Profiles and app overrides.

Two mechanisms

Circa has two independent ways to vary the menu by context. They're often confused because both produce different slots in different situations, but they live in different places and you pick between them based on whether the switch should be manual or automatic.

• Profiles are complete menu snapshots you save by name and switch between manually.
• App overrides are per-app slot replacements that swap in automatically when a matching app is frontmost.

Profiles

A profile captures everything that defines a single menu: the slots and their bindings, the menu radius, the appearance (backdrop, slot style, accent), and the activation binding. Saving a profile is taking a named snapshot of your current configuration.

Profiles are stored as individual JSON files in ~/Library/Application Support/circa/profiles/. You can save up to six — the same cap the menu uses for the profile-switcher sub-menu, so every profile fits on one ring.

Creating profiles

Open Settings → Profiles. The tab lists your saved profiles and has buttons to save the current configuration as a new profile, load a profile, rename, or delete. Saving doesn't leave the new profile active — you stay on whatever you were editing.

Switching profiles

Two ways:

• From Settings → Profiles, click Load next to a profile.
• Add a Profile switcher slot to your menu. Clicking it opens a sub-menu of every saved profile; clicking a profile in that sub-menu loads it immediately. This is the fast path — no Settings, just a flick.

App overrides

An app override replaces the active menu's slot ring whenever a specific app is frontmost. Overrides are keyed by exact macOS bundle identifier (for example, com.figma.Desktop) — no glob patterns, no wildcards. One override per bundle ID.

Overrides live on top of the active profile rather than as separate profiles. Switching profiles changes the base menu and the overrides that follow it; both are saved together when you save a profile.

Adding an override

Open Settings → Apps. Click Add, pick an app, and the override sheet opens. The slots you edit here only appear when that app is in front; on the desktop, in Finder, or in any other app, the base menu is what shows.

Tab back to the default

While the menu is open under a per-app override, press Tab to swap back to the default global menu without closing. Useful for invoking a global utility (lock screen, screenshot) without leaving the app to clear the override.

Which to use when

• Use a profile when you want a completely different menu — different slots, different size, different appearance — and you want to decide when it's active. Profiles are coarse-grained and manual.
• Use an app override when you want the menu to follow your work without thinking about it. Overrides are fine-grained and automatic, but they only replace the slot ring — not the size or appearance.

Examples

• Mode switch. Two profiles — Writing and Coding. Load the matching profile when you start the session; everything from the slots to the radius to the backdrop tint flips with one click.
• App-specific commands. One base menu of general system actions, plus app overrides for Figma, Xcode, and your terminal — each with the three or four commands you reach for most in that app.
• Demo profile. A second profile you only load before a presentation — same look as your default but with the screen recorder, an AirPods target, and Do Not Disturb at the top of the ring.