Decided 2026-07-28.
The Lavish rebrand review recommended Ullage (the cooper's word for the
empty part of a cask) with Taper's one-line-per-window layout. The captain
adopted the layout and the vessel-level mark, rejected the name Ullage, and
asked for the closest strong choice in the Lever / Leverage / Left
family — with Left preferred, because it says what the app reports.
Left is what shipped. Lever and Leverage were not needed: the narrow
collision check below found nothing in this app's category that blocks Left,
and neither alternative describes remaining allowance the way Left does.
The check was deliberately narrow, as instructed: is there a macOS menu-bar or developer usage-monitoring utility called Left? The review's own disqualifying precedent was Plimsoll — same platform, same category, same metaphor.
| Where | Result |
|---|---|
GitHub, exact repository name left |
hundredrabbits/Left 1,879 ★, holman/left 543 ★, mirarr-app/Left 48 ★, joyhsu0504/LEFT 50 ★ |
| Homebrew cask and formula | no left cask, no left formula |
| npm | left@1.0.2, a micro-package wrapping addEventListener |
| macOS menu-bar / usage utilities | none found |
Verdict: no material blocker. Nothing in the same category uses the name.
The one finding worth stating plainly: hundredrabbits/Left is a shipped,
still-maintained macOS desktop app — a distraction-free writing tool from a
visible indie collective. Same platform, different category, different
metaphor; adjacent enough to note, not close enough to block, and the review
applied exactly this test when it accepted brentsimmons/Tidemark as a
namespace concern rather than a disqualifier.
Carried forward from the review: this is prototype-grade screening. No
USPTO/EUIPO class 9/42 search, App Store name search, or domain check was run.
Left is an ordinary English word and will never dominate an open-web search,
which is a cost the captain accepted when choosing a word that describes the
product literally.
- Changed: the app bundle (
Left.app),CFBundleName/CFBundleDisplayName, the Swift products (Left,LeftCore), the menu-bar tooltip and placeholder titles, the overlay header, the docs, and the tests. - Unchanged on purpose:
CFBundleIdentifierstayslocal.firstmate.usagebar. macOS keys login-item registration, TCC decisions, and keychain ACLs to the identifier, so changing it would present a brand-new app and silently drop every grant the installed bundle holds. This is a presentation rename, not a new application.AppIdentitystates this in code andAppIdentityTestsholds it.
The rebrand shipped with a tapered vessel and a level in it. The captain read it as a half-full drinking glass — the wrong register for an allowance — and asked for a stronger, simpler original symbol that is not a glass.
It is now an open ring: one thick arc sweeping clockwise from twelve o'clock, with the rest of the circle left open. The sweep is a constant, for the same reason the vessel's level was — the mark is identity, the numbers beside it are data.
The status item no longer carries this mark once a reading exists. It carries
the providers' own marks against their real percentages, so the ring is never
sitting next to live numbers it might disagree with. docs/plans/ 2026-07-28-compact-menubar-and-marks-design.md records the alternatives
weighed. The cloud and hexagonal ring it settled on were replaced the same day
with the vendors' official marks, on the captain's instruction; see
provider-marks.md.