A free, offline macOS menu-bar app for learning Chinese, one word at a time.
Created by Akash Mahedy · No account · No subscription · No background network calls
Download · Features · User guide · Vocabulary & sources · Build
Project website · Mac stable download · Windows 11 preview
Native Mac UI demo with timing shortened. Mac is stable; Windows 11 is a preview. 25-second video · Portrait video for social sharing.
CíBar puts Hanzi, Pinyin and a short English meaning in your menu bar. A gentle fill shrinks smoothly until the next word. Click to read the full meaning, a sourced example and its attribution. The timer pauses while you read and resumes when you close the card.
| Light appearance | Dark appearance |
|---|---|
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Native rendered previews. Long text is shortened in the menu bar; the word card keeps the full text.
CíBar is a free, open-source alternative to VocaBar PRO, Word Drop, Wunderbar and LingoBar for Chinese vocabulary review. Keep words visible while you work, choose your study interval and open a card for more context. The Mac edition is stable; Windows 11 is a preview.
| Compare with | Shared workflow | CíBar's focus and limits |
|---|---|---|
| VocaBar / PRO | Menu-bar words and meanings, adjustable intervals, sequential/random playback and custom imports | Free HSK 1–6 library, Pinyin, serial ranges and portable backups. VocaBar has a limited free tier and a paid PRO unlock. |
| Word Drop | Rotating menu-bar vocabulary, Chinese support, meanings and example cards | HSK-focused study and custom vocabulary. Word Drop is paid and includes multiple learning languages; CíBar's bundled library is Chinese. |
| Wunderbar | Menu-bar vocabulary, intervals, example sentences and custom word lists | Free sequential/random HSK review. Wunderbar is paid and includes spaced repetition and audio pronunciation; CíBar currently provides neither. |
| LingoBar | Menu-bar vocabulary, meanings, examples, Favorites and custom words | Free, offline Chinese HSK review. LingoBar has free and premium features, multiple learning languages and audio pronunciation. |
These comparisons describe a similar vocabulary workflow, not complete feature parity or an affiliation with the other apps. CíBar's app code is MIT-licensed; bundled vocabulary and examples retain their separate licenses. See data sources and limits.
- Open Releases.
- Download CiBar-Apple-Silicon.zip for an M-series Mac, or CiBar-Intel.zip for an Intel Mac.
- Unzip, drag the app into Applications, then open it. CíBar appears in the menu bar without a Dock icon.
- Right-click the word → Settings… to choose levels, ranges, delay and appearance.
Requires macOS 13+. The Apple Silicon app is arm64-only and does not need Rosetta. The Intel app is separate. Releases use a local ad-hoc signature and are not Apple-notarized. If macOS blocks a download, review the source and use the normal Privacy & Security → Open Anyway flow. Do not disable Gatekeeper globally.
A native C++20 / Win32 edition displays a movable vocabulary pill above the taskbar. It includes DirectComposition countdown fill, the same 5400-word pack, study and appearance controls, full word cards, Favorites, and Mac-compatible version 1 backups. Created by Akash Mahedy · @akashmahedy.
Download CiBar-Windows-x64.zip — prerelease, extract the entire folder and run CiBar.exe. Intel/AMD x64, Windows 11; no .NET, Electron or separate C++ runtime installation. Default HSK4, sequential, 45 seconds, adaptive width capped at 260.
Preview status: automated native build/core tests and Mac backup compatibility are checked in Windows CI. Real Windows 11 GUI, display-scaling and five-minute resource measurements remain pending. Mac screenshots and performance figures on this page describe the Mac edition. See the Windows guide, verification checklist, and Windows source. The Mac edition remains the current stable release.
| Study | Appearance | Your library |
|---|---|---|
| HSK 1–6, multiple levels together | Toggle level, serial, Hanzi, Pinyin and meaning | Search the full word list |
| Independent inclusive serial ranges | Smooth fill and background toggles | Favorites and favorites-only playback |
| Sequential or random without repeats per cycle | Adaptive or fixed width, 80–600 pt cap | Import UTF-8 CSV / TSV |
| Adjustable time per word | Font size 9–18 pt | Copy words and open a dictionary |
| Previous, next, jump, pause and resume | Ocean, Sage, Plum, Amber, Graphite, Custom | Export and restore data, settings and progress |
| Reading card pauses the timer | Soft, Balanced or Strong fill contrast | Optional launch at login |
Default: HSK4 · sequential · 45 seconds · adaptive width capped at 260 pt. No countdown number. Reduce Motion uses a one-second fill update instead of continuous animation. The menu bar can still hide items when crowded, especially near a notch; reduce the width or hide English if needed.
The bundled pack follows the 2025 HSK 3.0 exam syllabus, with 5400 words across levels 1–6. Level-local numbering and headword order were checked against the official syllabus.
| Level | New words in this level | Total through this level |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 300 | 300 |
| 2 | 200 | 500 |
| 3 | 500 | 1,000 |
| 4 | 1,000 | 2,000 |
| 5 | 1,600 | 3,600 |
| 6 | 1,800 | 5,400 |
Select levels 1–4 to study all 2000 words through HSK4. Selecting only 4 plays its 1000 new entries.
3071 words have offline examples. Most sentence Pinyin is automatic transliteration and is labelled accordingly; polyphonic readings and neutral tones can be wrong. Some examples illustrate a different sense. Missing examples are stated explicitly. Headword verification does not certify every translation. See data sources, attribution and limits.
CíBar uses native AppKit views and one Core Animation fill layer, without generating animation images or running a helper process per frame. On one Apple M1 Mac, a five-minute default-playback sample averaged 0.74% of one CPU core and 48.55 MiB physical memory footprint. Peaks and methodology are in Performance. These measurements are not guarantees for every Mac; compositor power and battery life were not isolated.
Install Apple's Command Line Tools, then:
git clone https://github.com/akashmahedy/CiBar.git
cd CiBar
zsh Tools/build.shThe prepared word pack is included; no third-party packages or data downloads are needed. The script compiles an optimized arm64 app, applies an ad-hoc signature and runs self-tests. Output: ../outputs/CiBar.app.
zsh Tools/build.sh --intel # separate Intel build; not run on an M-series Mac
zsh Tools/release.sh # clean public ZIPs, without your personal dataTests cover multilevel ranges, sequence wrapping, random cycles, pause reasons, delay changes, jump, favorites, import rejection, backup roundtrips, recovery-write failure, adaptive width, animation and palette contrast. Physical Intel hardware and the minimum supported macOS version have not been tested locally; CI builds and tests on GitHub's Apple Silicon and Intel runners.
Settings, favorites and progress stay in ~/Library/Application Support/CiBar/. CíBar has no analytics, cloud sync or background network requests. Dictionary and example-source links open public pages only when clicked. Your backup files can contain custom vocabulary and progress; keep them private unless you intend to share them.
Created by Akash Mahedy · @akashmahedy, with AI-assisted implementation. App code and original visual assets are MIT. Vocabulary and sentence examples have separate Creative Commons licenses; the MIT license does not relicense them. See ATTRIBUTIONS.
Contributions, useful bug reports and sourced vocabulary corrections are welcome. Please do not include personal backup files or credentials in issues.