Menu Bar Icon States

Author: steipete · Updated: 2025-12-06 · Scope: macOS app (apps/macos)

• Idle: Normal icon animation (blink, occasional wiggle).
• Paused: Status item uses appearsDisabled; no motion.
• Voice trigger (big ears): Voice wake detector calls AppState.triggerVoiceEars(ttl: nil) when the wake word is heard, keeping earBoostActive=true while the utterance is captured. Ears scale up (1.9x), get circular ear holes for readability, then drop via stopVoiceEars() after 1s of silence. Only fired from the in-app voice pipeline.
• Working (agent running): AppState.isWorking=true drives a "tail/leg scurry" micro-motion: faster leg wiggle and slight offset while work is in-flight. Currently toggled around WebChat agent runs; add the same toggle around other long tasks when you wire them.

Wiring points

• Voice wake: runtime/tester call AppState.triggerVoiceEars(ttl: nil) on trigger and stopVoiceEars() after 1s of silence to match the capture window.
• Agent activity: set AppStateStore.shared.setWorking(true/false) around work spans (already done in WebChat agent call). Keep spans short and reset in defer blocks to avoid stuck animations.

Shapes & sizes

• Base icon drawn in CritterIconRenderer.makeIcon(blink:legWiggle:earWiggle:earScale:earHoles:).
• Ear scale defaults to 1.0; voice boost sets earScale=1.9 and toggles earHoles=true without changing overall frame (18×18 pt template image rendered into a 36×36 px Retina backing store).
• Scurry uses leg wiggle up to ~1.0 with a small horizontal jiggle; it's additive to any existing idle wiggle.

Behavioral notes

• No external CLI/broker toggle for ears/working; keep it internal to the app's own signals to avoid accidental flapping.
• Keep TTLs short (<10s) so the icon returns to baseline quickly if a job hangs.

Related

• Menu bar
• macOS app