AppMenu

A zero-dependency macOS-style global menu bar for GNOME Shell

AppMenu brings a macOS-style menu bar to the GNOME top panel without external daemons or background services. It provides app-aware menus, optional real exported app menus when available, keyboard shortcuts, recent items, workspace controls, search, and fast user switching in one lightweight GNOME Shell extension.

Why AppMenu

• No external daemon: pure GJS extension, no Python service or appmenu daemon
• No manual GTK module setup: no ~/.gtkrc-2.0, no hand-written startup helper, no extra daemon to babysit
• Works across app toolkits: GTK, Qt, Electron, Flatpak, browsers, terminals, and Java apps all get the same menu actions
• Wayland-friendly: uses GNOME Shell APIs and virtual keyboard events instead of X11-only menu scraping
• Hybrid behavior: reads real exported menus when apps provide them, and falls back automatically when they do not

Highlights

• Apple menu with system actions, recent items, and Search
• AppMenu Status submenu with copyable troubleshooting information
• Dynamic app menu based on the focused window
• Optional real D-Bus app menu import for supported apps
• File, Edit, View, Go, Window, and Help menus
• Workspace navigation and window-to-workspace actions
• Optional workspace navigation dots in the panel
• Spotlight-style search dialog for apps, recent files, and settings
• Fast user switching with avatars and session badges
• Configurable distro icon or Apple logo
• Debug logging toggle for troubleshooting
• GNOME Shell 45 to 50 support

Features

Apple Menu

• About This Computer
• AppMenu Status with current app, menu source, and copyable troubleshooting info
• System Settings
• App Store
• Recent Items
• Search
• Force Quit
• Sleep, Restart, Shut Down
• Lock Screen, Log Out

Global Menu Bar

Menu	What it includes
App	About, New Window, App Details, Quit, open windows list
File	New Folder, New Tab, Open, Open With, Print, Get Info, Rename, Find, Trash, Eject
Edit	Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete, Select All, Emoji & Symbols
View	Icon/List view, sorting, reverse sort, path bar, hidden files, full screen
Go	Back, Forward, Recents, Documents, Desktop, Downloads, Home, Computer, Network
Window	Minimize, Maximize, Tile, workspace switching, move window between workspaces, close
Help	Feedback and GNOME Help

Spotlight-Style Search

Open AppMenu Search from the Apple menu or with Ctrl+Space.

Search sources:

• Installed applications
• Recent files
• GNOME Settings panels

Results are grouped by type and show icons so users can tell apps, recent files, and settings apart quickly.

Workspace Controls

The Window menu includes:

• Previous Workspace
• Next Workspace
• Move Window Left
• Move Window Right

Enable Show Workspace Indicator in preferences to show workspace navigation dots in the panel. Use Workspace Indicator Position to place the dots on the left or right side of the top panel.

AppMenu vs Other GNOME Menu Extensions

Feature	AppMenu	Fildem	global-menu-for-gnome	Kiwi Menu
Pure GNOME Shell extension	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
External daemon required	No	Yes	No	No
GTK module setup required	No	Yes	No	No
Works with GTK/Qt/Electron/Flatpak apps	Yes	Partial	Partial	N/A
Recent items	Yes	No	No	Yes
Fast user switching	Yes	No	No	No
Workspace indicator/actions	Yes	No	No	No
Spotlight-style search	Yes	HUD only	No	No
One-shot installers	Yes	Yes	No	No

AppMenu now uses a hybrid approach:

• for apps that export Canonical dbusmenu data, AppMenu can read and trigger the real menu items
• for modern GTK and libadwaita apps that expose org.gtk.Actions, AppMenu can build native action-backed menus without synthetic key presses
• for apps that expose neither path, AppMenu falls back to stable cross-app actions and shortcuts

This keeps the extension useful on GTK4, Qt, Electron, Java, Flatpak, and Wayland, where full exported menu trees are often partial or absent.

