tern

Native macOS menu bar utility — not a dashboard

Know when it’s your turn.

PRs, reviews, CI, coding agents, project trackers, meetings — work scatters everywhere. Tern figures out who owns the next action, and only gets your attention when it matters.

Download for macOSView on GitHub

Lives in the menu bar. Quiet by default. macOS 14+.

How it works

Outbound, away, back to you.

  1. 01

    Watches your workstreams

    GitHub, Plane, coding agents, Calendar. Tern keeps an eye on all of them so you don’t have to.

  2. 02

    Connects related activity

    A PR, a Plane task, an agent run, a meeting — Tern links the pieces that belong to the same work.

  3. 03

    Finds who owns next

    You, the agent, a reviewer, CI. Each item gets one clear owner and one next action.

  4. 04

    Surfaces your turn

    Nothing pings until the ball comes back. When it’s yours, Tern says so — briefly.

Features

State and ownership, across everything.

Not another list of integrations. Each source feeds one model: who owns the next action, and is it you?

  • GitHub

    GitHub, read for state

    Approvals, change requests, CI checks — reduced to who holds the PR now, not a feed of events.

  • Plane

    Plane, linked to work

    Task keys like WEB-412 stay attached to their PRs and reviews, so context travels together.

  • Agents

    Coding agents, supervised

    Agent runs report blocked, done, or failed. When one needs input, it lands in Needs you.

  • Calendar

    Calendar, timed right

    Meetings surface just before they start — with who and what, then get out of the way.

  • Ownership

    Ownership-aware attention

    A filled dot means yours. A hollow ring means someone else holds it. The rule never changes.

  • Priority

    Ranked, not stacked

    The top item gets the one clear action. Everything else waits its turn, quietly ordered.

  • Snooze

    Snooze without guilt

    Not now means not now. Snoozed work leaves Needs you and returns at the time you set.

  • macOS

    Native notifications

    Standard macOS notifications. The app icon identifies Tern — no custom banners, no noise.

The important part

Not everything needs your attention.

Most work is in someone else’s hands. Tern shows four states — and only one of them interrupts you.

  • Active

    Agent or CI running. Nothing to do — Tern stays silent.

  • Waiting

    Reviewer holds it. Hollow ring, neutral text. Check when you want.

  • Needs you

    Approved, blocked, failed, starting soon. Filled coral dot. This is the only state with color.

  • Done

    Merged, closed, complete. Counted quietly in Done today, then gone.

Coral means yours. Failures use crimson, with words — never color alone.

Four sources. One turn.

Subtle by design — sources, not selling points.

  • GitHub

    PRs · reviews · CI

    PR #421

  • Plane

    tasks · state

    WEB-412

  • Claude Code

    agents · blocked / done

    tern#88

  • Calendar

    meetings · starting soon

    in 12 min

Your work has a turn. So do you.

A quiet menu bar companion for macOS. Free, personal, no account.

Download Tern for macOSSource on GitHub

macOS 14+ · Apple silicon + Intel