Columnar · macOS 14+ · Free

Trello, in your
menu bar.

Columnar is a native menu bar app for managing Trello boards. View, create, update, and archive boards, lists, and cards — without leaving whatever you're working on. One keystroke in, one keystroke out.

NativeSwiftUI & AppKit
SecureKeys in your Keychain
Anywhere⌃⌥T from any app
Features

Your whole board, two keystrokes away.

Everything you actually do in Trello day-to-day, in a popover that opens instantly and gets out of the way.

Boards

All your open boards, starred ones first, each wearing its Trello color.

  • Search boards with ⌘F, create new ones, archive old ones
  • Board colors shown as chips and as a strip across the board view
  • Jump to any board on Trello.com in one click

Lists & cards

Real kanban columns — not a flattened menu of links.

  • Add, rename, archive, and reorder lists by dragging the column title
  • Quick-add cards, filter by name with ⌘F
  • Move cards between lists with a picker — or just drag and drop
  • Edit title, description, due date & due-complete in place

The whole card

Checklists, comments, and people — not just the title.

  • Add and edit checklists; add, rename, toggle & delete items
  • Read, post, edit, and delete comments — with emoji reactions
  • Assign board members; real Trello avatars where available
  • Labels show their names, with tooltips in the compact layout

At hand, not in the way

It lives in the menu bar and behaves like it.

  • ⌃⌥T toggles the window from anywhere; Esc dismisses it
  • Expand to a wider layout — your choice is remembered
  • Refreshes whatever is on screen each time it opens
  • Launch at login; right-click the icon for Refresh & Quit
Native · macOS 14+

A real Mac citizen, not a web page in a panel.

Columnar is written in Swift and SwiftUI, hosted in a real window with the frosted-glass material you expect from the menu bar — which is also why drag-and-drop actually works.

  • SwiftUI & AppKit with a native frosted-glass popover — no web view
  • Your Tello auth token is stored in the macOS Keychain, never in a config file
  • App Sandbox and hardened runtime; its only entitlement is talking to Trello
  • Stays out of the Dock and ⌘-Tab — it's there when you summon it
Setup

Connected to your Trello in one click.

Columnar talks directly to the Trello API — there's no Australware server in the middle, ever. Authorization happens in your browser, on Trello's own page.

01

Connect to Trello

Click Connect to Trello… on the welcome screen (or in Settings, ⌘,). Your browser opens Trello's authorization page.

02

Allow access

Approve Columnar on Trello's page and you're bounced straight back to the app. You can revoke access any time from your Trello account.

03

That's it

Your token is validated and stored in the macOS Keychain, and your boards appear in the menu bar. Prefer your own API key? Manual entry is still there under Advanced.

The details

Requirements & privacy.

Requirements
macOS 14 or later
Apple Silicon or Intel · a free Trello account
Privacy
No data collected
Columnar talks only to the Trello API, with credentials stored in your Keychain. No analytics, no telemetry.
License
Free download
No Columnar account, no subscription, no telemetry
Get Columnar

Stop alt-tabbing to a browser tab.

Download Columnar below. When reporting a bug, include your macOS version and the build from Columnar's right-click menu.

Columnar is an independent project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Trello or Atlassian. "Trello" is a trademark of Atlassian, used here only to describe compatibility.