A lightweight menu bar utility that mutes your Mac's system microphone. It mutes at the CoreAudio hardware level on the default input device, so the mute applies across every app system-wide — not just one app's own mute button.

• Menu bar icon (🎙 / 🔇) reflecting mute state
• Global hotkey (default: ⌥⌘M, or bind the standalone fn key), configurable in Preferences, with three interactions:
  • Tap: performs the current mode's action and leaves it
  • Hold: performs the action while held, reverts to the prior state on release
  • Double-click: switches between "Push to Mute" and "Push to Unmute" mode
• Mode can also be set directly from the menu bar dropdown
• Launch at Login (in Preferences)
• Tracks the default input device — if you switch microphones while muted, the new device is muted too

MacMute never records or transmits audio. It only flips the input device's Mute property (or, on devices without a hardware mute switch, zeroes the input volume and restores it on unmute) via CoreAudio's AudioObjectSetPropertyData.

Requires Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install) and macOS 13+.

./Scripts/build_app.sh

This runs swift build -c release, assembles MacMute.app, and ad-hoc code-signs it.

./Scripts/build_dmg.sh

Builds the app and packages it into MacMute-<version>.dmg — a disk image containing MacMute.app and an Applications shortcut, so you open it and drag the app in like any other Mac app. Installing to /Applications this way (rather than running the app from wherever it was built) matters for Launch at Login: macOS's SMAppService registers login items by the app's installed location, so it works most reliably once the app lives somewhere stable like /Applications.

open MacMute.app

The app has no Dock icon or main window — look for the mic icon in the menu bar.

• Click the menu bar icon: opens the dropdown (Hotkey Mode, Toggle Mute, Preferences…, About, Quit)
• Preferences…: change the global hotkey or enable Launch at Login
• About: version and credits

Rebuilding the app requires new accessibility permissions as it is assigned to the build ID. The easiest way to solve this is to create a static signing cert.

1. Generate the certificate:

openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:2048 -days 3650 \
  -keyout dev.key -out dev.crt -nodes \
  -subj "/CN=macmute dev" \
  -addext "keyUsage=critical,digitalSignature" \
  -addext "extendedKeyUsage=codeSigning"

2. Convert to p12 format (compatible with macOS):

openssl pkcs12 -export -legacy \
  -in dev.crt -inkey dev.key \
  -out dev.p12 -password pass:dev

3. Import to keychain:

security import dev.p12 -k ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain-db \
  -P dev -T /usr/bin/codesign

4. Trust the certificate: open Keychain Access, find the "macmute dev" certificate, and set it to "Always Trust" for code signing.

• On first launch, macOS may prompt for microphone-related permission when CoreAudio enumerates input devices. Granting it is safe — MacMute never opens an audio input stream.
• To change the hotkey: open Preferences, click the shortcut button, then press your desired key combination (must include a modifier, or press fn alone).
• Binding fn requires granting MacMute Accessibility permission (System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility) — macOS will prompt for this the first time.
• If your menu bar already has other mic/audio-related icons (system input indicator, call-app mute buttons, etc.), MacMute's plain mic icon can be easy to miss at a glance — check for it near other third-party menu bar icons, not just the system clock cluster.