MakeTray

MakeTray is a tiny macOS menu‑bar app that lets you launch any Makefile target with a single click—no terminal juggling, no remembering command names.

Key Features

What you get	Details
One‑click targets	Every Makefile target appears as its own menu item—grouped by Makefile and shown with your custom label.
Live auto‑reload	Any change to config.json or to the Makefiles is detected instantly – menus refresh without relaunching.
Config GUI	“Settings” submenu lets you add files via Choose File dialog or open config for manual editing.
Terminal output	Each target opens a new Terminal window so you can watch logs in real time—window auto‑closes if you want.
Zero clutter	Runs as an LSUIElement: no Dock icon, no Cmd‑Tab entry—just a tidy glyph in the menu bar.

Installation

Via homebrew

brew tap alexrett/make-tray
brew install make-tray

% whereis make-tray
> make-tray: /opt/homebrew/bin/make-tray

Manual

1. Clone the repo

git clone https://github.com/alexrett/make-tray.git
cd make-tray

2. Install Go modules

go mod tidy

3. Run the app bundle

make run

4. Build the app bundle

make build

It will build and copy MakeTray.app into your /Application folder.

Pre‑built releases

Every push to main creates signed & notarized binaries for Intel and Apple Silicon.
Grab the latest .dmg or .zip from the Releases page and drop MakeTray.app into /Applications.

Quick Start

1. Launch MakeTray – the first start creates
   ~/Library/Application Support/MakeTray/config.json with a single demo entry.

2. Edit your Makefile

   Add or tweak targets—MakeTray picks them up automatically.

Configuration file

• Location: ~/Library/Application Support/MakeTray/config.json

• Format:

  {
    "makefiles": [
      { "path": "~/work/project/Makefile", "label": "Makefiles for application" },
      { "path": "$HOME/dev/db/Makefile",   "label": "Databases connections"  }
    ]
  }

You can edit this file manually or use Settings ▸ Add… from the menu.

Advanced Usage

Scenario	Command / Setting
Custom config path	MakeTray -config /path/to/my.json
Open config in VS Code	Settings ▸ Open config…
Keep Terminal window open	Comment out the osascript close‑window line in main.go.
Replace app icon	Put new icon.png (menu glyph) + regenerate icon.icns.

CI / CD

GitHub Actions workflow release.yml builds a universal macOS binary (arm64 + amd64), codesigns and notarizes it,
then uploads MakeTray.app.zip and a ready‑to‑mount .dmg to the Release tagged by the commit.

On every push to main the workflow also runs go vet and go test ./... to keep the codebase healthy.

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome!

1. Fork → feature branch → PR.
2. Follow go vet and golangci-lint checks.
3. Add yourself to CONTRIBUTORS.md.

License

Released under the MIT License.