memory-bar

A macOS menu bar app that shows memory usage grouped by the app that actually owns it.

top and htop list processes one by one, so an app split into dozens of helpers (Chrome, Slack, Electron apps, Docker VMs) is hard to account for. memory-bar adds up every process an app owns and shows one line per app.

What it shows

• Menu bar: a rounded bar filled by memory used. It is neutral below 60%, turns orange towards 80% and red towards 95%. Hover for the exact figure.
• Panel: memory used, app/wired/compressed/cached memory, swap and memory pressure, followed by apps sorted by memory. Expand an app to see its processes.
• Closing: each app and process has a close button with an inline confirmation. Apps quit normally (as with ⌘Q); other processes receive SIGTERM. Confirming again on something still running forces it with SIGKILL. Processes owned by root or other users cannot be closed and show no button.

How processes are grouped

1. A process inside an .app bundle belongs to the outermost bundle (Chrome renderers belong to Google Chrome).
2. A process launched by an app belongs to that app.
3. A process launched from a terminal is named after the command that was run (claude, codex, a Python module).
4. A background tool is named after what it runs (node …/node_modules/openclaw/… → openclaw) and joins an installed app with the same name.
5. macOS services launched on behalf of an app are attributed to it (WebKit content processes); the rest are grouped as macOS services.

Memory is the physical footprint, the figure Activity Monitor shows. macOS only exposes it for your own processes; for others the resident size from ps is used.

Requirements

• macOS 13 or later on Apple silicon
• Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install); Xcode is not required

Build and install

./build.sh
open ~/Applications/MemoryBar.app

build.sh compiles the sources, ad-hoc signs the bundle and installs it in ~/Applications. To start it at login, add it in System Settings → General → Login Items.

To print the data from a terminal:

~/Applications/MemoryBar.app/Contents/MacOS/MemoryBar --dump

Notes

• Attributing system services to apps uses responsibility_get_pid_responsible_for_pid, a private libsystem function that Activity Monitor also relies on. If it is unavailable, those services stay in the macOS services group.
• Memory inside a virtual machine (OrbStack, Docker Desktop) is reported for the VM as a whole; use docker stats for per-container figures.