A tiny macOS menu-bar remote for Apple TV — clickpad, app launcher, and now-playing card, no phone required. For the engineer whose Siri Remote is forever in the couch cushions.
Native SwiftUI, no Electron, and fully self-contained: the pyatv protocol engine (discovery, PIN pairing, Companion + AirPlay) ships inside the app.
- Siri Remote layout you already know: clickpad with arrows, back, TV, play/pause, volume rocker, power (wake/sleep)
- Scroll to navigate — two-finger scroll or mouse wheel on the remote moves the selection, sideways included
- App launcher with real App Store artwork and a search field;
net⏎opens Netflix - Now-playing card — artwork, title, progress, and transport controls (apps that withhold metadata, like Netflix, fall back to app + play state)
- Type from your Mac keyboard — the text field appears automatically whenever a text field is focused on the TV
- Keyboard shortcuts while the popover is open: arrows navigate, ⏎ select, space play/pause, ⌫ back
- Multiple Apple TVs, remembered pairings, auto-reconnect
Homebrew:
brew install --cask ribren/tap/clicker
Or by hand: grab Clicker-macOS.zip from the
latest release, unzip, and drop
Clicker.app into /Applications. Signed & notarized, batteries included —
there is nothing else to install.
Then: launch Clicker, allow local-network access when macOS asks, pick your Apple TV, click Pair…, and type the PIN from the TV screen. Optional: click Set Up Now Playing… on the card at the bottom for the second (AirPlay) pairing that unlocks playback info.
./make-app.sh # builds + signs Clicker.app (Developer ID if present)
./notarize.sh # notarize + staple (needs notary credentials)
./build.sh # dev loop: build + install to /Applications
make-app.sh freezes the pyatv engine on first run via
tools/make-bridge.sh (needs Python 3.13 — pyatv breaks on 3.14). Source
builds without the frozen engine fall back to a system pyatv (pipx,
Homebrew, or defaults write info.backpocket.clicker pyatvBinDir <dir>).
Requires macOS 14+ and Swift 5.9+.
- Pairings are per-Apple TV and stored in
UserDefaults; each protocol (Companion for control, AirPlay for now-playing) pairs once. - tvOS 26 doesn't push playback state to new clients; Clicker nudges it out with a playback-queue request. If a card ever looks stale, hit refresh.
- Inspired by Itsytv. Built on the excellent pyatv.
Clicker is free, and it always will be. But if it ever spares you one full-couch excavation for the physical remote, there's a Buy Me a Coffee ☕ item tucked into the ··· menu, and a sponsor button up top. Entirely optional, deeply appreciated, and roughly the price of pausing the movie without getting up.
MIT — see LICENSE. Free as in couch.