Art by @monky_sm

brrr

Full power when you open something heavy. Quiet again when you close it.

brrr is the sound your fans make. Open a game, zip a big folder, export a video, or start a compile, and brrr switches your machine to its performance mode. Close it, and you're back on the mode you had before. You don't have to think about it.

Install

Windows 10 and 11: download brrr-windows-setup.exe from the releases and run it. It needs no administrator rights, and it starts brrr when you sign in unless you untick that.

Windows warns about the download? brrr isn't code-signed yet, so Microsoft Defender SmartScreen doesn't know it. In Edge, open the download's … menu and choose Keep, then Show more › Keep anyway. If Windows then says Windows protected your PC, choose More info › Run anyway. If Edge blocks the file with no Keep option, download it in PowerShell instead: curl.exe -LO https://github.com/valvesky/brrr/releases/latest/download/brrr-windows-setup.exe. Every release is built from this repository's source by GitHub Actions.

Linux (any desktop with a tray: KDE Plasma, waybar, GNOME with AppIndicator support, …): download brrr-linux-x86_64.tar.gz (or aarch64) from the releases, put brrr on your PATH, then run brrr --install to show it in your tray at every login. It needs power-profiles-daemon (or tuned-ppd), which most distributions include.

macOS 12 or later: download brrr-macos.dmg, open it and drag brrr to Applications. Open it, choose Allow Power Mode Switching… from its menu bar icon and enter your password once.

Omarchy

omarchy plugin add https://github.com/valvesky/brrr.git --enable

What you get

• Performance mode while a heavy app is running, and only then.
• Your usual mode back as soon as that app closes.
• A status icon that looks like it belongs on each system: a notification area icon with a native menu on Windows, an SF Symbol in the macOS menu bar, a tray icon your Linux desktop draws itself, and a bar widget in Omarchy. Each has a switch to turn it off and the list of apps it watches.

Out of the box it watches common heavy apps — archives, video, 3D, screen recording — and the usual compilers. You can add your own from the menu or from the terminal.

If you change the power mode yourself while something heavy is still open, brrr leaves it alone until that work is over.

Want to know more?

The guide covers each platform, picking apps, how it works, debugging and building and testing.

License

MIT. The art at the top is by @monky_sm and isn't covered by the MIT license.