A macOS menu bar app
Get paid while your agent thinks
Tipbar shows one clearly labeled sponsor line in your menu bar, only while your AI coding agent is working. Then it hides. Open source at launch, notarized at release, and it never touches your agent. Every claim here, you can check yourself.
Six advantages, each one checkable
Every claim here ships with the thing that proves it.
No line on this page asks you to take our word for it. Each one points at an artifact you can open, run, or read, including a $500 bounty that costs us money if we are wrong about the biggest one.
Lives in your menu bar
The only player that runs as a native desktop app, out of your editor and terminal. Glanceable anywhere, gone the moment your agent goes idle. A real macOS app you install and remove with one drag.
Every agent, one app
Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor on day one, each read through that vendor's own official hooks. The adapters are in the client repo, public at launch; Gemini CLI and Antigravity are next.
Never modifies your agent
Observe-only: it reads hooks and renders in its own bar, and changes nothing else. A reproducible zero-diff proof, the Apache-2.0 client (public at launch), and a $500 bounty if you find one byte changed.
Ads screened in the open
Every advertiser is vetted and every link is scanned before it can serve, then re-scanned continuously. The scanner is open source at launch and the policy is published today — read the policy now.
Honest, disclosed economics
You keep 70% (up to 80% as a founding installer or on Pro), with no hidden activity caps, no hourly ceiling, and honest counting. Every payout is posted in an open ledger.
Reversible in one command
The installer adds only documented hook lines and shows them first. One command restores your configs byte-for-byte — the zero-diff proof confirms it.
One app, every agent
Works with Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor.
Tipbar reads each agent through that agent's own official hooks, so one menu bar covers all three. There is no editor to lock into, and no single vendor can break it.
- Claude Code
- Codex
- Cursor
- Gemini CLISoon
- AntigravitySoon
How it offsets your AI bill
No new habits. It reads your agent through the agent's own official hooks and stays out of your way.
- 01
Install and see exactly what changes
The installer previews the documented hook lines it adds to your agent config, then adds only those. One command reverts them and restores your configs byte-for-byte.
- 02
Your agent works, one line appears
While the agent is thinking or running a tool, a single labeled sponsor line shows in your menu bar. When it goes idle, the line disappears. No new habits, nothing to learn.
- 03
You keep 70%
Verified, deduped human clicks pay you 70% of the revenue, up to 80% as a founding installer, settled in an open ledger. A bill offset, not a lottery.
What step 01 shows you, before it writes anything
$ node installer/install.js
DRY RUN — no files are modified. This is exactly what install will add:
── claude ─ merges into ~/.claude/settings.json
{
"hooks": {
"SessionStart": [
{
"hooks": [
{
"type": "command",
"command": "\"/usr/local/bin/node\" \"~/…/tipbar/hooks/claude.js\"",
"timeout": 5
}
]
}
],
"PreToolUse": [ … the same one command, for every documented event … ]
}
}
── codex ─ merges into ~/.codex/hooks.json
── cursor ─ merges into ~/.cursor/hooks.json
Revert = remove exactly these entries. A backup is kept; one-click revert.Real output of the dry-run preview (home paths shortened to ~). It adds only documented hook lines through each vendor's own hook mechanism, keeps a backup, and reverts in one command.
And the split is plain
70%to you
Up to 80% as a founding installer. We refuse the 90% race on purpose.
The number matters less than what is behind it: no hidden activity caps, no hourly ceiling, honest counting, and every payout posted in an open ledger. A disclosed 70% can out-pay a capped one. A 90% split leaves nothing to fight click fraud, and that is how you end up cutting the corners that burn users. The spread we keep funds honest counting and open infrastructure.
Questions developers actually asked
Does it modify my AI coding agent?
No. Tipbar reads each agent through its own vendor-documented lifecycle hooks and renders only in its own menu bar. The installer shows you the exact hook-config lines it adds, with one-click revert. We publish a reproducible git diff showing zero bytes changed in Claude Code, Cursor, or Codex, and put $500 on it. See the proof.
Can someone push a malicious update to everyone at once?
No silent updates. Every release will be signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple, and it is something you choose to install. There is no background poller that can swap the binary underneath you. You will be able to verify the signature and hash yourself on the trust page.
What actually leaves my machine?
The normalized activity signal, an ad-slot ID, a coarse targeting bucket computed locally, and click events. Never your code, file paths, repository names, prompts, agent output, or any auth token. The full sends/never table is on the trust page.
Does it work with more than one agent?
Yes. Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex are supported at launch, each through its own official hooks. Adding an agent is one small adapter, never a change to your setup.
Will Anthropic shut this down?
Our red lines are concrete and checkable: we never modify Claude Code, never touch your tokens or API, and read only through each agent's own documented public hooks. And because Tipbar reads Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex through those same vendor hooks, no single vendor's policy change can switch it off.
How much can I earn?
This is a bill offset. You keep 70% of the revenue your attention earns, up to 80% as a founding installer. It is a disclosed 70% with no hidden activity caps and no hourly ceiling, so what that adds up to depends only on your usage, and every number will be published in an open ledger. We deliberately refuse the 90% race, because that leaves nothing to fight click fraud.
Do payouts actually work?
Paying developers is a launch requirement, not a "coming soon". The public ledger exists before any money moves, so the first payout is visible the moment it happens.
Join the waitlist.
- Universal app: Apple Silicon and Intel
- macOS 13+
- Signed and notarized at release: normal double-click open, no Gatekeeper workaround