mac-brightnessctl is a command line tool for controlling the keyboard backlight brightness on macOS.
mac-brightnessctl [<option>] [<value>]mac-brightnessctl 0.75 Set brightness to 75% mac-brightnessctl Get current brightness mac-brightnessctl -a Get current state of auto-brightness mac-brightnessctl -a 1 Enable auto-brightness mac-brightnessctl -s Get current state of suspend idle dimming mac-brightnessctl -s 1 Suspend idle dimming mac-brightnessctl -t Get current state of idle dim time mac-brightnessctl -t 5 Set idle dim time to 5 seconds mac-brightnessctl -f 5 0.5 [s] Flash the keyboard lights 5 times with an interval of 0.5 seconds and optional fade speed [s]. If [s] is not provided, the default fade speed is 500 milliseconds.Visual alerts example
ping google.com -c 3 && mac-brightnessctl -f 5 0.5 100 #So, when the ping command is completed successfully, the lights will flash five times with the specified brightness settings.If you use Homebrew:
brew tap rakalex/mac-brightnessctl brew install mac-brightnessctlOr if you use MacPorts:
sudo port install mac-brightnessctlOr install manually from source:
# Set the version of mac-brightnessctl you want to install # See https://github.com/rakalex/mac-brightnessctl/releases for the latest version VERSION=0.2.1 # Download source code and enter directory curl -L https://github.com/rakalex/mac-brightnessctl/archive/refs/tags/${VERSION}.tar.gz | tar xz cd mac-brightnessctl-${VERSION} # Make sure the Command Line Tools (which provide the Clang compiler) are installed clang --version || xcode-select -–install # Compile binary make # Put the binary in a directory in your $PATH, e.g. /usr/local/bin/ sudo cp mac-brightnessctl /usr/local/bin/ # Clean up after yourself cd .. rm -rf mac-brightnessctl-${VERSION} unset VERSIONThis project was inspired by the work of EthanRDoesMC and their repository KBPulse. I have built upon their ideas and adapted the code to suit the needs of my project.