Layout bar

While Layout is active, a dark bar covers the top of the screen, where the macOS menu bar usually is. It shows the current workspace, the apps of that workspace, and a few quick actions.

What’s on the bar

Left: the workspace

• The Layout logo opens the editor, like ⌃⌥,.
• The workspace’s name opens a menu with:
  • every workspace, grouped by section, with a check mark on the current one: choose one to switch to it;
  • when more than one section has workspaces, Launch Section at the end of each section, which launches every workspace of that section, then returns to the one you were in;
  • Launch Workspace, which launches the current workspace’s layout;
  • Stop Workspace…, which ends the current workspace’s terminal commands, closes its windows and quits the apps no other workspace uses (see Stop a workspace);
  • Open Layout, which opens the editor;
  • Pause Layout, which pauses Layout and puts back every window it moved out of sight;
  • Show the Layout Bar, to turn the bar off.
• A lock after the name means Secure Keyboard Entry blocks Layout’s shortcuts, and the menu starts with Shortcuts Are Blocked…. See Keyboard shortcuts.
• A warning triangle after the name means the last switch failed, or only partly worked: hover it to read why.
• A red dot after the name means an app of another workspace shows a badge in the Dock, for example for unread messages, and no icon of this workspace shows it. In the menu, • follows every workspace with a badged app.
• When a notification comes from another workspace, or from an app here with no icon, the first new one follows: an agent’s amber or green dot, or the app’s icon, with the workspace’s name and +2 when others wait too. Click it to go there, or hover it to read them all. A card also shows below the bar for a few seconds. See Notifications and Agents and Focus Agent.

Middle: the workspace’s apps

The bar shows an icon for each app the workspace’s layout assigns. General also shows any other app that has a window in it. Elsewhere, a window of an app the layout doesn’t have has no icon, a wildcard app called in included: reach it with ⌘Tab. If there are more icons than room, they scroll sideways.

• The app in front is highlighted.
• Click an icon to focus that app’s most recent window in this workspace.
• A dimmed icon is an app of the layout that has no window here yet. Click it to open the app in its zones, with its work context, without relaunching the other apps.
• A red dot on an icon means the app shows a badge in the Dock, for example for unread messages.

Right-click an icon to see the app’s windows in this workspace (minimized ones are marked) and pick one. The same menu has Float Recent Window and Bring Recent Window on Screen for the app’s most recent window, or Open in This Workspace when it has no window here. Wildcard App makes the app come to you: from any workspace, its window joins the one you’re in instead of taking you to its own. See Wildcard apps.

Right: actions and status

• During the trial’s last days, how many are left. Click it to buy or enter a key.
• Update available, once a new version of Layout is out. Click it: Layout checks again and opens the update window on the newest version, with what’s new. Install Update downloads it, and Layout opens again on the new version.
• Agents, with a terminal icon, opens a compact list of agent sessions across projects, with waiting sessions first. Its count includes sessions needing your reply or with unread results. Open session focuses one and marks its current result read; All agents opens the full dashboard. See Agents and Focus Agent.
• Reapply layout, the circular arrow, puts the workspace’s windows back in place. See Layouts and zones.
• Settings, the gear, opens Settings.
• The Apple button shows the macOS menus (see below).
• Bluetooth, while its icon is in the macOS menu bar. Click it to open the macOS Bluetooth menu, where a click connects your headphones or another device you’ve paired. To show it, turn on Bluetooth in System Settings, under Menu Bar on macOS 26 or later, or Control Center on macOS 14 and 15. The Layout bar shows it within about 10 seconds, and removes it within about 20: it waits for two checks in a row to miss it, so a slow answer from macOS doesn’t make it blink. Beside a camera notch, Bluetooth steps aside when the controls on the right don’t all fit, for example while an update waits.
• Wi-Fi and battery status. Click either to open its menu, as in the macOS menu bar. If its icon isn’t in the macOS menu bar, its pane in System Settings opens instead. The Wi-Fi icon shows whether you’re connected, not which network. The battery shows its level, with a bolt while it charges and a plug while it’s plugged in without charging.
• Control Center, the two switches, opens the macOS Control Center: sound, Bluetooth, Focus, what’s playing, and more.
• The time. Click it to open Notification Center and its widgets.

Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, battery, and Control Center open where macOS opens them: the macOS menu bar slides down over the Layout bar while one is open.

On a display with a camera notch, the bar keeps its controls clear of it: the workspace menu and app icons sit to the left of the notch, and the actions to the right.

Zones start below the bar, so no window slips under it. When you turn the bar off, the zones get that space back.

