Window
The window’s header bar holds Add Account…, Refresh, the main menu, and when Pitboard last read the accounts, such as Updated 7:08 AM. It opens on Accounts, at the size it had when you last closed it. Accounts lists what the menu bar app’s Accounts window lists, without Claude Desktop. Each account is a group headed by its name, with its tool and plan, In Use or its button, and a menu of its other commands. Its rows are each limit with its bar, then its email address, sign-in and warm-up. Notices and setup tips come before the accounts. The main menu holds Open Link…, Diagnostics and Activity, then Preferences, Keyboard Shortcuts, Help and About Pitboard. Diagnostics and Activity open over Accounts, with a back button. They show what the menu bar app’s Diagnostics window and Activity window show, and each reads again every time it opens. Open Link… takes a link pasted with Paste Link, or dropped on the window or on Open Link, and opens it in your browser. The app on Linux has no account windows.Welcome
The welcome lists what the menu bar app’s welcome window lists, without Claude Desktop. It says whether Pitboard keeps running once its window is closed. A dialog that Sign In… or Add… opens comes up over it. Start Pitboard at Login starts off. Continue, Escape and its close button each close it and show Accounts. It does not open again.Tray icon
Pitboard shows an icon where the desktop keeps a tray of status icons, as KDE Plasma does. GNOME keeps one only with an extension, such as AppIndicator. The icon comes and goes as the tray does, while Pitboard runs. The icon shows how much of a limit is used, as the icon on Windows does, with a mark of its own while something needs attention. On KDE Plasma, a click opens the Pitboard window, and a right-click opens its menu. With GNOME’s AppIndicator extension, a click opens the menu. The menu holds:- Open Pitboard.
- The notices the menu bar app’s menu lists.
- The accounts, under each tool’s name, a dot on the account in use, each with the percentage the menu bar item would show for it.
- Add Account… and Refresh.
- Preferences and Help.
- Quit.
Preferences
Preferences has the pages General, Limits and Advanced. They hold what Settings holds on macOS, with these differences.
General has no Notifications, Menu Bar Shows or Updates. Your package manager updates the app.
Start at login
Pitboard starts at login through an autostart entry,~/.config/autostart/com.usepitboard.Pitboard.desktop. The entry starts Pitboard only while the app is installed. If Pitboard cannot write or remove it, the reason shows under the setting.
Started at login, Pitboard opens no window and keeps running only while the desktop shows its tray icon. Where none shows within 10 seconds, it quits, and only Watch in the Background goes on.
Watch in the background
While the desktop shows no tray icon, nothing of Pitboard runs once its window is closed. Watch in the Background has your system’s service manager run the watch service from each login. It warms up the accounts Warm-Up turns on, and at a limit does what When a limit reaches in Limits says:
Pitboard installs the service again when you change the choice or the share, and the setting says what the service does.
Uninstall
Uninstall Pitboard… asks first, then deletes Pitboard’s saved sign-ins and settings, as on macOS. The app then turns off Start Pitboard at Login and removes its own folders,~/.local/share/com.usepitboard.Pitboard and ~/.cache/com.usepitboard.Pitboard.
A dialog then names the command that removes the app and the command line, with Copy beside it: sudo apt remove pitboard-app pitboard on Debian and Ubuntu, sudo dnf remove pitboard-app pitboard on Fedora and sudo zypper remove pitboard-app pitboard on openSUSE. Quit closes Pitboard.
Notifications
The app posts the notifications the menu bar app lists, with the same titles and bodies. The button of 5-Hour Limit Almost Reached names the account, such as Switch to personal. Selecting a notification opens what it opens on macOS.Search
While Pitboard runs, GNOME’s search and KRunner find Switch to work for each account, and Add Account…. A word of an account’s name finds it. Choosing a switch switches with no window, as a Jump List switch does on Windows. Neither starts Pitboard. The app’s launcher offers Add Account… and Refresh, which start Pitboard if it is not running.Plasma widget
On KDE Plasma 6.4 or later, the Pitboard widget shows the accounts as the large Accounts widget does on macOS. It comes as thepitboard-plasma-widget package, as Add the Plasma widget says. Debian 13 has Plasma 6.3, and no widget.
In a panel, the widget is the Pitboard mark, which shows the accounts when clicked. Switch beside an account switches to it with no window, as a switch from search does. A switch Pitboard refuses is said in a notification.
The widget shows what Pitboard shows only while Pitboard runs, and never starts it. While Pitboard is not running, the widget shows only the Pitboard mark, and the system tray keeps it among its hidden items.