Installation

From GNOME Extensions

Use the dedicated upload package when submitting to extensions.gnome.org:

• AppMenu-e.g.o-upload-v5.3.zip

This ZIP has metadata.json and extension.js at the archive root, which is required by the GNOME Extensions upload validator.

Release Packages

Download from the latest release:

• AppMenu-e.g.o-upload-v5.3.zip: upload package for extensions.gnome.org
• appmenu@ChathurangaBW.github.io.zip: manual GNOME Shell extension package
• AppMenu-v5.3-linux.run: one-shot self-extracting installer
• AppMenu-v5.3-linux.bin: one-shot self-extracting installer alias
• appmenu_5.3_all.deb: Debian and Ubuntu package
• AppMenu-v5.3.zip: source snapshot

From Source

git clone https://github.com/ChathurangaBW/AppMenu.git
cd AppMenu
bash install.sh

Then restart GNOME Shell:

• Wayland: log out and log back in
• X11: press Alt+F2, type r, then press Enter

Configuration

Open preferences with:

gnome-extensions prefs appmenu@ChathurangaBW.github.io

Available settings:

Setting	Description
Show OS icon	Toggle the logo near the Apple menu
Icon	Select a distro icon or Apple logo
Lock to focused app	Keep panel app label tied to the focused app
Use real application menus	Use dbusmenu or native GTK action exports when supported, with automatic fallback
Show User Switcher	Show avatar-based fast user switching
Show Workspace Indicator	Show workspace navigation dots
Workspace Indicator Position	Choose left or right panel placement for workspace dots
Debug Logging	Enable diagnostic GNOME Shell journal logs
Reset AppMenu Settings	Restore AppMenu preferences to packaged defaults

Preferences are grouped into Appearance, Menu Behavior, Panel Extras, and Diagnostics sections.

Troubleshooting

AppMenu appears to do nothing

1. Open the Apple menu in the top panel.
2. Open AppMenu Status.
3. Choose Copy Troubleshooting Info.
4. Paste that information into the GitHub issue, along with your GNOME version and whether you are on Wayland or X11.

The status submenu reports the focused app, app ID, window class, real-menu setting, menu source, debug logging state, user switcher state, and workspace indicator state.

Real menus vs fallback menus

AppMenu tries real exported menus first when Use real application menus is enabled. Some modern apps, sandboxed apps, or Wayland sessions do not expose full menu trees. In those cases AppMenu falls back to stable cross-app actions so the menu bar remains useful instead of disappearing.

After installing or upgrading

GNOME Shell can keep old extension modules cached in the current Wayland session. If AppMenu still behaves like an older version after installing or upgrading:

• Wayland: log out and log back in.
• X11: press Alt+F2, type r, then press Enter.

This is a GNOME Shell session cache behavior. The installed files can be correct while the already-running shell still has old module code loaded.

Collecting logs

Enable Debug Logging in preferences only while troubleshooting. Then collect logs with:

journalctl --user -b | grep -i AppMenu

Disable debug logging again after collecting the information.

Development

Build release packages:

./scripts/build-packages.sh

Generated files go to dist/.

Project Structure

AppMenu/
├── extension.js                 # Extension lifecycle
├── menuManager.js               # Panel menu orchestration
├── searchDialog.js              # Spotlight-style search dialog
├── workspaceIndicator.js        # Workspace dots controller
├── userSwitcher.js              # Fast user switching UI
├── recentItemsSubmenu.js        # Recent items submenu
├── documentTooltip.js           # Recent item tooltip support
├── logger.js                    # Debug-gated logging
├── prefs.js                     # Preferences window
├── stylesheet.css               # Shell styling
├── schemas/                     # GSettings schema
├── actions/                     # Action handlers
├── menus/                       # Menu definitions
├── icons/                       # SVG icons
├── scripts/build-packages.sh    # Release package builder
├── install.sh
└── uninstall.sh

License

GPL-3.0-or-later © ChathurangaBW

_{Built for GNOME. Inspired by macOS.}