TuckGuide
Search Mac Menu Bar Items from the Keyboard
When your menu bar has too many icons to scan, type instead. Tuck's search panel finds an item by name and opens it.
Short answer. Assign a hotkey to Show the search panel in Tuck's Hotkeys settings, press it, type part of an item's name and select the result. You can also open the panel from any launcher with the link tuck://search.
Steps
- Open Hotkeys. Open Settings, Hotkeys.
- Record a shortcut for search. Click the recorder for the search panel and press the keys you want. Pick something that does not clash with your other apps.
- Press it and type. Press the hotkey. Type part of an item's name. The list narrows as you type.
- Open the item. Select the result to open the item. Hidden items are revealed temporarily so the item can open.
- Choose which sections are searched. In Settings, Advanced, under Menu Bar Search, turn Visible and Hidden on or off and reorder them with the arrows.
- Open search from a launcher. Run open "tuck://search" in Terminal, or use the link in Shortcuts, Alfred or Keyboard Maestro.
What search is good for
Search finds the item you cannot see. It helps most for Hidden and Always-Hidden icons, since you never have to reveal the whole section and hunt.
Options worth knowing
- Move the pointer to revealed items. When you open an item from search, the pointer moves next to it so the menu appears under it. It is off by default.
- Sections in results. Turn off a section to exclude its items.
- Previews. Live previews in the list need Screen Recording. Without it, Tuck shows each item’s app icon.
What search does not do
It searches menu bar items. It does not search the contents of an app’s own menus.
The macOS steps target macOS 26. Tuck instructions describe its documented settings and supplied UI renders; the public DMG is launching soon. Pro features remain planned.