Add setting to hide the startup picker with a one-time menu-bar hint

Lets someone skip the startup picker entirely; the first time it would've
shown with nothing running, a small popover on the menu bar icon points
there instead, then never again.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Sources/AppDelegate.swift

@@ -41,6 +41,30 @@ enum MenuClickBehavior {
     }
 }
 
+// Whether the startup picker (see AppDelegate.showStartupPicker) should
+// appear at all when nothing's running at launch. Off by default, so the
+// existing picker keeps showing up unless someone opts out of it.
+enum StartupBehavior {
+    private static let hidePickerKey = "HideStartupPicker"
+
+    static var hidePicker: Bool {
+        get { UserDefaults.standard.bool(forKey: hidePickerKey) }
+        set { UserDefaults.standard.set(newValue, forKey: hidePickerKey) }
+    }
+}
+
+// A person who's opted out of the startup picker still needs to discover
+// the menu bar icon somehow the very first time — this fires once, ever,
+// the first time that situation actually arises, then never again.
+private enum MenuBarHintShown {
+    private static let key = "MenuBarHintShown"
+
+    static var value: Bool {
+        get { UserDefaults.standard.bool(forKey: key) }
+        set { UserDefaults.standard.set(newValue, forKey: key) }
+    }
+}
+
 final class AppDelegate: NSObject, NSApplicationDelegate, NSMenuDelegate, LiveStateDelegate {
     let statusItem = NSStatusBar.system.statusItem(withLength: NSStatusItem.variableLength)
     let menu = NSMenu()
@@ -53,6 +77,7 @@ final class AppDelegate: NSObject, NSApplicationDelegate, NSMenuDelegate, LiveSt
     private var accessibilityRecheckScheduled = false
     private var activationObserver: NSObjectProtocol?
     private var appearanceObserver: NSKeyValueObservation?
+    private var menuBarHintPopover: NSPopover?
 
     func applicationDidFinishLaunching(_ notification: Notification) {
         menu.delegate = self
@@ -91,9 +116,15 @@ final class AppDelegate: NSObject, NSApplicationDelegate, NSMenuDelegate, LiveSt
 
         // Launching this app fresh with nothing running means there's no
         // menu-bar title/dots to click yet — offer a picker up front
-        // instead of leaving the user to discover the dropdown.
+        // instead of leaving the user to discover the dropdown, unless
+        // that picker's been turned off, in which case a one-time hint
+        // takes its place (see MenuBarHintShown).
         if currentInfos.filter(\.running).isEmpty {
-            showStartupPicker(currentInfos)
+            if StartupBehavior.hidePicker {
+                showMenuBarHintIfNeeded()
+            } else {
+                showStartupPicker(currentInfos)
+            }
         }
 
         UpdateChecker.checkAutomaticallyIfDue()
@@ -403,6 +434,41 @@ final class AppDelegate: NSObject, NSApplicationDelegate, NSMenuDelegate, LiveSt
         DispatchQueue.main.asyncAfter(deadline: .now() + 0.3) { [weak self] in self?.liveState.reconcile() }
     }
 
+    // Stands in for showStartupPicker when that's been turned off — but
+    // only the very first time nothing's running at launch, ever. After
+    // that, someone who opted out of the picker gets silence, same as
+    // launching with something already running.
+    private func showMenuBarHintIfNeeded() {
+        guard !MenuBarHintShown.value, let button = statusItem.button else { return }
+        MenuBarHintShown.value = true
+
+        let label = NSTextField(wrappingLabelWithString: "Claude isn't running — click here to start a profile.")
+        label.font = .systemFont(ofSize: 13)
+        label.isEditable = false
+        label.isBordered = false
+        label.drawsBackground = false
+        label.preferredMaxLayoutWidth = 200
+
+        let container = NSView()
+        container.addSubview(label)
+        label.translatesAutoresizingMaskIntoConstraints = false
+        NSLayoutConstraint.activate([
+            label.topAnchor.constraint(equalTo: container.topAnchor, constant: 12),
+            label.bottomAnchor.constraint(equalTo: container.bottomAnchor, constant: -12),
+            label.leadingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: container.leadingAnchor, constant: 14),
+            label.trailingAnchor.constraint(equalTo: container.trailingAnchor, constant: -14),
+        ])
+
+        let viewController = NSViewController()
+        viewController.view = container
+
+        let popover = NSPopover()
+        popover.contentViewController = viewController
+        popover.behavior = .transient
+        menuBarHintPopover = popover
+        popover.show(relativeTo: button.bounds, of: button, preferredEdge: .maxY)
+    }
+
     // MARK: - Actions
 
     @objc func pick(_ sender: NSMenuItem) {

Sources/ManageWindow.swift

@@ -508,6 +508,8 @@ private final class SettingsViewController: NSViewController {
     private let autoUpdateCheckbox = NSButton(
         checkboxWithTitle: "Automatically check for updates", target: nil, action: nil)
     private let launchAtLoginCheckbox = NSButton(checkboxWithTitle: "Launch at Login", target: nil, action: nil)
+    private let hideStartupPickerCheckbox = NSButton(
+        checkboxWithTitle: "Hide the startup picker when no profiles are running", target: nil, action: nil)
     private let checkNowButton = NSButton(title: "Check for Updates\u{2026}", target: nil, action: nil)
     private let tagStyleLabel = NSTextField(labelWithString: "Window tag:")
     private let tagStylePopUp = NSPopUpButton(frame: .zero, pullsDown: false)
@@ -564,12 +566,17 @@ private final class SettingsViewController: NSViewController {
         autoUpdateCheckbox.action = #selector(toggleAutoUpdate)
         autoUpdateCheckbox.state = UpdateChecker.automaticCheckEnabled ? .on : .off
 
+        hideStartupPickerCheckbox.target = self
+        hideStartupPickerCheckbox.action = #selector(toggleHideStartupPicker)
+        hideStartupPickerCheckbox.state = StartupBehavior.hidePicker ? .on : .off
+
         checkNowButton.target = self
         checkNowButton.action = #selector(checkNow)
         checkNowButton.bezelStyle = .rounded
 
         stack = NSStackView(views: [
-            launchAtLoginCheckbox, clickActionRow, tagStyleRow, autoUpdateCheckbox, checkNowButton,
+            launchAtLoginCheckbox, clickActionRow, tagStyleRow, hideStartupPickerCheckbox,
+            autoUpdateCheckbox, checkNowButton,
         ])
         stack.orientation = .vertical
         stack.alignment = .leading
@@ -610,7 +617,7 @@ private final class SettingsViewController: NSViewController {
             clickActionLabel.intrinsicContentSize.width
                 + clickActionPopUp.intrinsicContentSize.width + clickActionRow.spacing,
         ]
-        let widest = ([launchAtLoginCheckbox, autoUpdateCheckbox, checkNowButton]
+        let widest = ([launchAtLoginCheckbox, hideStartupPickerCheckbox, autoUpdateCheckbox, checkNowButton]
             .map(\.intrinsicContentSize.width) + rowWidths)
             .max() ?? 0
         preferredContentSize = NSSize(width: widest + 40, height: stack.fittingSize.height)
@@ -648,6 +655,10 @@ private final class SettingsViewController: NSViewController {
         UpdateChecker.automaticCheckEnabled = autoUpdateCheckbox.state == .on
     }
 
+    @objc private func toggleHideStartupPicker() {
+        StartupBehavior.hidePicker = hideStartupPickerCheckbox.state == .on
+    }
+
     @objc private func checkNow() {
         UpdateChecker.checkManually { result in
             DispatchQueue.main.async {