Smacbar

Language: Objective-C · View on GitHub ↗

SMacBar is a lightweight, high-performance Touch Bar utility for macOS written in Go & Objective-C (CGo). It transforms your Touch Bar into a persistent, interactive system dashboard featuring 60 FPS Web Widgets (HTML/CSS/JS, Canvas, Animations), a Live RSS Scrolling News Ticker, real-time Dock Badge Counters, and Interactive Touch Actions.

✨ Features

• Persistent Control Strip Tray Icon: Integrates directly into the macOS Control Strip (dev.smacbar.tray). Tap the tray icon (Vex) to toggle your dashboard anytime.
• 60 FPS WebWidgets Engine: Render custom HTML5, CSS animations, JavaScript, Canvas motion graphics, and live widgets directly onto Touch Bar items at a smooth 60 FPS.
• Live RSS Scrolling News Ticker: Smooth 60 FPS news marquee fetching live RSS feeds (such as Vex Dynamics RSS).
• Interactive Tap Actions: Tap any widget on your Touch Bar to launch applications, open URLs, focus open apps, or execute custom shell scripts. Tapping the RSS Ticker instantly opens the currently visible news article in your browser.
• Real-Time App Dock Badges: Live Dock badge counter monitoring (lsappinfo) with custom badge overlays on SF Symbols icons.
• Multi-Workspace & Multi-Space Support: Joins all macOS Spaces (CanJoinAllSpaces), maintaining 60 FPS performance across all Desktop Workspaces and Fullscreen applications.

🛠️ Prerequisites

• macOS 10.14+ (macOS with physical Touch Bar or Touch Bar Simulator).
• Go 1.20+
• Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install).

📦 Building & Installation

1. Clone the Repository:

   bashCOPY

   git clone https://github.com/vexdynamics/smacbar.git
   cd smacbar
   

2. Build & Sign SMacBar: Run the included build script to compile the Go binary, generate Info.plist, build SMacBar.app, and sign it:

   bashCOPY

   ./scripts/build.sh
   

3. Launch SMacBar:

   bashCOPY

   open build/SMacBar.app
   

   The SMacBar tray icon (Vex) will appear in your Touch Bar Control Strip. Tap it to expand your dashboard!

⚙️ Configuration (~/.config/smacbar/config.json)

SMacBar loads its configuration from ~/.config/smacbar/config.json. If it doesn't exist, a default config is automatically generated.

Example Configuration:

{
  "poll_interval_seconds": 5,
  "widgets": [
    {
      "id": "rss-ticker-widget",
      "type": "web_file",
      "path": "rss_ticker.html",
      "width": 170
    },
    {
      "id": "animation-widget",
      "type": "web_file",
      "path": "animation.html",
      "open": "com.apple.ActivityMonitor",
      "width": 170
    },
    {
      "id": "mattermost",
      "icon": "message.fill",
      "label": "MM",
      "bundle_id": "Mattermost.Desktop"
    },
    {
      "id": "warp",
      "icon": "terminal",
      "label": "Warp",
      "bundle_id": "dev.warp.Warp-Stable"
    },
    {
      "id": "chrome",
      "icon": "globe",
      "label": "Chrome",
      "bundle_id": "com.google.Chrome"
    }
  ]
}

📐 Touch Bar Width Limits & Sizing Guidelines

When designing and building custom widgets, keep physical Touch Bar screen boundaries and native inter-item spacing in mind:

1. Max Screen Capacity:

   • Total usable Touch Bar modal screen width is approximately 600 – 610 points (between the system Close box on the left and the Control Strip volume/brightness buttons on the right).

2. Native Item Spacing:

   • macOS automatically inserts ~18 points of native inter-item spacing between every Touch Bar button item.
   • For $N$ items, inter-item padding equals $(N - 1) \times 18\text{px}$.

3. Width Formula: $$\sum \text{Widget Content Widths} + (\text{Num Widgets} \times 18) \le \mathbf{510\text{px}}$$

[!IMPORTANT] Golden Sizing Rule: Keep the sum of all widget "width" properties $\le 430\text{px}$ (e.g. 170px RSS Ticker + 170px CyberPulse + three 30px App Badges = 430px content width). If the total combined width (content + inter-item spacing) exceeds ~510–540px, macOS NSTouchBar will automatically hide or clip the rightmost widget items!

🖱️ Interactive Touch Actions

Any widget (App Badge or WebWidget) can perform a tap action when touched on the Touch Bar:

🎨 How to Create & Add Custom HTML Web Widgets

Place custom .html, .js, or .css files inside ~/.config/smacbar/widgets/.

1. Create Your HTML Widget File:

Create a file named ~/.config/smacbar/widgets/my_widget.html:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<style>
  * { box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0; padding: 0; }
  html, body {
    background: #0d0e15;
    color: #00f0ff;
    font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "SF Pro Display", sans-serif;
    display: flex;
    align-items: center;
    justify-content: space-between;
    height: 30px;
    width: 100%;
    padding: 0 8px;
    overflow: hidden;
  }
  .title { font-size: 11px; font-weight: 700; }
  .pulse { width: 10px; height: 10px; border-radius: 50%; background: #30d158; box-shadow: 0 0 8px #30d158; }
</style>
</head>
<body>
  <span class="title">MY WIDGET</span>
  <div class="pulse"></div>
</body>
</html>

2. Register It in config.json:

Add your widget to ~/.config/smacbar/config.json:

{
  "id": "my-custom-widget",
  "type": "web_file",
  "path": "my_widget.html",
  "open": "https://vexdynamics.com",
  "width": 140
}

📰 Customizing the RSS Ticker Widget

The RSS Ticker widget (rss_ticker.html) fetches live news headlines and scrolls them seamlessly across your Touch Bar.

To use your own RSS feed (e.g. Vex Dynamics, Hacker News, BBC, NYT), edit ~/.config/smacbar/widgets/rss_ticker.html and update the RSS feed URL:

const urls = [
  "https://vexdynamics.com/rss.xml",
  "https://corsproxy.io/?https://vexdynamics.com/rss.xml"
];

🧠 Architecture Overview

• Go Core Engine (cmd/smacbar): Configuration loader, widget polling, HTTP local widget server (http://127.0.0.1:<port>), and tap action dispatcher.
• Objective-C / CGo Bridge (internal/touchbar): Interoperates with macOS private frameworks (DFRFoundation) to manage system Control Strip presence and present persistent system modal Touch Bars.
• Unthrottled WebKit Renderer: Hosts WebViews inside a transparent 1x1 on-screen anchor window joining all macOS Spaces (CanJoinAllSpaces), capturing high-resolution snapshot images into native Touch Bar buttons at 60 FPS.

📄 License

Distributed under the MIT License. Developed by Vex Dynamics (vexdynamics.com).