thetoolbox

A background (menu-bar-only) macOS app bundling quality-of-life utilities. Apple Silicon, macOS 14+.

Features

• System monitors — optionally show CPU utilization, RAM pressure, SSD usage, or any combination directly in the menu bar. Enable each reading with its own checkbox in Settings → General; all three are off by default, leaving the regular app icon in place. Enabling any metric also shows circular CPU, memory, and storage gauges at the top of the menu, colored by load (green / amber / red). Click one to expand a detail card — CPU shows user/system split, load average, cores, and top processes; memory shows the App / Wired / Compressed breakdown, pressure, swap, and top processes; storage shows the boot volume's used / free. Lightweight enabled metrics refresh every two seconds; more expensive process and fan details are read only while the menu is open. All readings use native APIs with no additional dependencies.
• Monitor control — brightness / contrast / volume for external monitors over DDC/CI, plus built-in display brightness. Each display+control supports a max cap: the menu slider shows the panel's real %, the thumb stops at the cap, and the over-cap range is greyed out (e.g. cap Dell contrast at 75% to avoid washout).
• Window management — move/resize the frontmost window via global keyboard shortcuts, including user-defined custom sizes and positions (e.g. "top-right 40% × 50%"), ideal for 4K screens. Each shortcut is unique — reassigning a combo moves it off whatever had it. Sensible defaults (⌃⌥ + arrows / return, ⌃⌥C center, ⌃⌥⌘↵ center-and-fit, ⌃⌥⌘ + ←/→ to push the window to the next/previous display) are seeded on first launch and are fully editable. Repeating the left or right shortcut cycles that edge through ½, ⅓, and ⅔ widths. Center fits the window to the screen — almost-maximized on small/normal displays, a comfortable centered size on large/high-res ones. Move to display keeps the window's position and size relative to the new screen. An optional Leave room for recent apps setting keeps managed windows clear of Stage Manager's left-side app strip.
• Brightness sync — make an external monitor follow the built-in display's brightness via a configurable linear mapping (its level at built-in 0% and at built-in 100%).
• Power (Caffeine) — keep the Mac awake (prevent idle display sleep), so the screen stays lit and the system keeps running.
• Brightness keys → display under the pointer — the hardware brightness keys adjust whichever display the pointer is over (external monitors via DDC, with an on-screen overlay); the built-in display keeps its native behavior.
• Desktop toggles — show/hide desktop icons (Finder CreateDesktop) and desktop widgets (WindowManager StandardHideWidgets) from the menu.

Usage

• Status-bar metrics: open Settings → General → Status bar metrics and check CPU utilization, RAM pressure, SSD usage, or any combination. Selected readings share the app's single clickable menu-bar item; uncheck all three to restore the wrench-and-screwdriver icon.
• Monitor control: click the menu bar icon for per-display brightness / contrast / volume sliders. Set per-display caps in Settings → Displays; each menu slider then greys out the range above the cap and the thumb won't go past it (e.g. cap a Dell's contrast at 75%).
• Brightness sync: in Settings → Displays, turn on "Follow built-in brightness" for an external monitor and set the mapping endpoints; its brightness then tracks the built-in (and its menu slider shows a link icon and is disabled).
• Window management: ⌃⌥ + left/right cycles the matching edge through ½ → ⅓ → ⅔, ⌃⌥ + up/down/return snaps top/bottom/maximize, ⌃⌥C centers, ⌃⌥⌘↵ centers-and-fits to the screen, and ⌃⌥⌘ + ←/→ moves it to the next/previous display — all editable, plus add custom sizes & positions, in Settings → Windows. The menu also has Left/Right/Center/Maximize buttons. The first window action triggers the Accessibility prompt — grant it once. DDC monitor control needs no permission. If you use Stage Manager, enable Leave room for recent apps there to keep its left-side app strip unobstructed.
• Power: the menu's Power section has a keep-awake duration slider (Off · 15m · 30m · 1h · 2h · 4h · ∞) — dragging right of Off starts keep-awake and shows a live "Auto-off in …" countdown; drag back to Off to stop.
• Brightness keys: with Accessibility granted, press the hardware brightness keys while the pointer is over an external monitor to change that monitor (toggle in Settings → General).
• Desktop: the menu's Desktop section toggles desktop icons and widgets (each briefly relaunches Finder / WindowManager to apply).

Requirements

• Apple Silicon Mac (M-series) — the DDC path uses Apple-Silicon-only APIs.
• macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later.
• Xcode 16+ and XcodeGen to build.

There is no notarized download — build from source. A copied build is unsigned, so Gatekeeper may refuse to open it; run it from Xcode, or right-click the .app → Open.

Install a release

Download thetoolbox.zip from Releases, unzip, and drag thetoolbox.app to /Applications. It's ad-hoc signed (not notarized), so on first launch right-click → Open (or run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine thetoolbox.app).

Maintainers cut a release by pushing a tag: git tag v0.1.0 && git push origin v0.1.0 — CI builds the app and attaches the zip.

Build & run

Requires Xcode 16+ and XcodeGen:

brew install xcodegen
xcodegen generate
open thetoolbox.xcodeproj      # then Run, or:
xcodebuild -scheme thetoolbox -configuration Debug build

project.yml is the source of truth; re-run xcodegen generate after editing it. thetoolbox.xcodeproj is generated and need not be committed.

Permissions & signing

• The app is not sandboxed — DDC (IOAVService) and the Accessibility API both require it.
• DDC monitor control needs no special permission on Apple Silicon.
• Window management needs Accessibility permission (System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility). The app prompts on first use.
• Brightness-key routing (to the display under the pointer) uses a session event tap, which also requires Accessibility.
• Private APIs: thetoolbox calls private frameworks (IOAVService, DisplayServices) and installs a CGEventTap. It is not App Store eligible and is intended for personal/local use.
• Signing caveat: the Accessibility grant is tied to the app's code signature. The default build uses ad-hoc signing (CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY = -), whose signature changes every build, so macOS forgets the grant on each rebuild. For day-to-day use of the window feature, set a stable Development team in project.yml (DEVELOPMENT_TEAM, CODE_SIGN_STYLE: Automatic) so the permission persists.

Layout

• project.yml — XcodeGen spec (targets, SPM deps, Info.plist, entitlements).
• Sources/thetoolbox/ — app source, grouped by feature (App, MenuBar, Displays, Windows, Settings, Shortcuts, Persistence).
• Dependencies: AppleSiliconDDC (DDC over I2C), KeyboardShortcuts (global shortcuts).

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md — in short: edit project.yml (not the generated .xcodeproj), run xcodegen generate, and build.

License

MIT © 2026 Ivan Sandev. Third-party components and their licenses are listed in THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES.md — the vendored AppleSiliconDDC is MIT © Istvan T., and KeyboardShortcuts is MIT © Sindre Sorhus.