# The tray menu and Settings

Fregata is a menu-bar app by default (with an optional Dock icon — see
[Finding the menu-bar icon](#finding-the-menu-bar-icon) below). Every
setting that's not a Frigate configuration option lives in the tray.
This page walks through it top-to-bottom.

![Fregata's macOS menu-bar tray expanded, showing live CPU and RAM stats, camera counts, Apple Neural Engine detector status, and quick controls for restart / settings / logs.](/screenshots/tray-menu.png)

## Finding the menu-bar icon

By default the menu-bar item is Fregata's only entry point — no Dock
icon, no main window. If you can't see it, the icon is almost always
*hidden* rather than missing: Fregata is still running.

macOS gives apps no way to pin themselves to a fixed or "priority" spot.
The right-hand end of the menu bar is reserved for Control Center, the
clock, and other system items, and third-party icons sit to their left.
When the bar runs out of room — most often on MacBooks, where the
**notch** eats the middle — macOS silently hides the overflow, starting
from the left. A freshly installed icon also tends to land at that
far-left end, the first place to get hidden.

### Optional: a Dock icon

For a second, always-visible way to find Fregata, turn on **Settings →
Show Dock Icon**. New installs are offered this as a checkbox ("Also
show Fregata icon in the Dock") on the last page of the first-run
welcome wizard, checked by default; existing installs stay menu-bar-only
until you flip the Settings toggle yourself — see [Settings → Show Dock
Icon](#settings--show-dock-icon) below. Clicking the Dock icon opens the
exact same tray menu as the menu-bar item; nothing about Frigate
control, folders, or Settings differs between the two.

If you'd rather stay menu-bar-only, here's how to keep the icon
reachable:

- **⌘-drag to rearrange.** Hold **⌘** and drag any menu-bar icon left
  or right. Pull Fregata's 🐦 out from behind the notch, or drag a
  less-important icon off the bar to free up space. The position you
  choose is remembered across restarts and updates.
- **Make room.** Quit or hide a few other menu-bar apps, or turn off
  system items you don't need in **System Settings → Control Center**.
- **Use a menu-bar manager.** [Ice](https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice)
  (free and open-source) or Bartender corral overflow icons into a
  second row or a click-to-reveal list, so Fregata stays reachable no
  matter how full the bar gets.

On launch, if the Dock icon is off, Fregata also posts a **"Fregata is
running"** notification that points you to the menu bar, so even a
hidden icon leaves a trail in Notification Center. (With the Dock icon
on, its constant presence is already that proof, so the notification is
skipped.) To confirm Fregata is up without either, open
[https://localhost:8971](https://localhost:8971) or look for the
`Fregata` process in Activity Monitor. (If the icon is genuinely gone
*and* Frigate is unreachable, see
[Menu bar icon is gone](/guides/troubleshooting/#menu-bar-icon-is-gone).)

## Frigate controls

The first three items control the Frigate Python core that does the actual
NVR work:

- **Open Frigate Web UI** (`⌘O`) — opens
  [https://localhost:8971](https://localhost:8971) in your default
  browser. This is the main UI for live view, recordings, events,
  and per-camera configuration. The first visit shows a self-signed
  certificate warning — that's expected; click through to continue.
- **Start Frigate** / **Stop Frigate** — starts or stops the Frigate Python
  core. Stopping ends recording and detection until you start it
  again.
- **Restart Frigate** — graceful stop + start. Use this after editing
  `config.yml`.

If Frigate crashes, open its log to see why from **Settings → Open
Frigate Logs**. Logs are kept on the SSD, so they survive restarts and
crashes.

## Settings → Folders

Fregata keeps state in five directories under `~/Fregata/`. The
**Folders** sub-menu lets you open or relocate each one:

- **Open Config Folder** → `~/Fregata/config/` — `config.yml`, the
  SQLite database (`frigate.db`), the model cache, TLS material.
- **Open Media Folder** → `~/Fregata/media/` — `recordings/`,
  `clips/`, `exports/`. All your recordings and clips
- **Open Cache Folder** → `~/Fregata/temp/` — RAM-disk-backed
  scratch space. Ephemeral; cleared on quit. **Disabled (grayed
  out) when the cache is backed by tmpfs** — that path isn't
  Finder-browsable, and there's nothing useful inside that
  outlives the session anyway. See
  [Performance — RAM-disk cache](/guides/performance/#ram-disk-cache)
  for the two modes (Smart memory / tmpfs vs Basic RAM disk)
  and how the welcome wizard picks one for you.
- **Open App Settings Folder** → `~/Library/Preferences/` — where
  the macOS-side settings (which folders, env vars) are stored as a
  `.plist`.
- **Change Config Location…** / **Change Media Location…** — pick a
  new folder via the standard macOS open panel. Fregata will move
  the existing data there on next launch or let you move things yourself.

