KeyBuddy

Real mechanical keyboard sounds for every key you press, in every app — on macOS, Windows and Linux. Lives in the menu bar / system tray.

Packs

Pack	Build
Creamy	Evo80, PP plate, Oat linears
Poppy	Rainy75 Pro, HMX Pink Pig
Clacky	Rainy75, Akko Cilantro
Thocky	Crush80, ceramic keycaps, Kailh Cocoa
Clicky	QK65, Outemu Ocean
Lego	Luminkey80, BSUN Dusty Rose

Sounds come from LumeKeebs builds (credits). Each pack has five feel levels, Pillow to Hard: softer levels pick gentler recorded hits and round off the tone, harder ones pick stronger hits and brighten it. The app and the website play the same files from site/packs/.

Record your own keyboard

Settings → Record your keyboard. Type a sentence, then tap Space, Enter and Backspace a few times. KeyBuddy records the mic while the key hook logs which key moved, so every hit is labeled exactly (press vs release, big keys). It measures the mic's delay from the recording itself, drops overlapping hits, and saves a pack you can preview, pick from the tray, or delete. Recorded packs live in the app's config folder under packs/.

Run

npm install
npm run dev      # dev build
npm run build    # installers in src-tauri/target/release/bundle

Needs Rust and Node. On Linux also install the Tauri prerequisites.

Release

Installers are built by GitHub Actions (release.yml) for macOS (Apple Silicon + Intel), Windows and Linux:

1. Bump version in src-tauri/tauri.conf.json (and VERSION in site/main.js).
2. git tag v0.1.0 && git push origin v0.1.0

The website's download buttons point at releases/latest/download/…, so they work as soon as the release is published.

Installing on macOS

KeyBuddy isn't notarized by Apple yet (that needs a paid developer account), so the first launch is blocked. Open it once, then System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway. From Terminal, this does the same:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/KeyBuddy.app

Permissions

• macOS: System Settings → Privacy & Security → Input Monitoring → allow KeyBuddy.
• macOS (recording): Microphone access, asked on first recording.
• Windows: nothing to grant.
• Linux: reads /dev/input (works on X11 and Wayland). Add yourself to the input group: sudo usermod -aG input $USER, then log out and back in.

Privacy

KeyBuddy only sees which physical key moved, never characters. It keeps key counts and typing speed locally. No account, no network.

Layout

src-tauri/src/hook/     global key listening (macOS event tap, Windows LL hook, Linux evdev)
src-tauri/src/keymap.rs native codes -> key position + class
src-tauri/src/packs.rs  embedded sample packs (from site/packs)
src-tauri/src/feel.rs   soft-to-hard shaping
src-tauri/src/audio.rs  low-latency mixer (cpal)
src-tauri/src/engine.rs settings, stats, playback, recorded packs
src-tauri/src/recorder.rs mic capture + slicing for recorded packs
ui/                     settings window
tools/slice.py          recordings -> packs