleshooting.
Can’t connect	The connection failed, for example because of a bad token.

Click a gateway to select it in Pincer’s main window. If it can’t connect, the window shows why.

With no gateways saved, the section says No gateways yet.