Menu Bar & Settings
After you activate Atua, it lives in your menu bar. That is the quickest place to open chats, check history, jump into settings, or quit the app.
What You Can Do From The Menu Bar
The menu bar menu gives you a small set of actions you will probably use often:
- New Chat opens the command bar for a new conversation
- Chat History opens your saved conversations
- Transcripts opens saved voice transcripts
- Commands jumps straight to the Commands tab in Settings
- Check for Updates looks for a newer version
- Settings opens the full settings window
- Quit Atua closes the app
When To Use The Menu Bar
Use the menu bar when you want to:
- reopen something you were working on
- change settings
- review transcripts
- check for updates
Use the command bar when you want to ask for help right inside the app you are already using.
The Main Settings Tabs
Atua keeps its settings simple. Each tab has a clear job.
General
Use General for app-wide setup:
- command bar shortcut
- Voice Paste shortcut
- speech-to-text engine selection
- Whisper variant selection
- microphone input selection
- permissions
- speech-to-text download and removal
- system prompt
- default command bar prompt
Models
Use Models to add providers, enter API keys, choose models, and set your active provider.
MCP
Use MCP to connect external tools and services through MCP servers.
Commands
Use Commands to create saved prompts, assign shortcuts, choose output modes, and pick tools for specific commands.
Tools
Use Tools to turn built-in system tools on or off.
About
Use About to see your app version and manage update checks.
Where To Go For Common Tasks
| If you want to… | Go here |
|---|---|
| Change shortcuts | Settings → General |
| Choose a speech engine, Whisper variant, or microphone | Settings → General |
| Download or remove the selected speech model | Settings → General |
| Check permissions | Settings → General |
| Add or switch an AI provider | Settings → Models |
| Connect Notion, GitHub, or other MCP tools | Settings → MCP |
| Create or edit a command | Settings → Commands |
| Turn system tools on or off | Settings → Tools |
| Check for updates | Menu bar → Check for Updates or Settings → About |
A Simple Habit
If you are unsure where something lives:
- start in the menu bar if you want to open a window
- start in Settings if you want to change behavior
That covers most of the app.