A native macOS menu bar app for monitoring RAM usage, built for developers running Claude Code.
After Claude 4.5 Opus came out, my Claude Code usage skyrocketed. I was running multiple sessions at once—main agents spawning subagents across different projects—and my 16GB MacBook Air couldn't keep up. VS Code kept crashing. Chrome tabs were piling up. I had no visibility into what was actually consuming memory.
Activity Monitor shows processes, but I needed answers like: Which Claude session is the memory hog? Can I spawn another subagent? Which Chrome tabs should I close first?
So I upgraded to a 48GB MacBook Pro, which mostly solved the crashes. But I still wanted to know when I was pushing limits—and RAMBar gives me that visibility.
- Menu Bar Icon - Shows current RAM percentage with color-coded status (green/amber/red)
- Quick Popover - Click to see memory breakdown by app
- Expandable Details:
- Claude Code sessions (click to expand, see main vs subagent, memory per session)
- Chrome tabs (click to expand, see memory per tab)
- Click-to-Activate - Click any app row (Python, VS Code, Slack, etc.) to bring it to foreground
- Smart Diagnostics - Warnings when memory is high or too many Claude sessions active
brew tap maxghenis/tap
brew install --cask rambar- Download
RAMBar.zipfrom Releases - Unzip and drag RAMBar to Applications
- Launch RAMBar from Applications
- First launch: macOS will block the app since it's not notarized. To open it:
- Open System Settings → Privacy & Security
- Scroll down to see "RAMBar" was blocked
- Click Open Anyway and enter your password
git clone https://github.com/MaxGhenis/rambar.git
cd rambar/RAMBar
xcodebuild -scheme RAMBar -configuration Release build
open build/Build/Products/Release/RAMBar.app- Click the menu bar icon to open the popover
- Click Claude Code or Chrome rows to expand and see sessions/tabs
- Click other app rows (Python, VS Code, etc.) to bring that app to foreground
- Click diagnostics to take action (open Activity Monitor, switch to app)
- macOS 14.0+
- Automation permission for Chrome/VS Code tab enumeration (optional, grants richer details)
MIT