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unrelatedlabs/macbook-charger-power-indicator

★ 24SwiftAudience · generalComplexity · 2/5LicenseSetup · easy

TLDR

macOS menu bar app that shows your MacBook's live charging wattage instead of a battery percentage, so you can see at a glance whether your charger is delivering full power or a reduced amount.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((charger-indicator))
    What it does
      Shows live wattage
      Battery health stats
      USB-C power profiles
    Info Displayed
      Charger wattage
      Battery cycle count
      Voltage and current
    Tech Stack
      Swift
      IOKit
      macOS menu bar
    Audience
      MacBook users
      Power users
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Code map

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Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

See your MacBook charger's actual delivered wattage at a glance in the menu bar instead of just a battery percentage.

USE CASE 2

Check detailed battery health stats, cycle count, capacity, temperature, and voltage, without opening System Information.

USE CASE 3

Verify which USB-C power profiles your charger supports to understand why it may be charging slower than expected.

USE CASE 4

Build and install the app locally using the included build script, then add it to login items with the install script.

Tech stack

SwiftIOKitmacOS

Getting it running

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min
Use freely for any purpose, including commercial use, as long as you keep the copyright notice.

In plain English

This is a small macOS menu bar app that adds charging power information to the top of your screen. When your MacBook is running on battery, it shows a battery icon with the current charge percentage. When you plug in a charger, the icon turns green and displays the actual wattage being delivered, such as 86W, rather than the percentage. This makes it easy to see at a glance whether your charger is delivering full power or a reduced amount. Clicking the menu bar icon opens a dropdown with more detail. The battery section shows its health condition, cycle count, capacity, temperature, voltage, and current. The power adapter section lists the charger's name, wattage, negotiated voltage and current, manufacturer, model, serial number, and firmware version. A third section shows the USB-C power profiles the charger supports, meaning the different voltage and current combinations it can negotiate. All of this information is read directly from macOS using a built-in system interface called IOKit. Nothing is sent over the internet, and the app has no network access. It runs entirely in the background without a window or a Dock icon, appearing only as the menu bar item. You can quit it from the dropdown menu. The project is built with Swift and ships with a build script that compiles the app locally, a packaging script that creates a distributable disk image, and an install script that adds the app to your login items so it starts automatically. The license is MIT.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Build macbook-charger-power-indicator from source on my Mac using the included build script and add it to my login items automatically.
Prompt 2
My MacBook shows 30W in macbook-charger-power-indicator instead of 96W, help me read the USB-C power profiles section to understand what's happening.
Prompt 3
Using macbook-charger-power-indicator, explain what the battery cycle count and health condition values mean and when I should consider a battery replacement.
Prompt 4
Walk me through the macbook-charger-power-indicator packaging script to create a distributable disk image I can share with a colleague.
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