ctrlgrp

Control groups for macOS. Bind apps to number keys, switch with one keystroke, like in an RTS.

• Instant. Event-driven, zero polling, ~20 MB resident.
• Zero permissions. No Accessibility, no Input Monitoring, no prompts.
• Dynamic. Rebind live with a hotkey, not a config file.
• Layout-proof. Physical keys, identical on any layout.
• Tiny. One universal binary, zero dependencies, MIT.

Hotkeys

⌥1 … ⌥0     switch to slot; launches if dead, jumps back if already frontmost
⌥⇧1 … ⌥⇧0   bind the frontmost app to that slot
⌥`          HUD

While ctrlgrp runs, these combos stop typing their special characters. The rest of your keyboard is untouched. Going back never resurrects an app you quit; calling its slot directly does.

HUD

What's bound where. Pops up when you bind, gone in two seconds, never takes focus.

Install

Download the latest release, drag to Applications, launch. Done. macOS 14+, Apple silicon and Intel.

Or build it yourself:

git clone https://github.com/pgrekovich/ctrlgrp.git && cd ctrlgrp && make install

First launch from /Applications registers a login item. To get rid of ctrlgrp: quit it from the menu bar item, make uninstall, and drop it from System Settings > General > Login Items.

Config

~/.config/ctrlgrp/config.json, hot-reloaded on save:

{
  "defaults": {
    "1": "com.brave.Browser",
    "3": "com.mitchellh.ghostty"
  },
  "hud": { "enabled": true },
  "menubar": { "enabled": true },
  "toggleBack": { "enabled": true }
}

⌥⇧N bindings are session-only: restart and the defaults are back. ctrlgrp never writes this file (one exception: Create Config in the menu when you have none). hud.enabled and menubar.enabled are read at launch; toggleBack.enabled applies on save. Set it to false to make repeated presses of the frontmost app's hotkey do nothing. Bundle ids:

osascript -e 'id of app "Google Chrome"'

Menu bar

Reload, edit, reveal the config, quit. Bartender hides new items by default, so look in its overflow first. Kill the item entirely with "menubar": { "enabled": false }.

Hacking

make test   # unit tests for the pure logic
make run    # build the bundle, run in the foreground
log stream --predicate 'subsystem == "com.pgrekovich.ctrlgrp"' --level info

Releases: push a tag, CI does the rest (universal build, sign, notarize, release notes from commit subjects).

git tag v0.3.0 && git push origin v0.3.0