:::caution[Config folder must be on a local disk]
The config folder holds Frigate's SQLite database and Fregata's activation token. Both require reliable POSIX file locking and atomic writes — guarantees that network drives (NAS shares over SMB or NFS, AFP, WebDAV) cannot provide. **Keep the config folder on a local APFS or HFS+ disk.** Fregata blocks network volumes in the folder picker. The media folder has no such restriction and works fine on a NAS.
:::

The full layout is documented at
[Default paths](/reference/default-paths/).

## Settings → Environment Variables…

Opens an editor for extra environment variables that get passed to
the Python core. Use this for advanced tuning that doesn't have a
dedicated checkbox.

The most commonly set vars:

- `PLUS_API_KEY` - used if you have a Frigate+ subscription.
- MQTT, RTSP, etc usernames and/or passwords - only relevant if you are using environment variables in your Frigate `config.yml` to store these values
- The full list is at
[Environment variables](/reference/environment-variables/).

![Fregata's Environment Variables editor sheet on macOS, used to set FREGATA_* and FRIGATE_* runtime overrides without editing config files.](/screenshots/env-vars-editor.png)

## Settings → Launch at Login

Toggle on to register Fregata as a macOS Login Item. On next
login the app will start automatically and reach the menu bar in a
second or two.

This is the only "background-y" affordance Fregata exposes — there's
no separate daemon, no headless mode, no LaunchAgent `.plist` you
need to manage. If the menu-bar icon seems to have vanished, it's
usually just hidden by a full menu bar rather than not running — see
[Finding the menu-bar icon](#finding-the-menu-bar-icon) above.

## Settings → Show Dock Icon

Toggle on to also show Fregata's icon in the Dock, alongside the
menu-bar item — a second, always-visible way to find Fregata if the
menu-bar icon ever gets hidden. Takes effect immediately, no relaunch
needed. Clicking the Dock icon opens the same tray menu described on
this page. New installs get this on by default via the welcome
wizard's last step; see [Finding the menu-bar
icon](#finding-the-menu-bar-icon) above for details.

## Settings → Show Welcome…

Re-runs the first-launch welcome wizard (network permission, folder
choices, activation). Mostly useful when you want to walk through the
setup again.

## Status indicators

Below Settings, the tray shows live status:

- **Fregata Status** — `Starting`, `Running`, `Stopping`,
  `Restarting`, `Relocating`, `Error`. Idle states tend to be
  brief; if you're stuck in `Starting` for more than a few seconds
  the [Troubleshooting](/guides/troubleshooting/) page is the right
  next step.
- **Last verified: \<N\> days ago** — Only shown if it has been several days since your license was last verified. Doesn't affect a running app, but if
  you restart while offline this is what the cold-start grace
  checks. See
  [Running offline](/getting-started/activation/#running-offline).
- **Update available: v\<X.Y.Z\>** — appears when a newer release is
  out and your license covers it. Clicking opens the update window
  with a download link. See
  [Updates & renewals](/guides/updates-and-renewals/).
- **Convert to Paid License** — appears during the trial. One-click
  upgrade; same key, no reinstall.

## About / Quit

- **About Fregata…** — version, build number, license summary,
  acknowledgments.
- **Quit Fregata** (`⌘Q`) — stops Frigate cleanly, unmounts the
  RAM-disk cache, closes the menu-bar item.

## Where the settings live on disk by default

| Setting | Path | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Folder choices, env vars | `~/Library/Preferences/com.3rdbitlabs.fregata.plist` | Fregata settings. |
| Frigate config | `~/Fregata/config/config.yml` | The thing the web UI's Settings panes edit. |
| License token | `~/Fregata/config/fregata-license/` | Updated on each successful heartbeat. |
| Login item | macOS Service Management database | Toggled by the menu, not stored as a user-facing file. |
| Logs | `~/Fregata/logs/frigate/current` (plus `go2rtc/` and `nginx/`) | Live logs on the SSD; persist across restarts/crashes. Open via **Settings → Open Frigate Logs** (follows live in Console.app). |