Show Unread GitHub Notifications in the Mac Menu Bar

What you need

Multimeter for macOS 13 or later, $19.99 once.
The direct download version of Multimeter from this site (the Script source isn’t in the Mac App Store version).
The GitHub CLI, signed in: brew install gh, then gh auth login once in Terminal.

Set it up

Check it in Terminal:
Command
```
gh api notifications -q length
```
Add a Script meter with the command. Refresh every 1 or 5 minutes.
Set the range to 0 to 50 and, if you like, alerts at 10 and 25.

Multimeter settings

In Customize This Meter… (from the meter’s menu):

Settings for this meter
Setting	Value
Source	Script
Command	`gh api notifications -q length`
Refresh every	1 minute
Range	0 to 50
Alerts	High values: warning 10, critical 25
Label	`GH`
Face	Label & Value, Stack or Underline

Tested: Run on October 29, 2026: printed 2 in 2 to 3 seconds.

Script meters need the direct download version of Multimeter from this site, which is the one on sale now. How commands run, the PATH they see and the 10 second limit are in the Script meters guide.

Limits

GitHub returns up to 50 notifications per page, so the count stops at 50. Past that, add ?per_page=100 to the path (gh api "notifications?per_page=100" -q length).

Variations

Only notifications that mention you or ask for review

Command

gh api notifications -q '[.[] | select(.reason == "mention" or .reason == "review_requested")] | length'

Troubleshooting

What the meter says, why, and what to do
Symptom	Cause	Fix
The script didn’t print a number	The command failed or printed an error message instead.	Run the exact command in Terminal. If it works there, check for tools that live outside the meter’s PATH and use their full path (`which tool`).
The script took longer than 10 seconds	A slow network call. Multimeter stops scripts after 10 seconds.	Keep the `-m` timeout on curl, and refresh less often.
Scripts need the version from multimeterapp.com	This copy of Multimeter came from the Mac App Store, which can’t run scripts.	Use the direct download version, or run the command from cron or launchd and point a File meter at its output.

Questions

Does this work in the Mac App Store version?

Script meters need the direct download version from multimeterapp.com, because the App Store sandbox doesn’t let apps run your commands. Web Address, File and Sent Value meters work in every version.

Does reading the count mark anything as read?

No. Listing notifications never changes their state.

Show unread GitHub notifications in your Mac menu bar