Vela

I had hundreds of coding projects scattered across my Mac and no idea what half of them were. Opening every folder to check was not an option. So I built Vela — a native macOS menu bar app that scans, analyzes, and monitors all your projects automatically. Built in under an hour with Swift, SwiftUI, and Claude Opus 4.6.

Every project gets a health score, AI-powered analysis, security scanning, git stats, and file browsing — all from the menu bar. Zero external dependencies. Pure Apple frameworks.

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Download

Vela-1.0.0.dmg	Download Latest Release
Requirements	macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later, Apple Silicon or Intel
Size	~2.5 MB

Or build from source:

git clone https://github.com/devjoaocastro/vela.git
cd vela && make install

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Screenshots

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Features

Project Discovery — Automatically scans your Mac for coding projects. Detects 10+ project types: Swift, React Native, Next.js, Node.js, Python, Flutter, Rust, Static Sites, Documentation, and more.

Vitality Score — Every project gets a 0–100 health score based on git activity, remote presence, documentation quality, and uncommitted changes. Projects are classified as Active, Slow, Inactive, or Dead.

Overview Dashboard — Per-project overview with git info (last commit, total commits, branch, remote), recent commit timeline with author avatars, disk usage breakdown, language detection, and stack identification.

Recent Activity — Shows the last 15 commits with short hash, message, author, and relative date. Color-coded by commit type (fix, feature, refactor, docs).

Explorer — Full file tree with recursive directory loading, README rendering via WebKit with GitHub-style CSS, and one-click Markdown export.

AI Analysis — Ask AI about any project. Get structured verdicts (CONTINUA / ARQUIVA / REFACTORA / LANÇA) with summary, strengths, weaknesses, and next steps. Supports 5 providers:

• Apple Intelligence (on-device, zero cost)
• Ollama (local, free)
• Claude (Anthropic)
• OpenAI
• Google Gemini

Security Scanning — Detects exposed secrets (API keys, private keys, database URLs), tracked .env files, missing .gitignore, and other security issues across all your projects.

Command Palette — ⌘K to open. Keyboard-driven project switcher with fuzzy search and arrow key navigation.

Hide Projects — Right-click any project to hide it from the sidebar. Excluded projects are remembered across sessions.

Menu Bar App — Lives in the macOS menu bar (sailboat icon). Always accessible, stays alive when the window is closed.

Open in Editor — One-click to open any project in VS Code, Cursor, Xcode, or Finder.

Localization — Full English and Portuguese (Portugal) support.

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Architecture

Sources/Vela/
├── VelaApp.swift                   App entry, menu bar, window management
├── AppState.swift                  State management, persistence, editor launching
├── Core/
│   ├── ProjectScanner.swift        Filesystem scanner, git enrichment, disk analysis
│   ├── LLMEngine.swift             Multi-provider LLM client + Keychain storage
│   ├── EmbeddedLLM.swift           Apple Intelligence + Ollama auto-detection
│   └── SecurityScanner.swift       Secret detection, git hygiene checks
├── Models/
│   └── Project.swift               Data models, vitality scoring, issue types
├── Resources/
│   ├── en.lproj/Localizable.strings
│   └── pt.lproj/Localizable.strings
└── UI/
    ├── DesignSystem.swift           Color utilities and shared styles
    └── Views/
        ├── ContentView.swift        NavigationSplitView root layout
        ├── SidebarView.swift        Project list with search and filters
        ├── ProjectDetailView.swift  Header + tabbed detail view
        ├── AIView.swift             AI analysis, chat, README generation
        ├── SecurityView.swift       Security findings dashboard
        ├── BrowserView.swift        Embedded WebKit browser
        ├── MarkdownWebView.swift    Markdown rendering via WebKit
        ├── CommandPaletteView.swift Keyboard-driven command palette
        ├── SettingsView.swift       LLM provider configuration
        └── NewProjectSheet.swift   Project creation wizard

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Requirements

• macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later
• Xcode 15+ or Swift 5.9+ (to build from source)
• For Apple Intelligence: macOS 26.0+ with compatible hardware
• For cloud AI: API keys for Claude, OpenAI, or Gemini (stored securely in macOS Keychain)

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Build & Run

# Debug build
make build

# Assemble .app bundle and open it
make run

# Release build + assemble .app bundle
make app-release

# Release build + install to /Applications
make install

# Clean build artifacts
make clean

Or directly with Swift Package Manager:

swift build -c release

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Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Language	Swift 5.9
UI	SwiftUI
Build	Swift Package Manager + Makefile
Storage	JSON (~/Library/Application Support/Vela/)
Security	macOS Keychain (Security.framework)
Browser	WebKit (WKWebView)
AI	FoundationModels + HTTP (Ollama, Claude, OpenAI, Gemini)

Zero external dependencies. Pure Apple frameworks only.

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License

MIT — see LICENSE for details.

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Built by João Castro — solo developer from Portugal.