Native menus for Compose Desktop¶

Advanced Menubar lets Compose applications use real AppKit menus while keeping menu definitions and state in Kotlin. It handles process-wide menu ownership, standard macOS actions, Compose edit commands, localization, and native text popups.

What it covers¶

• a ready-to-use conventional macOS menu with DefaultMacMenuBar;
• a declarative DSL for application, File, Edit, Format, View, Window, Help, and custom menus;
• submenus, sections, separators, actions, checkboxes, enabled state, and live Compose state;
• AppKit Services, automatic window lists, Writing Tools, AutoFill, Dictation, and Emoji & Symbols;
• native and custom shortcuts, SF Symbols, PNG/file/vector icons, tooltips, subtitles, and badges;
• native context menus for editable fields and selectable read-only text;
• multiple AWT or Tao windows with focus-aware menu ownership;
• a Swing renderer for Windows and Linux;
• packaged JNI metadata and libraries for GraalVM Native Image.

Choose a backend¶

Tao is part of the Nucleus library. Native macOS entry points remain native and do not use Swing as a loading-error fallback.

Start with the Quickstart or browse the complete DSL reference.