Summary

On macOS, a menu item whose only job is to hold a submenu is turned into a normal command item. It gets an action and a target, so it highlights like a command instead of acting like a plain submenu parent.

Everything else in the menu is fine. Windows and Linux behave correctly. macOS is the only platform that does this.

Environment

electrobun 2.0.1 (macOS arm64). The same code is on main.
Menu is set with ApplicationMenu.setApplicationMenu(...).

Reproduce

ApplicationMenu.setApplicationMenu([
  {
    label: "View",
    submenu: [
      {
        label: "Switch to",          // no action, only a submenu
        submenu: [
          { label: "Chat", action: "view-chat" },
          { label: "Skills", action: "view-skills" },
          { label: "Dashboard", action: "view-dashboard" },
        ],
      },
    ],
  },
]);

Open the View menu. The "Switch to" item highlights like a command, even though it should just be a submenu parent.

Cause

Two places give the container a command.

package/src/sdks/main/core/ApplicationMenu.ts, line 53 and lines 55-57. The code only knows two cases: a role, or "everything else gets an action".

type: menuItem.type || "normal",
// application menus can either have an action or a role. not both.
...(menuItem.role ? { role: menuItem.role } : { action: actionWithDataId }),

An item with only a submenu falls into the second case. So the JSON that reaches the native side looks like this:

{"label":"Switch to","type":"normal","action":"|EB|menuData_3|","enabled":true,"checked":false,"hidden":false,"submenu":[...]}

The container now carries an action, and type says "normal". That also blocks the fallback in json_menu_parser.h, which only guesses "submenu" when type is empty.

package/src/native/macos/nativeWrapper.mm, createMenuFromConfig (v2.0.1: lines 1141-1142, 1180, 1202). The item is created with a fixed selector, and it gets a target whenever it has no role. The submenu is attached only afterwards.

menuItem = [[NSMenuItem alloc] initWithTitle:label ?: @""
                                      action:@selector(menuItemClicked:)
                               keyEquivalent:@"";
...
} else {
    menuItem.target = target;
}
...
if (submenuConfig) {
    NSMenu *submenu = createMenuFromConfig(submenuConfig, target);
    [menu setSubmenu:submenu forItem:menuItem];
}

So the result is a real command item with a submenu attached. macOS never checks for type == "submenu"; the only type check in that function is type == "divider".

For comparison: Windows converts the item to MF_POPUP when a submenu exists (win/nativeWrapper.cpp:6637-6646), and Linux connects the click signal only when there is no submenu (linux/nativeWrapper.cpp:6201-6206).

Suggested fix

In ApplicationMenu.ts, do not send an action for an item that has a submenu:

+			const hasSubmenu = Array.isArray(menuItem.submenu) && menuItem.submenu.length > 0;
-			const actionWithDataId = ffi.internal.serializeMenuAction(
-				menuItem.action || "",
-				menuItem.data,
-			);
+			const actionWithDataId = hasSubmenu
+				? undefined
+				: ffi.internal.serializeMenuAction(menuItem.action || "", menuItem.data);
-				type: menuItem.type || "normal",
+				type: menuItem.type || (hasSubmenu ? "submenu" : "normal"),
 				...(menuItem.role
 					? { role: menuItem.role }
-					: { action: actionWithDataId }),
+					: hasSubmenu ? {} : { action: actionWithDataId }),

On macOS the change above is not enough on its own, because the item is still built with a command. That item should be created with nil instead of @selector(menuItemClicked:) when submenuConfig.count > 0, it should not get menuItem.target, and the submenu should be set directly with menuItem.submenu = ....

Small extra: serializeMenuAction("", undefined) never returns an empty string, and storeMenuData keeps its entry until the item is clicked. A container is never clicked, so every menu build leaks one entry.

Verified on main and v2.0.1: ApplicationMenu.ts is byte-identical in both (sha256 0f5879ee3ba09d35cad0caeb2445df47a1f4c26508863c614b86d71f2070b5fe).

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