Integrations

MicGuard posts distributed notifications whenever the input device changes, MicGuard is toggled on/off, or the app terminates. Any macOS app or script that can observe DistributedNotificationCenter can react to these events.

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SketchyBar

The reference integration is a SketchyBar item that shows mic status in the menubar using a two-item layout: a shield item (icon only) representing MicGuard protection status, and a mic item (icon + label) representing audio state and device name.

Two items sit on the right side of the bar. mic is added first (rightmost), then mic.shield is added to its left. Together they read as a single visual unit:

[mic.shield][mic] — shield icon, then mic icon + device name label.

Icons are Nerd Font glyphs. A patched font is required.

Glyph name	Codepoint
nf-md-shield_check	U+F0565
nf-md-shield_off	U+F099E
nf-md-microphone	U+F036C
nf-md-microphone_off	U+F036D

Enabled + Active — shield: shield_check (white), mic: microphone + device name (white)

Enabled + Muted — shield: shield_check (white), mic: microphone_off + device name (red)

Disabled + Active — shield: shield_off (yellow), mic: microphone + device name (yellow)

Disabled + Muted — shield: shield_off (yellow), mic: microphone_off + device name (red)

App not running — shield: shield_off + “Off” label (red), mic item hidden

Features

• Left-click — toggle mute/unmute (sets input volume to 0 or 100)
• Right-click — popup picker listing all input devices + enable/disable toggle; selecting a device sets it as default and updates preferred-mic

Setup

1. Register events and create items

In your SketchyBar items directory (e.g. items/mic.sh):

#!/usr/bin/env bash

set -e

mic=(
  updates=on
  update_freq=60
  icon.width=20
  label.drawing=on
  padding_right=4
  padding_left=0
  label.padding_right=2
  popup.align=right
  popup.height=0
  script="$PLUGIN_DIR/mic.sh"
  click_script="$PLUGIN_DIR/mic_click.sh"
)

mic_shield=(
  icon.drawing=on
  icon.width=20
  label.drawing=off
  padding_right=0
  padding_left=5
  click_script="$PLUGIN_DIR/mic_click.sh"
)

# Events
sketchybar --add event mic_clicked
sketchybar --add event mic_status_changed "com.pszypowicz.MicGuard.statusChanged"
sketchybar --add event mic_app_terminated "com.pszypowicz.MicGuard.appTerminated"

# mic item (rightmost — mic icon + device name label)
sketchybar --add item mic right \
  --set mic "${mic[@]}" \
  --subscribe mic mic_clicked mic_status_changed mic_app_terminated mouse.exited mouse.exited.global

# mic.shield item (left of mic — shield icon only)
sketchybar --add item mic.shield right \
  --set mic.shield "${mic_shield[@]}" \
  --subscribe mic.shield mouse.exited mouse.exited.global

# Request current status from MicGuard
mic-guard ping 2>/dev/null &

The mic-guard ping at the end asks the running MicGuard daemon to re-broadcast its status via com.pszypowicz.MicGuard.statusChanged, so both items populate immediately when sketchybar starts (or restarts) regardless of when MicGuard launched.

Key points:

• Two items: mic (mic icon + device name label) and mic.shield (shield icon only)
• mic_status_changed maps to the com.pszypowicz.MicGuard.statusChanged distributed notification. The notification includes a userInfo payload with all state, so the plugin can skip subprocess calls on the fast path:
  • enabled — "1" or "0"
  • device — current input device name (e.g. "MacBook Pro Microphone")
  • volume — input volume "0"–"100"
  • muted — "1" or "0"
• mic_app_terminated maps to com.pszypowicz.MicGuard.appTerminated
• mic_clicked is a custom event triggered after mute/unmute or device change to refresh the display
• mouse.exited / mouse.exited.global close the device picker popup
• Padding is tightened between items so they read as a visual unit

2. Update script

The plugin script (plugins/mic.sh) runs on every subscribed event and periodic update. It updates both mic.shield and mic in a single sketchybar call:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

export PATH="/opt/homebrew/bin:$PATH"
source "$CONFIG_DIR/colors.sh"

# Close popup when mouse leaves
if [[ "$SENDER" == "mouse.exited" || "$SENDER" == "mouse.exited.global" ]]; then
  sketchybar --set mic popup.drawing=off
  exit 0
fi

# Nerd Font glyphs
SHIELD_CHECK=󰕥  # nf-md-shield_check (U+F0565)
SHIELD_OFF=󰦞   # nf-md-shield_off (U+F099E)
MIC_ON=󰍬       # nf-md-microphone (U+F036C)
MIC_OFF=󰍭      # nf-md-microphone_off (U+F036D)

# Helper: update both items in a single sketchybar call
update_bar() {
  local shield_icon=$1 shield_color=$2 mic_icon=$3 mic_color=$4 mic_label=$5 label_color=$6
  sketchybar -m \
    --set mic.shield icon="$shield_icon" icon.color=$shield_color label.drawing=off drawing=on \
    --set mic icon="$mic_icon" icon.color=$mic_color label="$mic_label" label.color=$label_color drawing=on
}

# Show shield with "Off" label, hide mic item
show_off() {
  sketchybar -m \
    --set mic.shield icon="$SHIELD_OFF" icon.color=$RED label="Off" label.color=$RED label.drawing=on drawing=on \
    --set mic drawing=off
}

