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Boltbar

x+web+producthunt 0.82
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Intro

Boltbar is a native macOS AI chat bar (Swift / AppKit, not Electron) by Juan Luis Ruiz-Tagle Oriol, shipping on Product Hunt on 2026-10-28. Press ⌥ Space over any app to ask GPT or Claude and return to work; agent mode (⌘ J) hands a chosen project folder to your local Claude Code or Codex CLI with Look / Ask / Edit / Full permission tiers. Site: juanluis.me/boltbar · GitHub: juanluisrto/boltbar · Install: brew install --cask juanluisrto/boltbar/boltbar or the signed/notarized DMG. MIT license; optional €19 supporter license.

Explain

Key points

  1. Form factor: ~12 MB native overlay chat bar aimed at Spotlight-style Q&A without window switching; themes include Paper / Mist / Graphite / Midnight. 2. Chat: OpenAI / Anthropic keys in Keychain, or existing Codex / Claude Code logins; attachments (images, PDFs, text) and optional web search. 3. Agent mode: real Claude Code / Codex sessions in a chosen folder; Look (read-only), Ask (confirm each step), Edit (file changes), Full (second confirmation, defaults back to Ask after 24h). /terminal resumes the same session in a terminal. 4. Privacy: keys in Keychain; chats under ~/Library/Application Support/Boltbar; no analytics. Agent mode still sends what the CLI reads to the chosen provider. 5. Launch evidence: maker post "shipping boltbar on product hunt today"; PH lists Featured on October 28th, 2026.

Why this radar term

Rare same-day Product Hunt ship of a concrete desktop AI proper noun in this window — site, repo, and install path are verifiable, not a rumor or generic "AI bar" phrase.

Usage

Get started

  1. macOS 13+: brew install --cask juanluisrto/boltbar/boltbar, or download the DMG/ZIP. 2. Add OpenAI / Anthropic keys, or sign in Claude Code / Codex locally. 3. Press ⌥ Space anywhere to chat; ⌘ J for agent mode, pick a project and permission tier, then send.

Tips

  • Full can run any command on the Mac — enable only when needed. - Agent mode needs the local CLI; Codex web search usually also needs an OpenAI API key. - PH votes/rank move through the day; figures above are a snapshot from this scan window.