---
title: "Overview & tray"
description: "What the Cadence menubar/tray app does, and a reference for every view in its popover."
url: "https://teamcadence.ai/docs/desktop/overview/"
---
## A background app, not a dashboard

Cadence's desktop app is menubar-first on macOS (tray on Windows/Linux) - it doesn't open a full window. Left-click the icon to open a small popover; right-click for Quit and other quick actions. Its job is to run quietly, upload sessions, and give you fast local context without opening a browser.

Once [onboarding](/docs/installation/) is done, a background check runs every 30 seconds: it looks for new activity in your coding agents' session logs, resolves each one to a repo, and uploads it if that repo is enabled. No per-session action is needed.

## Popover views

- **Status header** - current sign-in and sync state at a glance, with a pause/resume toggle for the background daemon.
- **Recent activity** - a feed of recently uploaded or skipped sessions, with agent, repo, cost, and duration badges, so you can confirm Cadence is picking up what you expect.
- **Attention banner** - surfaces anything that needs you: expired sign-in, uploads failing, a repo permission issue, or an app update available.
- **Session analytics** - per-session charts (tokens, cost, phase breakdown) for a quick read on how a session went, without leaving the tray.
- **Session detail** - a local drill-down into one session's transcript, chaptered and summarized, with coaching notes (Stop doing / Start doing / Keep doing) tied to specific moments - see [Sessions](/docs/concepts/sessions/).
- **Backfill** - a full-panel view showing per-repo progress when importing historical sessions (offered during onboarding, and re-runnable from the overflow menu).
- **Repo status** - the repos Cadence has discovered, any permission issues, and a **Locate** action for repos it couldn't find automatically.
- **[Tune-ups](/docs/desktop/tune-ups/)** - coaching recommendations that unlock as you accumulate session volume.
- **[Radar](/docs/desktop/radar/)** - an auto-drafted "what did I do" update from your recent sessions.

## Overflow menu

The overflow menu (accessible from the popover) holds less-frequent actions: pause monitoring, trigger a backfill, **Install CLI** (see [CLI overview](/docs/cli/overview/)), notification settings, changelog, and quit.

## Notifications

Cadence can also surface proactive "nudges" outside the popover - a separate floating notification for things like a session that looks stuck or frustrated ("drift"), a tune-up becoming available, or a Radar draft being ready to review. These are opt-in and configurable from the overflow menu's notification settings.

## Staying up to date

The app updates itself automatically in the background. You don't need to reinstall for new releases - the tray icon will flag when an update is ready.