---
title: "Mac menu bar"
description: "A small HolaClaw icon lives in your Mac's menu bar whenever the app runs. It's your at-a-glance status light and quick-control center for your assistants."
updated: 2026-06-11
canonical: https://holaclaw.ai/docs/configuration/mac-menu-bar
---

Whenever HolaClaw is running, a small icon sits in your Mac's menu bar — the strip of icons in the top-right corner of the screen. It's a status light and a quick-control center, so you can tell at a glance whether your assistants are healthy without opening the main window.

## Reading the icon

The icon changes to tell you what's happening:

- **Grey** — idle. The app is running but nothing's actively going on.
- **Green badge** — at least one assistant is running while the main window is hidden. This is your reminder that things are still working in the background.
- **Red** — something needs your attention. Open the menu to see what.

## The menu

Click the icon to open the menu. At the top you'll see the daemon status — the background service that keeps your assistants alive:

- **Daemon: Connected** — everything's healthy.
- **Daemon: Disconnected** — the background service isn't responding.

The menu gives you three actions:

- **Restart Daemon** — restarts the background service. Reach for this first if the daemon shows as disconnected.
- **Show HolaClaw** — brings the main window back to the front.
- **Quit** — fully exits the app. If any assistants are still running, HolaClaw warns you first, since quitting stops them from serving your channels.

> **Tip — closing the window doesn't stop your assistants.** When you close the main HolaClaw window, your assistants keep serving their connected channels in the background. The green badge on the menu bar icon is how you know they're still listening. To actually stop them, use **Quit**.

The menu bar doesn't open a chat. To talk to your assistant, use the app window or a connected channel like [Telegram](/docs/configuration/connect-telegram).

## Troubleshooting

- **Daemon: Disconnected** — click **Restart Daemon**. That clears most hiccups.
- If an assistant still won't come back after a restart, the VM behind it may be stuck. See [Restart the OpenClaw gateway](/docs/advanced/restart-the-openclaw-gateway), and if the VM won't start at all, [VM won't boot](/docs/more/vm-wont-boot).

Still stuck? The [HolaClaw Discord](https://discord.gg/FbxAbS5sGQ) is a friendly place to ask.