# MicGuard app terminated
if [[ "$SENDER" == "mic_app_terminated" ]]; then
  show_off
  exit 0
fi

# Fast path: notification from MicGuard with full state in $INFO
if [[ "$SENDER" == "mic_status_changed" && -n "$INFO" ]]; then
  ENABLED=$(echo "$INFO" | sed -n 's/.*"enabled"[[:space:]]*:[[:space:]]*"\([^"]*\)".*/\1/p')
  MIC_NAME=$(echo "$INFO" | sed -n 's/.*"device"[[:space:]]*:[[:space:]]*"\([^"]*\)".*/\1/p')
  MIC_VOLUME=$(echo "$INFO" | sed -n 's/.*"volume"[[:space:]]*:[[:space:]]*"\([^"]*\)".*/\1/p')
  MIC_MUTED=$(echo "$INFO" | sed -n 's/.*"muted"[[:space:]]*:[[:space:]]*"\([^"]*\)".*/\1/p')
  if [[ ${#MIC_NAME} -gt 12 ]]; then
    MIC_NAME="${MIC_NAME:0:11}…"
  fi

  if [[ "$ENABLED" == "0" && "$MIC_MUTED" == "1" ]]; then
    update_bar "$SHIELD_OFF" $YELLOW "$MIC_OFF" $RED "$MIC_NAME" $RED
  elif [[ "$ENABLED" == "0" ]]; then
    update_bar "$SHIELD_OFF" $YELLOW "$MIC_ON" $YELLOW "$MIC_NAME" $YELLOW
  elif [[ "$MIC_MUTED" == "1" ]]; then
    update_bar "$SHIELD_CHECK" $WHITE "$MIC_OFF" $RED "$MIC_NAME" $RED
  else
    update_bar "$SHIELD_CHECK" $WHITE "$MIC_ON" $WHITE "$MIC_NAME" $WHITE
  fi
  exit 0
fi

# Health check: periodic 60s update / mic_clicked — only detects a dead app
if ! pgrep -xq MicGuard; then
  show_off
fi

3. Click handler

The click script (plugins/mic_click.sh) handles left-click mute/unmute, right-click device picker, and enable/disable toggle:

#!/usr/bin/env bash

export PATH="/opt/homebrew/bin:$PATH"
source "$CONFIG_DIR/colors.sh"

PREF_FILE="$HOME/.config/mic-guard/preferred-mic"

# Do nothing if MicGuard.app is not running
if ! pgrep -xq MicGuard; then
  exit 0
fi

if [[ "$BUTTON" == "right" ]]; then
  # Right-click: build popup with all input devices
  DEVICES=$(mic-guard list)
  CURRENT=$(mic-guard current)

  # Remove existing popup items from both mic and mic.shield
  sketchybar --remove '/mic\.(device|sep|monitoring)\..*/' 2>/dev/null
  sketchybar --remove '/mic\.shield\.(device|sep|monitoring)\..*/' 2>/dev/null

  INDEX=0
  while IFS= read -r device; do
    [[ -z "$device" ]] && continue
    ITEM_NAME="mic.device.$INDEX"

    if [[ "$device" == "$CURRENT" ]]; then
      ICON="󰄬"  # Nerd Font: nf-md-check (U+F0126)
      COLOR="$WHITE"
    else
      ICON=" "
      COLOR="$ORANGE"
    fi

    sketchybar --add item "$ITEM_NAME" popup.mic \
      --set "$ITEM_NAME" \
        label="$device" \
        icon="$ICON" \
        icon.width=20 \
        icon.color="$COLOR" \
        label.color="$COLOR" \
        background.color=0x00000000 \
        background.height=30 \
        background.drawing=on \
        click_script="mic-guard set '$device'; echo '$device' > '$PREF_FILE'; sketchybar --set mic popup.drawing=off; sketchybar --trigger mic_clicked"

    INDEX=$((INDEX + 1))
  done <<< "$DEVICES"

  # Determine MicGuard toggle — label shows what clicking will do
  ENABLED=$(cat ~/.config/mic-guard/enabled 2>/dev/null)
  if [[ "$ENABLED" == "0" ]]; then
    MONITOR_LABEL="Enable MicGuard"
    MONITOR_ICON="󰕥"   # nf-md-shield_check
    MONITOR_CMD="mic-guard enable"
  else
    MONITOR_LABEL="Disable MicGuard"
    MONITOR_ICON="󰦞"   # nf-md-shield_off
    MONITOR_CMD="mic-guard disable"
  fi

  # Separator — build dash line matching the longest popup entry
  MAX_LEN=${#MONITOR_LABEL}
  while IFS= read -r device; do
    [[ ${#device} -gt $MAX_LEN ]] && MAX_LEN=${#device}
  done <<< "$DEVICES"
  # +3 accounts for icon + icon padding equivalent in characters
  SEP_LINE=$(printf '—%.0s' $(seq 1 $(( (MAX_LEN + 3) * 17 / 8 ))))

  sketchybar --add item mic.sep.0 popup.mic \
    --set mic.sep.0 \
      icon.drawing=off \
      label="$SEP_LINE" \
      label.font="CaskaydiaCove Nerd Font:Bold:8.0" \
      label.color=0x44ffffff \
      label.padding_left=4 \
      label.padding_right=4

  sketchybar --add item mic.monitoring.0 popup.mic \
    --set mic.monitoring.0 \
      label="$MONITOR_LABEL" \
      icon="$MONITOR_ICON" \
      icon.color="$YELLOW" \
      label.color="$YELLOW" \
      background.color=0x00000000 \
      background.height=30 \
      background.drawing=on \
      click_script="$MONITOR_CMD; sketchybar --set mic popup.drawing=off; sketchybar --trigger mic_clicked"

  sketchybar --set mic popup.drawing=toggle
else
  # Left-click: mute/unmute toggle via native CoreAudio
  mic-guard mute
  sketchybar --trigger mic_clicked
fi

Reference implementation

See the full working config in the dotfiles repo.

Building your own integration

MicGuard’s distributed notifications make it straightforward to build custom integrations. See the Notifications page for the full reference and code examples.