Native Menu Integration

The reusable app shell exposes native menu helpers so hosts can install the same application-level menu used by the demo while still owning their Avalonia Application.

This is especially important on macOS, where the first menu next to the Apple menu is the application menu and Avalonia can install default items such as About Avalonia unless the host declares or disables them during startup.

Public API

Type	Purpose
ApplicationNativeMenuFactory	Creates and binds the RoyalTerminal application native menu.
ApplicationNativeMenuFactory.Create(MainWindowViewModel)	Creates a menu shell and binds it immediately.
ApplicationNativeMenuFactory.CreateShell()	Creates the unbound application menu.
ApplicationNativeMenuFactory.Bind(NativeMenu, MainWindowViewModel)	Binds an existing shell to the view model commands.

The application menu contains:

• About RoyalTerminal;
• Preferences;
• Quit RoyalTerminal.

Window-level menus are owned by MainWindow and expose the shell, edit, view, session, window, and help command surface.

Recommended macOS Setup

Declare the application menu in the executable App.axaml:

<Application
    xmlns="https://github.com/avaloniaui"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    x:Class="MyTerminal.App"
    Name="RoyalTerminal">
  <NativeMenu.Menu>
    <NativeMenu>
      <NativeMenuItem Header="_About RoyalTerminal" />
      <NativeMenuItemSeparator />
      <NativeMenuItem Header="_Preferences..."
                      Gesture="Meta+OemComma" />
      <NativeMenuItemSeparator />
      <NativeMenuItem Header="_Quit RoyalTerminal"
                      Gesture="Meta+Q" />
    </NativeMenu>
  </NativeMenu.Menu>
</Application>

Disable Avalonia's default application menu items in the executable bootstrap:

using Avalonia;

AppBuilder.Configure<App>()
    .UsePlatformDetect()
    .With(new MacOSPlatformOptions
    {
        DisableDefaultApplicationMenuItems = true,
    });

Then bind the declared menu after creating MainWindow:

using Avalonia.Controls;
using Avalonia.Controls.ApplicationLifetimes;
using RoyalTerminal.Avalonia.App;
using RoyalTerminal.Avalonia.App.Services;

public override void OnFrameworkInitializationCompleted()
{
    if (ApplicationLifetime is IClassicDesktopStyleApplicationLifetime desktop)
    {
        MainWindow mainWindow = new();
        desktop.MainWindow = mainWindow;

        if (mainWindow.ViewModel is not null)
        {
            NativeMenu menu =
                NativeMenu.GetMenu(this) ??
                ApplicationNativeMenuFactory.CreateShell();
            ApplicationNativeMenuFactory.Bind(menu, mainWindow.ViewModel);
            NativeMenu.SetMenu(this, menu);
        }
    }

    base.OnFrameworkInitializationCompleted();
}

Why Bind Instead Of Replacing Every Time

Declaring the application menu in XAML lets Avalonia see the intended menu early in startup. Binding it later keeps command ownership in MainWindowViewModel. This avoids duplicate app menus and avoids the default About Avalonia item.

Create(MainWindowViewModel) remains useful for simple hosts that do not need an early XAML declaration:

NativeMenu.SetMenu(this, ApplicationNativeMenuFactory.Create(mainWindow.ViewModel));

For macOS product apps, the declared-then-bound path is more predictable.

Command Ownership

The application menu binds to:

Menu item	View model command
About RoyalTerminal	ShowAboutCommand
Preferences	PrepareSettingsPanelCommand
Quit RoyalTerminal	QuitApplicationCommand

All other shell commands stay on the window native menu and fallback menu bar. See App Shell Command Surface for the full command grouping.