Troubleshooting

Start with three facts: the provider's visible error, its last-updated time, and the connection-health result in Settings. A retained old value is not the same as a successful new refresh.

The app is blocked on first launch

Current releases are ad-hoc signed and not notarized. Move the app to /Applications, then Control-click or right-click Vibe Bar.app and choose Open.

For a source build that macOS still marks as quarantined:

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ".build/Vibe Bar.app"

Only run that command on a bundle you built yourself or downloaded from the official Vibe Bar release page.

No menu-bar item appears

1. Confirm Vibe Bar is running in Activity Monitor.
2. Open Settings if possible and check Menu Bar → Show in menu bar.
3. Make room in the macOS menu bar; macOS can hide items when space is tight.
4. Quit all duplicate Vibe Bar processes, then reopen one copy.

Vibe Bar is a menu-bar app and does not open a normal main window at launch.

A core provider says login is required

Open that provider's Settings page and run its connection check.

• ChatGPT/Codex: sign in with Codex CLI, then try browser import or the OpenAI WebView login as a fallback.
• Claude: sign in with Claude Code, then try browser import or the Claude WebView login.
• Gemini: sign in at gemini.google.com in a supported browser and import cookies. CLI login alone does not supply live Gemini quota.
• AntiGravity: keep the local AntiGravity language server running.
• Grok: run grok login or import a signed-in grok.com browser session.

Temporarily select one fixed source to isolate the failing route, then return to Auto once the setup is healthy.

Browser import finds no cookies

1. Sign in to the provider in the browser first.
2. Keep the browser profile that owns the session available.
3. Retry Import from browser.
4. Use Sign in via Web when that provider offers it.
5. As a last resort, use the provider's manual Cookie-header field.

Browser security and cookie schemas change. Xiaomi MiMo in particular should use the in-app Web login when newer Chrome encryption blocks direct import. Short-lived Tencent and Volcengine sessions may simply need a new login.

Do not post the copied cookie header when asking for help.

Numbers are stale or refresh fails

• Select the refresh button once and wait for the provider request to finish.
• Compare the last-updated timestamp before and after.
• Run the provider's connection check.
• Check the provider-status card for a service incident.
• If the account recently changed plan, leave the plan-label override blank and refresh again.
• Re-authenticate only the route marked missing or failed.

Vibe Bar preserves the last known good snapshot after a failure. This is intentional; the visible error and timestamp are the source of truth for freshness.

Cost history is empty or too low

Cost history requires supported local CLI records. Web and desktop chats do not count.

1. Confirm the expected local session directory exists.
2. Check that Privacy Mode is off.
3. Select Settings → Cost Data → Rescan cost logs.
4. Confirm the retention period still covers the missing dates.
5. Remember that unsupported or incomplete model metadata can be skipped.

Cost values are estimates. Grok uses blended pricing for session totals, and AntiGravity CLI-only containers in an unsupported format are not scanned.

Forecast stays on Learning

Learning is expected for a new installation, a newly discovered bucket, or after history has been cleared. Keep scheduled refreshes enabled across more of the reset cycle. Confidence needs coverage, fresh observations, and preferably several comparable completed cycles.

Changing Remaining to Used changes presentation, not the underlying forecast.

Old builds show every provider as logged out

An earlier sandboxed build may have left a shadow home directory:

ls ~/Library/Containers/com.astroqore.VibeBar/Data/ 2>&1

Current Vibe Bar runs unsandboxed and should use your real home directory. If that old container exists and contains stale .codex, .claude, or .vibebar data, quit Vibe Bar, back up anything you intentionally placed there, then remove the obsolete com.astroqore.VibeBar container and relaunch.

This cleanup is only for the legacy sandbox-container symptom. Do not delete your real ~/.codex, ~/.claude, or ~/.vibebar directories.

Build failures

Xcode path is wrong

sudo xcode-select -s /Applications/Xcode.app
xcode-select -p
swift --version

The project requires macOS 26+, Xcode 26, and Swift 6.2+.

Verify a packaged app

./Scripts/build_app.sh release
codesign --verify --deep --strict ".build/Vibe Bar.app"
codesign -d --entitlements - ".build/Vibe Bar.app"

The entitlement output must not contain com.apple.security.app-sandbox.

Collect safe diagnostics

Useful, safe evidence includes:

• Vibe Bar version and macOS version;
• provider name and selected source mode;
• sanitized error text;
• last-updated time;
• connection-health state;
• whether the expected local path exists;
• steps that reproduce the problem.

Never attach tokens, cookies, JWTs, Keychain values, complete auth files, personal email addresses, organization IDs, or unsanitized session logs.

If the issue persists, search or open a GitHub issue with the safe evidence above.