Free
Added on Oct 28,2026
Boltbar is a small native macOS AI chat bar that lets you ask GPT or Claude a question from any app and then get back to what you were doing.
You press Option and Space in any app to open the bar, type your question and send it. Escape hides the bar, and if a reply is still coming it returns where you left it. You can queue your next message while a reply is still arriving and switch models and thinking effort from the keyboard.
Agent mode, opened with Command and J, hands your request to the Claude Code or Codex CLI you already use, working in a project folder you choose. Permission levels are Look, Ask, Edit and Full, each action is shown as one line above the reply, and every agent chat is a real Claude Code session or Codex thread that you can continue in your terminal.
Key features include chat history search, attachments for images, PDFs and text files, optional web search with cited sources, slash commands, four themes with any accent colour and a fully keyboard-driven interface.
It works with your OpenAI or Anthropic API keys, kept in the macOS Keychain, or with your existing Codex and Claude Code logins. Chats and attachments stay on your Mac, there are no analytics and no account is needed. It is written in Swift and AppKit, is about 12 MB installed, and installs with Homebrew or a signed DMG.
Pricing: Boltbar is free, MIT licensed and works fully without paying. An optional one-off supporter licence of 19 euros or 19 US dollars turns off an occasional reminder. Model usage is billed by your own provider.
It is suited to Mac users and developers who use GPT, Claude, Claude Code or Codex often and want quick access without switching windows. It needs macOS 13 or later.
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