systray is a cross-platform Go library to place an icon and menu in the notification area.

Features

• Supported on Windows, macOS, and Linux
• Menu items can be checked and/or disabled
• Methods may be called from any Goroutine

API

func main() {
	// Should be called at the very beginning of main().
	systray.Run(onReady, onExit)
}

func onReady() {
	systray.SetIcon(icon.Data)
	systray.SetTitle("Awesome App")
	systray.SetTooltip("Pretty awesome超级棒")
	mQuit := systray.AddMenuItem("Quit", "Quit the whole app")

	// Sets the icon of a menu item. Only available on Mac.
	mQuit.SetIcon(icon.Data)
}

func onExit() {
	// clean up here
}

Try the example app!

Have go v1.12+ or higher installed? Here's an example to get started on macOS:

git clone https://github.com/getlantern/systray
cd example
env GO111MODULE=on go build
./example

On Windows, you should build like this:

env GO111MODULE=on go build -ldflags "-H=windowsgui"

The following text will then appear on the console:

go: finding github.com/skratchdot/open-golang latest
go: finding github.com/getlantern/systray latest
go: finding github.com/getlantern/golog latest

Now look for Awesome App in your menu bar!

Platform notes

Linux

• Building apps requires the gtk3, libappindicator3 and libwebkit2gtk-4.0-dev development headers to be installed. For Debian or Ubuntu, you can may install these using:

sudo apt-get install libgtk-3-dev libappindicator3-dev libwebkit2gtk-4.0-dev

To build the example, run go build example/main.go

• Checked menu items are not yet implemented

Windows

• To avoid opening a console at application startup, use these compile flags:

go build -ldflags -H=windowsgui

You'll also need to include a Manifest for your windows app. Assuming your executable is named app.exe, create a file app.manifest like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">
    <assemblyIdentity version="1.0.0.0" processorArchitecture="*" name="App Name Here" type="win32"/>
    <dependency>
        <dependentAssembly>
            <assemblyIdentity type="win32" name="Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls" version="6.0.0.0" processorArchitecture="*" publicKeyToken="6595b64144ccf1df" language="*"/>
        </dependentAssembly>
    </dependency>
    <application xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v3">
        <windowsSettings>
            <dpiAwareness xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/SMI/2016/WindowsSettings">PerMonitorV2, PerMonitor</dpiAwareness>
            <dpiAware xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/SMI/2005/WindowsSettings">True</dpiAware>
        </windowsSettings>
    </application>
</assembly>

Then either compile the manifest using the rsrc tool, like this:

go get github.com/akavel/rsrc
rsrc -manifest app.manifest -o rsrc.syso

or rename the app.manifest file to app.exe.manifest and distribute it with the application instead.

macOS

On macOS, you will need to create an application bundle to wrap the binary; simply folders with the following minimal structure and assets:

SystrayApp.app/
  Contents/
    Info.plist
    MacOS/
      go-executable
    Resources/
      SystrayApp.icns

When running as an app bundle, you may want to add one or both of the following to your Info.plist:

<!-- avoid having a blurry icon and text -->
	<key>NSHighResolutionCapable</key>
	<string>True</string>

	<!-- avoid showing the app on the Dock -->
	<key>LSUIElement</key>
	<string>1</string>

Consult the Official Apple Documentation here.

Credits

• https://github.com/xilp/systray
• https://github.com/cratonica/trayhost