Retrovisor

A minimal macOS menu bar app that shows a live camera preview — like Hand Mirror, but yours.

Click the camera icon in the menu bar. See your face. Close the popover. Done.

Features

• Live preview — AVFoundation-powered camera feed in a dark popover
• Mirror mode — horizontally flipped by default (like a real mirror); toggle it off anytime
• Camera switching — if you have multiple cameras (built-in, external, Continuity Camera), pick from the dropdown
• Smart session management — capture starts when you open the popover, stops when you close it (no wasted CPU/battery)
• Graceful errors — clear messages if camera access is denied, camera is in use by another app, or camera disconnects
• No Dock icon — pure menu bar utility (LSUIElement = true)

Requirements

• macOS 13 Ventura or later
• Apple Silicon or Intel Mac with a camera

Build

No Xcode required. Just swiftc (ships with Xcode Command Line Tools).

chmod +x build.sh
./build.sh
open Retrovisor.app

The script:

1. Assembles the .app bundle from scratch
2. Compiles Sources/main.swift with swiftc
3. Signs the bundle ad-hoc (works locally; no Apple Developer account needed)

To install permanently:

cp -r Retrovisor.app /Applications/
open /Applications/Retrovisor.app

To start at login: System Settings → General → Login Items → + → select Retrovisor.app.

Camera Permissions

On first launch, macOS will ask for camera access. Grant it. If you deny it, open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Camera and enable Retrovisor there.

Project Structure

Retrovisor/
├── Sources/
│   └── main.swift     # entire app — ~200 lines
├── build.sh           # compiles + packages the .app
├── .gitignore
└── README.md

No Xcode project. No Swift Package Manager. No dependencies. Just Swift + AppKit + AVFoundation.

Part of Helsky Labs

Retrovisor is a sibling to InputSwitch — same minimal menu bar app philosophy, same build approach.