Conditional menu bar (fx. battery icon visibility based on power state)

[MortenMou]

Coming from Bartender and later Ice, one feature I really miss is the ability to conditionally show/hide menu bar items based on system state — specifically power connection.

Use case: When my Mac is plugged in, the battery icon is irrelevant to me, so I'd like it hidden to keep the menu bar clean. But as soon as I unplug and switch to battery power, I want the battery icon to automatically reappear so I can monitor usage.

How Bartender handled this (as i remember):
Bartender had a rule-based system where you could set conditions for individual menu bar items. For the battery icon, you could create a rule like "hide when connected to power, show when on battery."

Suggested implementation:
This could start simple with just a power state trigger, but could potentially expand into a broader conditional visibility system with triggers like:

Power state (plugged in / on battery)
Battery level thresholds (e.g., show below 20%)
Focus modes

Even if the scope stays limited to power state alone, it would be a very useful addition for keeping the menu bar minimal without losing important information when context changes.

Thanks for picking up where Ice left off — really enjoying Thaw so far!

[stonerl]

Cant promise this anytime soon. Primary focus is bug-fixing for now. But nevertheless a good idea.

[Spoekenkieker]

IIRC Bartender also compared the icons for changes?
That was very practical. For example, I had set the Carbon copy Cloner menulet to show when it changed to indicating that CCC was doing a backup.

[MortenMou]

Another example: When connected (to WiFi, mobile etc) the WiFi icon can be hidden, and only show when not connected.

[stonerl]

see #422