# sindresorhus/touch-bar-simulator

Use the Touch Bar on any Mac

Repository: https://github.com/sindresorhus/touch-bar-simulator
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/touch-bar-simulator
Homepage: https://sindresorhus.com/touch-bar-simulator
Language: Swift
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: macos, swift, touch-bar, simulator, app, macbook-pro
Archived: true
Last push: 2024-03-06T16:54:05+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 10/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3458, "days_push": 910, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: archived
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1935, forks 86 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:57.019323+00:00)

## What it is
A macOS app that launches the Touch Bar simulator without requiring Xcode, adding features like a transparency slider, screenshot capture, and a menu bar toggle. It is discontinued because macOS changes broke it.

## Use cases
- use the touch bar on any mac
- launch touch bar simulator without xcode
- take screenshots of the touch bar
- toggle touch bar with a keyboard shortcut
- dock touch bar window to screen edge

## When to choose
- you need a standalone Touch Bar simulator on macOS 12 or earlier
- you want Touch Bar screenshots or quick toggling without Xcode

## When to avoid
- you are on a recent macOS version where the app no longer works
- you need a maintained or localized tool
- you need Touch Bar emulation on non-Apple hardware

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: abandoned
- function: developer-tools, gui, simulation
- domain: developer-tools, operating-systems, apple-ecosystem
- platform: -
- tags: touch-bar, xcode, menu-bar, discontinued, macos, desktop

## Member repositories
- sindresorhus/touch-bar-simulator (main) score 10

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:57.019323+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T03:08:27.926697+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/sindresorhus/touch-bar-simulator (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:57.019323+00:00, sha 239221abc04e)
  - homepage: https://sindresorhus.com/touch-bar-simulator (fetched 2026-08-29T10:47:45.709886+00:00, sha f1b6e0ad16f4)
  - site_page: https://sindresorhus.com/about (fetched 2026-08-29T10:47:45.714844+00:00, sha 50c6010cf2fd)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.