Note: This project was created with the help of AI using Cursor. Human judgment still applies; the disclosure is here for anyone who wants to know how the code came together.

Third-party: This is an independent tool and is not officially affiliated with the Open WebUI project.

Tip

Looking for Linux? This README is for the Windows build. For KDE Plasma (KDE 6), use the kde6-rewrite branch, same idea, native system tray on Linux.

Open WebUI Systray

Small Windows tray application that opens an Open WebUI (or any HTTPS) instance inside an embedded WebView2 browser. Run it, park it in the system tray, and show or hide the window from the icon.

Requirements

• Windows (WinForms + WebView2)
• .NET 8 SDK

Build

From the repository root:

.\build-release.ps1

Or manually:

dotnet build .\open-webui-systray.csproj -c Release

The executable is produced under bin\Release\net8.0-windows\ (e.g. open-webui-systray.exe).

Run

After a Release build:

.\run-release.ps1

That starts the newest .exe in the Release output folder with the correct working directory (so config and WebView2 data resolve next to the binary).

Configuration

On first run (or if no valid config exists), a dialog asks for the HTTPS URL of your server (for example your Open WebUI URL).

Settings are stored next to the executable in open-webui-systray.cfg: one non-comment line with the HTTPS URL. Lines starting with # are ignored.

Only https:// URLs with a host are accepted.

Behavior

• Single instance - starting a second copy exits immediately.
• Tray icon - left-click shows or focuses the browser window; Quit is in the tray context menu.
• Global shortcut - Ctrl+Alt+O toggles show or hide (same as tray left-click). If that hotkey is already registered by another program, this app does not register it for the session. While another app is fullscreen on the primary monitor, the shortcut is not registered globally so that app can use Ctrl+Alt+O if it binds it; the tray icon still toggles the window. When this app’s browser window is in the foreground, the shortcut keeps toggling as usual.
• Close button - hides the window to the tray (does not exit the app).
• WebView2 user data - stored under WebView2Data\ beside the executable (cookies, cache, etc.).

Project layout

• open-webui-systray.csproj - .NET 8 WinExe project
• Program.cs, Startup.cs, AppConfig.cs - entry, URL resolution, config
• GlobalHotkeyWindow.cs - global Ctrl+Alt+O hotkey (message-only window)
• FullscreenHotkeyPolicy.cs - when to release the global hotkey so fullscreen apps on the primary monitor receive the chord
• TrayApplicationContext.cs - tray icon and menu
• MainForm.cs - WebView2 host window

License

This project is released under the MIT License. You may use, copy, modify, and distribute it subject to that license. The embedded WebView2 runtime is subject to Microsoft’s terms.