Turn a tap on your MacBook into your next action.
Download for Apple Silicon · How it works · Build from source · 한국어
PunchMe turns one, two, or three taps on your MacBook's palm rest into actions you choose. Open an app, pause a song, take a screenshot, or run a script. Calibrate it to your touch, then keep it in the menu bar.
It reads chassis vibrations from a compatible MacBook's built-in accelerometer. No microphone, camera, or external accessory is involved. Left and right taps share the same gestures.
| Gesture | One way to use it |
|---|---|
| 1 tap | Play or pause your music |
| 2 taps | Skip to the next track |
| 3 taps | Open your favorite app |
Every slot is configurable. New installations start with no actions assigned; an optional music preset fills all three during setup.
- Everyday actions. Apps, keyboard shortcuts, media playback, volume, screenshots, and web addresses.
- More powerful workflows. Run a macOS Shortcut, a shell command, or a script with a working directory and timeout.
- A touch that feels right. Five-tap calibration, a live strength meter, and adjustable sensitivity and multi-tap timing.
- A guided first run. Four steps, an animated MacBook scene, and a practice mode that never executes your actions.
- A considered Mac interface. System light and dark appearance, native Liquid Glass navigation, and a reduced-motion option.
- Ten languages. English, 한국어, 日本語, 简体中文, 繁體中文, Español, Français, Deutsch, Português (Brasil), and Bahasa Indonesia. English is the default.
Interface previews use the Qt fallback with simulated data. They do not depict the native Liquid Glass compositor.
- Download the Apple Silicon app, unzip it, and move PunchMe.app into Applications.
- Open PunchMe and follow Start → Sensitivity → Actions → Practice. Place your MacBook on a stable surface and calibrate using five gentle taps about one second apart.
- Assign your actions. For keyboard, media, and screenshot actions, enable PunchMe under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility.
- Finish setup and use To menu bar to keep detection running with the window hidden. Closing the window or pressing ⌘Q quits the app.
The release is ad-hoc signed and not notarized by Apple. If macOS blocks it because the developer cannot be verified, first attempt to open it, then use System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway for this app if you trust the download. See Apple's instructions and the installation guide.
The v0.9.0 release requires macOS 26 or later and Apple Silicon. Tap detection also needs an accessible AppleSPU accelerometer. Sensor availability and permission behavior vary by MacBook model and macOS version; support for every M-series MacBook is not established. Intel Macs, desktop Macs, and machines without the matching sensor are not supported by this release.
The sensor interface is undocumented. If it is unavailable or macOS denies access, PunchMe reports a connection error. The app does not install a privileged helper or automatically request administrator access. Accessibility permission enables action delivery; it does not grant access to the motion sensor.
The sidebar and setup navigation use the public NSGlassEffectView API. If the native bridge cannot load, navigation falls back to Qt. The settings content and 3D scene are built with Qt. Source builds with suitable dependencies also include an AppKit material fallback for earlier macOS versions; the downloadable bundle still requires macOS 26+.
flowchart LR
A[Chassis vibration] --> B[Accelerometer samples]
B --> C[Remove baseline and reject noise]
C --> D[Detect a short impulse]
D --> E[Group 1, 2, or 3 taps]
E --> F[Run the matching action once]
PunchMe tracks a moving gravity baseline and looks for brief acceleration changes above your chosen threshold and the surrounding noise floor. A short cooldown reduces repeat detections from the same impact. After the last tap, it waits for the multi-tap interval before deciding which action to run.
A double tap runs only the double-tap action. Four or more taps are ignored. New actions are skipped while another is running, and actions are suspended during setup, editing, and calibration. Read the detector, calibration, and execution details.
Typing, desk vibration, and moving the computer can still trigger the sensor. Calibrate where you normally work; raise the threshold if ordinary movement is detected.
Tap detection, calibration, and translations run locally. PunchMe includes no account system, analytics, or sensor-data upload. Actions you configure—such as opening a URL or running a script—can use the network.
Settings, including configured commands, are stored in plain text at ~/Library/Application Support/PunchMe/settings.json. The activity log keeps the most recent 200 lines in memory and clears when the app exits. Command execution and cancellation are bounded by a configurable timeout.
Bug reports, device compatibility reports, and translation improvements are welcome. Include your MacBook model, macOS version, PunchMe version, and a short set of steps to reproduce the problem. Remove personal paths, commands, and output before sharing logs or settings.
Start with the development guide, or open an issue.
PunchMe is released under the MIT license. Its sensor interface builds on the endpoint and report-format research in Olivier Bourbonnais's apple-silicon-accelerometer. See third-party notices for attribution and dependency licenses.