Reach the macOS menus

The bar sits where the macOS menu bar is, and it doesn’t replace it:

• Move the pointer to the top edge of the screen, or press ⌃F2. The macOS menu bar slides down and the Layout bar fades out beneath it, then fades back in as the menu bar slides back up, so the two never show through each other. The same happens while a Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, battery or Control Center menu opened from the Layout bar is open.
• Or click the Apple button on the bar. The Layout bar steps aside until the pointer leaves the top of the screen and no macOS menu is open.

Layout doesn’t change any macOS setting to do this.

Hide the macOS menu bar automatically

The Layout bar works best when macOS hides its own menu bar until you need it. Layout suggests setting it to Always, which keeps the Layout bar visible beneath macOS notifications:

1. Open System Settings, then Menu Bar on macOS 26 or later, or Control Center on macOS 14 and 15.
2. Find Automatically hide and show the menu bar.
3. Choose Always.

Open macOS Menu Bar settings, in the guided setup, and Open System Settings…, in Settings › General, open System Settings for you. This change is optional, and you make it yourself: Layout never changes it, and turning the Layout bar off doesn’t change it back.

Turn the bar on or off

The switch is in four places:

• Show the Layout bar, in Settings › General;
• Show the Layout bar, in the guided setup’s Menu bar step;
• Show the Layout Bar, in the workspace menu on the bar itself;
• Show the Layout Bar, in the menu of the Layout icon in the menu bar.

The choice is saved. Turning the bar off doesn’t stop Layout: your workspaces, shortcuts, and window management keep working.

With the bar off, you still see which workspace you’re in:

• the Layout icon in the menu bar shows the workspace’s name after the logo; a long name ends with an ellipsis;
• when a workspace shortcut, the workspace switcher (⌥Tab), or an app you bring forward takes you to another workspace, its name and shortcut show for a moment in a small label below the menu bar. Picking a workspace in the palette or a menu doesn’t show it: its name is already in front of you. Show the workspace name when switching, in Settings › General, turns the label off.

With the Layout bar off, a separate Agents item with a terminal icon appears in the native macOS menu bar. It opens the same quick panel. Turning the Layout bar back on removes that extra item. Focus Agent keeps working in either mode.

The bar hides while an app is in macOS full screen.

While Layout is paused

Once you’ve finished the guided setup, the bar stays while Layout is paused, reserving no room: windows can use the top of the screen. It reads “Layout is paused”, with Resume, which puts your windows back in their workspaces. On a display with a camera notch, it keeps the notch row, with Settings and the macOS status on the right; elsewhere, it shrinks to a small pill at the top center. When your trial has ended, it reads “Your trial has ended” instead, with Buy or Enter Key….

The Layout menu bar icon

Layout also has an icon in the macOS menu bar: the Layout logo, a tall tile beside two small ones. It stays there while Layout is paused, dimmed, and it’s the way to activate Layout again. When the Layout bar covers the menu bar, show the macOS menu bar first.

Layout puts its icon to the right of the menu bar icons you’ve never moved, since those are the first macOS hides when the menu bar is full. If macOS hides it anyway, Settings › General in Layout says so. To bring it back, turn Layout on under Allow in the Menu Bar in System Settings → Menu Bar (macOS 26), or make room by quitting or hiding other menu bar icons, then ⌘-drag Layout’s icon to the right. macOS remembers where you put it.

Its menu contains:

• Shortcuts Are Blocked…, while Secure Keyboard Entry blocks Layout’s shortcuts;
• while Layout is active: Switch to Workspace (to pick another workspace), Overview, and Command Palette, then the current workspace’s name with Launch Workspace, Stop Workspace… and Reapply Layout;
• while Layout is paused: Resume Layout;
• Agents…, which opens the dashboard, and, while Layout is active, Focus Agent…, which opens the keyboard search;
• Save Desktop as Workspace…;
• while Layout is active: Launch Section and Launch All Workspaces;
• Show the Layout Bar, Pause Layout while Layout is active, and Recover Hidden Windows;
• Open Layout and Settings…;
• Check for Updates…, which opens Settings › General › Updates and checks there, or, once a new version is out, Update to Layout followed by its version and “…”, which checks again and opens the update window;
• Send Feedback… and Send Diagnostics…, both available even while Layout is paused or busy;
• Quit Layout.

The editor

The Layout editor is the window where you build workspaces. It has no Dock icon and doesn’t appear in the macOS ⌘Tab switcher. To open it:

• click the Layout logo on the bar, or choose Open Layout from the bar’s workspace menu or from the Layout menu bar icon;
• press ⌃⌥, while Layout is active;
• or open Layout again from your Applications folder.

Closing the editor doesn’t quit Layout, which keeps running from the menu bar. The editor also hides after a successful workspace switch, so the workspace is visible.