TokenBar

Live AI quota on the MacBook Touch Bar. Countdowns, 5h / 7d tags, usage bars, today’s tokens.

TokenBar doesn’t track anything. It reads TokenTracker on your machine (127.0.0.1:7680) and draws it on the Touch Bar. If TokenTracker isn’t running, the bot turns red.

_{Real Touch Bar, on a MacBook Pro}

The Control Strip bot hops and changes colour with the hottest window. Tap it to expand the chips. Tap a chip to open TokenTracker. Hide whatever you don’t want from the menu.

Install

You need a MacBook with a Touch Bar, macOS 13+, and TokenTracker already running.

You don’t need the Xcode app or an Apple developer account.

1. TokenTracker

Install the Mac app (or brew install --cask xiufengsun/tokentracker/tokentracker) and leave it running.

curl -sS http://127.0.0.1:7680/functions/tokentracker-usage-limits | head

That should return JSON. If it doesn’t, TokenBar has nothing to show.

CLI-only: npm i -g tokentracker-cli then tokentracker serve.

TokenBar isn’t affiliated with TokenTracker.

2. TokenBar

xcode-select --install   # only if `swift` is missing
git clone https://github.com/jashjacob/TokenBar.git
cd TokenBar
./scripts/install.sh

That’s the whole install. It builds on this Mac, puts TokenBar.app in /Applications, and launches it. A bot shows up in the Control Strip and the menu bar.

To update later: git pull then ./scripts/install.sh again.

There’s a DMG on Releases if you want one. It’s unsigned, so macOS will likely block it. Building with install.sh is the path that actually works.

Logs live at ~/Library/Logs/TokenBar.log.

Use

1. Start TokenTracker, then TokenBar.
2. Tap the Control Strip bot (or leave Pin Touch Bar on).
3. Uncheck chips you don’t want from the TokenBar menu.
4. Launch at Login if you want it after reboot — TokenTracker has to start too.

If the strip is in the way, tap the system X. Tap the bot to bring it back.

Default port is 7680. To change it: defaults write com.jashjacob.TokenBar tokenTrackerPort -int <port>.

Hardware

Needs a MacBook Pro with a Touch Bar, on Ventura or later. Won’t show a strip on 14"/16" 2021+ Pros, Airs, minis, or Studios.

	Touch Bar	TokenBar
13"/15" 2016	Yes	No — those Macs stop at macOS 12
13"/15" 2017	Yes	Yes, on Ventura
13"/15" 2018–2019	Yes	Yes
16" 2019	Yes	Yes
13" Intel 2020	Yes	Yes
13" M1 2020	Yes	Yes — this is what it was built on
13" M2 2022	Yes	Yes — last Touch Bar Mac
13" 2016/2017 two-port	No	Menu bar only

For coding agents

Don’t download the DMG. Don’t clone TokenTracker unless asked.

1. Touch Bar Mac, macOS 13+. sysctl -n hw.model if unsure.
2. TokenTracker must return 200 from http://127.0.0.1:7680/functions/tokentracker-usage-limits. Open /Applications/TokenTracker.app or install it (brew install --cask xiufengsun/tokentracker/tokentracker) before TokenBar.
3. swift from Command Line Tools. Then ./scripts/install.sh from this repo.
4. Check pgrep -x TokenBar and ~/Library/Logs/TokenBar.log.

Keep the ad-hoc signature. Don’t vendor TokenTracker.

How it talks to TokenTracker

Endpoint	Used for
GET /functions/tokentracker-usage-limits	Quota windows
GET /functions/tokentracker-usage-summary?from=&to=&tz=&tz_offset_minutes=&account=1	Today tokens + cost

Private APIs

Normal NSTouchBar only shows while an app is focused, so an always-on strip uses private Control Strip APIs. That means no App Store, and a macOS update could break it. Use at your own risk.

License

MIT. Built by Jash Jacob.

Tested on one Touch Bar Mac against TokenTracker 0.97.x. Not notarized. No auto-updates.