ZeroTier Status for macOS

An unofficial macOS menu bar companion for ZeroTier.

This app is for the failure mode where the official ZeroTier daemon is running, but the official macOS menu bar UI does not appear. In that state, launching ZeroTier.app may look like “nothing happened”, even though zerotier-one is active in the background.

ZeroTier Status does not replace ZeroTier. It only reads and controls the already-installed ZeroTier service through zerotier-cli.

What it does

• Shows a small icon-only menu bar item that is easier to keep visible on crowded or mirrored macOS menu bars.
• Shows whether ZeroTier is unavailable, online but idle, connected, or using TCP fallback.
• Lists joined networks and assigned addresses.
• Joins a network by entering a 16-character ZeroTier Network ID.
• Opens ZeroTier Central.
• Can register itself as a macOS login item.

Why this exists

Recent macOS versions can make some third-party menu bar items hard to discover or invisible, especially when the display is mirrored or the menu bar is crowded. The official ZeroTier macOS app is a menu-only app, so if the status item is clipped or not rendered, there is no normal app window to fall back to.

This project provides a small native SwiftUI MenuBarExtra wrapper around the official CLI so affected users can still see status and join networks.

Related upstream reports:

• ZeroTierOne #2591: macOS 26.5 - menu bar icon not rendered
• ZeroTierOne #2540: macOS 26.1 installed but application does not start

Requirements

• macOS 13 or newer.
• Official ZeroTier installed first.
• zerotier-cli available at one of the standard install paths:
  • /usr/local/bin/zerotier-cli
  • /Library/Application Support/ZeroTier/One/zerotier-cli
  • /opt/homebrew/bin/zerotier-cli
• Xcode command line tools for building from source.

Build and install

swift test
./scripts/package-app.sh

The packaging script builds a release binary, creates ZeroTier Status.app, ad-hoc signs it, installs it into /Applications, and opens it.

After launching, look near the right side of the macOS menu bar for:

• empty circle: ZeroTier is online but not connected to any network
• filled circle: at least one network is connected
• half-filled circle: ZeroTier is online but using TCP fallback
• warning triangle: ZeroTier is unavailable or the CLI cannot be reached

If the icon is still hidden

Open System Settings and make sure the item is allowed:

System Settings → Control Center / Menu Bar → Menu Bar Only → ZeroTier Status

If the menu bar is crowded, hold Command and drag the ZeroTier Status icon to the left of Wi‑Fi or another always-visible item. Mirrored displays can make the visible menu bar area smaller than it looks.

Scope

This is not an official ZeroTier project and is not affiliated with ZeroTier, Inc. “ZeroTier” is used only to describe compatibility with the official ZeroTier service.

For a long-term fix, the official macOS UI should expose a reliable fallback when its status item is not visible. See docs/OFFICIAL_ISSUE_COMMENT.md for an upstream-ready report.