Tapped

A minimal macOS menubar app that tracks your daily keystrokes and words with iCloud sync across devices.

Features

• Live keystroke/word counter in the menubar (keyboard icon + count)
• Toggle between keystrokes and words display mode
• Daily statistics: Today, Yesterday, 7-day avg, 30-day avg, Record
• History window with visual bar charts
• iCloud sync across all your Macs using CRDT (Conflict-free Replicated Data Types)
• Start at Login option
• No Xcode required - builds with Swift Package Manager
• Privacy-focused - all data stays in your iCloud, no third-party servers

Demo

Screen.Recording.2025-12-27.at.12.08.50.PM.mov

Installation

Homebrew (Recommended)

brew install shockz09/tap/tapped

Then grant Accessibility permission when prompted on first launch.

Manual Download

1. Download the latest .zip from the Releases page
2. Unzip and drag TypingStats.app to your Applications folder
3. First launch: Right-click the app → "Open" (required to bypass Gatekeeper since the app is not signed)
4. Grant Accessibility permission when prompted

Build from Source

Requirements:

• macOS 13+
• Swift 5.9+

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/shockz09/TypingStats.git
cd TypingStats

# Build release version
swift build -c release

# Copy binary to app bundle and run
cp .build/release/TypingStats TypingStats.app/Contents/MacOS/
open TypingStats.app

How It Works

Keystroke Monitoring

Uses CGEventTap to listen for keyboard events system-wide. This requires Accessibility permission which you'll be prompted to grant on first launch.

Word Counting

Counts words by detecting when you start typing a new word (transition from space/enter to a letter). Accurate for normal typing.

CRDT Sync

Each device maintains a G-Counter (Grow-only Counter) for keystroke tracking. When syncing via iCloud:

Device A: {A: 100, B: 50}
Device B: {A: 80, B: 70}
Merged:   {A: 100, B: 70}  // max() of each device's count

This ensures counts always converge correctly regardless of sync order or timing - no conflicts possible!

Data Storage

• Local: ~/Library/Application Support/TypingStats/
• iCloud: NSUbiquitousKeyValueStore (automatic, up to 1MB)

Project Structure

Sources/TypingStats/
├── TypingStatsApp.swift      # App entry point & menu
├── Core/
│   ├── KeystrokeMonitor.swift    # CGEventTap wrapper
│   ├── PermissionManager.swift   # Accessibility permissions
│   └── StatusItemManager.swift   # Menubar icon + count
├── Data/
│   ├── GCounter.swift            # CRDT implementation
│   ├── DailyStats.swift          # Daily record model
│   ├── DeviceID.swift            # Hardware UUID
│   ├── LocalStore.swift          # JSON persistence
│   ├── iCloudSync.swift          # iCloud key-value store
│   └── StatsRepository.swift     # Data coordinator
└── UI/
    └── HistoryWindow.swift       # History view

Privacy

Tapped:

• Only counts keystrokes and words, never records what you type
• Stores data locally and in your personal iCloud
• Has no analytics, telemetry, or network calls (except iCloud sync)
• Is fully open source for you to audit

Inspiration

I saw @rauchg (Vercel's CEO)'s tweet about this tool he made to count keystrokes per day. I loved the idea and wanted to use it myself, but it wasn't available to install and wasn't open source, so I decided to build it and ship it myself.

I would love if people use this and find bugs or add features they would want to use in this!

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

Acknowledgments

• Multi.app for the NSStatusItem + NSHostingView technique