Zenith

A customizable, always-on-top status bar for Windows 11, docked to the top edge of your screen.

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Requires Windows 11 24H2 (build ≥ 26100.2605).

Zenith is a top bar for Windows 11 — a custom, always-available status bar that docks to the top edge of the screen.

Core ideas:

• Stays on top and reserves space. Zenith registers as a Windows desktop AppBar (SHAppBarMessage), so the shell shrinks the work area. Maximized windows stop below the bar and can never cover it — exactly like the native Taskbar.
• Native transparency. The bar, Settings, and Widget Manager windows use Windows Acrylic or Mica blur applied through the Win32 SetWindowCompositionAttribute accent API. The windows are fully transparent; the OS paints the blur.
• Widget system. Widgets are small, standalone apps (plain JS/CSS/HTML) living in widgets/. Each has a manifest.json. Users toggle them on/off in the Widget Manager; their order and position (left/center/right) are saved to config.
• Fully customizable visuals. The Settings window exposes the background mode (Acrylic/Mica/Gradient/Solid/None), tint transparency, gradient colors and alphas, bar height, padding and margins, corner rounding, theme (dark/light/auto), and monitor selection. Changes apply live. Power users may additionally drop a %APPDATA%\zenith\custom.css that is hot-reloaded.
• Right-click anywhere empty on the bar → native context menu: Settings · Widgets · Restart Bar · Close Bar.
• Custom chrome. No window uses the Windows title bar. Every window has a custom header: semi-bold title on the left, × close on the right. The Widget Manager header also has a search input.
• Minimal footprint. Goal is the lowest possible RAM and CPU. No heavy framework, no per-window CSS backgrounds, compositor-friendly animations only.

Zenith drives the virtual-desktop API via the winvd crate. The Workspace widget shows one circle per virtual desktop; the active desktop is filled/colored, others outlined. Click to switch, right-click to rename, delete, or create new desktops. This requires Windows 11 24H2 (build ≥ 26100.2605) — users on older builds see a startup error and the app exits.

Pre-built installers are published on the Releases page.

1. Go to https://github.com/b7s/zenith/releases/latest.
2. Download the Zenith_x.x.x_x64-setup.exe installer for the latest release.
3. Run the installer. Zenith is installed for the current Windows user (no admin elevation required) and added to Start → Zenith in your Start menu.
4. Launch Zenith. The bar appears docked at the top of your screen.
5. (Optional) Open Settings → Updates to enable Start with Windows for auto-launch on login.

Zenith runs in the system tray — right-click the tray icon to open Settings, open the Widget Manager, check for updates, or quit.

Zenith checks for new releases in the background every 24 hours. When a new version is available, the tray icon shows a badge; click Check for updates to download the new installer. Auto-update can be disabled in Settings → Updates.

If you'd rather compile Zenith yourself, you'll need a Windows 11 (24H2+) machine with the Rust toolchain and Node.js.

• Rust (stable, edition 2021) — install via rustup.
• Node.js ≥ 20 (LTS recommended) and npm.
• Git.
• Windows 11 24H2 (build ≥ 26100.2605) — required by the winvd crate.
• The Microsoft C++ Build Tools (MSVC) — required by the Rust linker on Windows.

git clone https://github.com/b7s/zenith.git
cd zenith

npm install

npm run tauri dev

This starts Vite (the frontend dev server) on http://localhost:1422 and launches the Tauri app pointed at it. The bar appears at the top of your screen and hot-reloads on frontend changes.

npm run tauri build

The unsigned NSIS installer and the raw executable are written to src-tauri/target/release/bundle/. Run the *-setup.exe to install.

To produce a signed, distributable installer, see the Tauri signing guide and supply the TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY / TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY_PASSWORD environment variables.

Widgets are the heart of Zenith. Each widget is a self-contained folder in widgets/<id>/ with a manifest.json, a widget.html fragment, an optional widget.js IIFE, and an optional widget.css. The Rust backend scans the widgets/ directory at startup — there is no central registry to edit. To add a widget, just drop a new folder in widgets/; to remove one, delete its folder.

Open the Widget Manager (right-click the bar → Widgets, or the tray icon) to toggle widgets on/off, rearrange them (drag-and-drop across the bar's left / center / right zones), and configure per-widget settings via the gear button.

Each widget folder follows this layout:

widgets/<name>/
├── manifest.json      # required — metadata (name, id, version, default_zone, icon, min_width, preview, optional config)
├── widget.html        # required — the HTML fragment injected into the bar
├── widget.js          # optional — IIFE that runs once on mount
└── widget.css         # optional — styles injected once per session

• manifest.json fields: name, id, version, description, default_zone (left|center|right), icon (a Phosphor duotone icon name), min_width, preview (static HTML fragment shown in the Widget Manager card only — never rendered live), and optionally config (user-configurable settings — see the widget development contract in AGENTS.md §9.4a).
• widget.js uses window.__zenith_invoke (set by the bar) to call Tauri commands — never imports from @tauri-apps/api directly.
• Add a widget by creating its folder; remove by deleting it. No code changes outside the folder are needed.

• Location: %APPDATA%\zenith\config.json (i.e. C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\zenith\).
• Format: JSON. Unknown keys are tolerated (forward-compatible). Missing keys fall back to defaults. A corrupt file never crashes the app — it falls back to defaults.

Most settings are best edited in the Settings window (right-click the bar → Settings), which writes the config file for you. Power users can edit the JSON directly.

Drop a custom.css file in %APPDATA%\zenith\ and enable it under Settings → Appearance → Custom CSS. It is hot-reloaded — save the file and the bar restyles live.

Zenith is a Tauri 2 application built in Rust with a plain-TypeScript frontend.

zenith/
├── src/                  # Frontend (TypeScript + CSS)
│   ├── windows/          # Window shells: bar, settings, manager, dialog, … 
│   ├── shared/           # Shared kernel: IPC, events, types, config client, widgets
│   ├── styles/           # CSS tokens (.zen-* component library)
│   └── domains/          # Frontend domain clients
├── widgets/              # Standalone widget folders (self-contained)
├── src-tauri/
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── config/       # Domain: configuration (load/save, model, commands)
│   │   ├── window/       # Domain: AppBar, transparency, monitor management
│   │   ├── widgets/      # Domain: widget registry and manifest scanning
│   │   ├── workspace/    # Domain: virtual desktops (winvd), foreground HWND tracking
│   │   └── …             # Other domains: appearance, motion, menu, dialog, gpu
│   └── capabilities/     # Per-window Tauri permissions

Each domain in the Rust backend follows hexagonal architecture: pure services with no Tauri types in signatures, thin command adapters, and cross-domain communication via events.

Contributions are welcome! Here's how:

1. Report bugs — open a GitHub Issue.
2. Submit changes — fork the repo, create a feature branch, and open a pull request.
3. New widgets — drop a folder in widgets/ following the layout above; no Rust changes needed unless you need custom IPC.

Before contributing, read the full development contract in AGENTS.md — it covers the project's architecture rules, CSS component system, transparency contract, animation discipline, and code organization conventions.

git clone https://github.com/b7s/zenith.git
cd zenith
npm install
npm run tauri dev

npm run typecheck   # TypeScript type checking
cargo check         # Rust type checking (run from src-tauri/)

Zenith is licensed under the MIT License.

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2026 b7s

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.

Last reviewed: 2026-07-25