Gitbar - macOS Status Bar Git Contribution Tracker

Gitbar is a sleek macOS status bar (menu bar) application designed to display your GitHub public code contribution statistics in real time. Built on the popular BitBar platform, it aims to help you cultivate the habit of contributing to open source every day.

🎯 Core Features

• Real-time Status Bar Display: Shows your GitHub public contribution count directly in the macOS menu bar for instant visibility.
• Contribution Goal Tracking: Supports setting annual contribution goals (e.g., 1000 contributions) and calculates completion percentage to keep you motivated.
• Compact vs. Detailed View Toggle: Use the COMPACT_UI setting to switch between a minimalist contribution counter or more detailed information.
• Contribution Streak Display: Tracks your consecutive contribution days to help maintain momentum.
• Focus on Public Contributions: Specifically tracks and displays contributions to public repositories visible on your GitHub profile, encouraging participation in open source projects.

✨ Advantages & Features

• Minimalist Design: Non-intrusive interface that lives only in the status bar, saving screen space and keeping you focused on work.
• Low Barrier to Entry: No need to generate complex GitHub API keys—just provide your GitHub username to start using it. Setup is simple and quick.
• Habit-Building Tool: The persistent visual reminder in the status bar effectively encourages daily or regular code contributions to open source.
• Built on BitBar Ecosystem: As a BitBar plugin, it inherits BitBar’s lightweight, stable, and highly customizable nature.
• Open Source & Transparent: Licensed under MIT, the code is fully open for review and community contributions.
• Privacy-Friendly: Uses the gh-scrape module to extract data from publicly accessible GitHub profile pages, focusing only on contributions you’ve chosen to make public.

📦 System Requirements & Installation

1. System Requirements: macOS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) or later.
2. Prerequisites: Requires Node.js and npm installed.

Installation Steps:

# 1. Clone the plugin repository

# 2. Navigate to the directory and install dependencies
$ cd gitbar
$ npm install

# 3. Configure your GitHub username and goals
# Edit the .env file in the root directory

Configuration (.env Example):

GITHUB_USERNAME="your-github-username"
CONTRIBUTION_GOAL_TRACKING=true # Enable goal tracking
CONTRIBUTION_GOAL="1000"        # Your annual contribution goal
COMPACT_UI=true                 # Enable compact UI

4. Install to BitBar: Launch the BitBar app, and in the popup window, select the gitbar_plugin folder within the gitbar directory as your plugin folder.

🔧 Notes & Advanced Settings

• Node Path Issue: If you encounter Node path errors, you may need to edit the shebang at the top of gitbar_plugin/gh.5m.js (e.g., #!/usr/bin/env node) to point to the correct node path on your system. Use which -a node to find the path.
• Data Source: The app uses the gh-scrape module to fetch data from your public GitHub profile page, not the official GitHub API. This allows a focus on public contributions and avoids the complexity of managing API keys.

Gitbar is the perfect little assistant for developers to stay engaged with open source. Its presence is like a silent companion, always reminding you in the status bar: “Today, did you contribute to the open source world?”