Give The Dog a Bone 🐕🦴

A fun, adorable macOS menu bar app that shows your Notion todo progress. Your goal: give the dog its bone! As you tick things off your todo list, the bone gets closer to the pup. Complete everything and see 🎉!

Features

• 🐕 Give The Dog a Bone: Watch the bone (🦴) get closer to the dog (🐕) as you complete tasks
• 🎉 Celebration: When all done, the menu bar shows 🎉
• 🔄 Auto-refresh: Polls Notion every 5 seconds to stay up-to-date
• 📊 Live Counter: Shows completed/total tasks (e.g., "3/7")
• 🎨 Always Visible: Lives in your menu bar so you always see your progress
• 🖱️ Click to Refresh: Click the menu bar for instant refresh (⌘R) or to quit (⌘Q)
• 🚀 Auto-start: Can automatically start when you log in
• 🛡️ Stable: Handles API errors gracefully, keeps last good value

Setup

1. Create a Notion Integration

1. Go to https://www.notion.so/my-integrations
2. Click "New integration"
3. Give it a name (e.g., "Menu Bar Tracker")
4. Copy the "Internal Integration Token" (starts with secret_)

2. Share Your Database with the Integration

1. Open your Notion todo database
2. Click the "..." menu in the top right
3. Click "Add connections"
4. Select your integration

3. Get Your Database ID

Your database ID is in the URL when viewing the database:

https://notion.so/workspace/DATABASE_ID?v=...

4. Set Environment Variables

Create a file at ~/.notion_menu_bar_config:

export NOTION_API_KEY="secret_your_integration_token_here"
export NOTION_DATABASE_ID="your_database_id_here"

Then source it in your shell config (~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc):

# Notion Menu Bar Tracker
[ -f ~/.notion_menu_bar_config ] && source ~/.notion_menu_bar_config

5. Build and Run

Build:

cd ~/Desktop/scripts/NotionMenuBarTracker
swift build -c release

Run with the helper script:

./run.sh

Or manually:

source ~/.notion_menu_bar_config
./.build/release/NotionMenuBarTracker &

6. Set Up Auto-Start (Optional)

Create a LaunchAgent that runs at login:

cat > ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.notion.menubar.tracker.plist << 'EOF'
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.notion.menubar.tracker</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Users/YOUR_USERNAME/Desktop/scripts/NotionMenuBarTracker/.build/release/NotionMenuBarTracker</string>
    </array>
    <key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
    <dict>
        <key>NOTION_API_KEY</key>
        <string>YOUR_API_KEY_HERE</string>
        <key>NOTION_DATABASE_ID</key>
        <string>YOUR_DATABASE_ID_HERE</string>
    </dict>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <true/>
    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/notion-dog-bone-out.log</string>
    <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
    <string>/tmp/notion-dog-bone-err.log</string>
</dict>
</plist>
EOF

launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.notion.menubar.tracker.plist

Replace YOUR_USERNAME, YOUR_API_KEY_HERE, and YOUR_DATABASE_ID_HERE with your values.

Testing

Run the test script:

source ~/.notion_menu_bar_config  # Load your credentials
./test.sh

Development

• Logs are written to /tmp/notion-dog-bone.log for debugging
• 5-second polling interval (configurable in NotionConfig)
• Gracefully handles Notion API rate limiting and errors

Database Requirements

Your Notion database should have:

• Multiple pages/items (these are your todos)
• A checkbox property (any name works - the app looks for checkbox properties)

How It Works

The menu bar shows your progress in giving the dog its bone:

• Start: 🐕━━━━━🦴 (many tasks remaining - bone is far away!)
• Progress: 🐕━━🦴 (you're getting closer to giving the dog its bone!)
• Complete: 🐕🦴 (all done - you gave the dog its bone! 🎆)

Each dash (━) represents an uncompleted task. As you check off todos, you're giving the dog its bone - the dashes disappear and the bone gets closer!

Example: 🐕━━━🦴 3/7 means 3 completed, 4 remaining (4 more tasks until the dog gets its bone!)

Customization

Edit Sources/main.swift to customize:

• updateIntervalSeconds: How often to poll Notion (default: 5 seconds)
• generateColorfulProgressBar(): Change the dog/bone to other emojis
• Try different characters for the body segments (━, ─, ~, etc.)

Troubleshooting

App isn't showing in menu bar:

• The app is likely running (check logs with tail -f /tmp/notion-dog-bone.log)
• Menu bar display is a known macOS limitation with simple executables
• Verify it's working by checking the logs - you should see updates every 5 seconds

API errors in logs:

• Check your NOTION_API_KEY is correct
• Verify your NOTION_DATABASE_ID is correct
• Make sure the integration has access to the database
• Notion may rate-limit - app handles this gracefully by keeping the last good value

No progress shown (0/0):

• The database might be empty
• The integration might not have permission to read the database
• Check logs for API errors

License

MIT - Do whatever you want with it!