What this adds
Two related things, in three commits that can be taken separately:
- Four brightness presets. Each has a percentage you set and a shortcut
you record. A preset sets every display to that level.
- A
monitorcontrol:// URL scheme, so a script or a launcher can do the
same thing.
monitorcontrol://brightness/set?value=10&display=all
monitorcontrol://brightness/change?delta=-10
Both go through one small shared file, BrightnessActions.swift, so the two
entry points cannot drift apart.
Why
The most common request I could find in this repo is a key that dims every
screen when you leave the desk, and a key that puts them back: #1851, #1674,
#727, #795, #1224. Related asks for outside control: #682, #1515, #1620, #1858.
I understand the answer has been that MonitorControl stays simple, and that
BetterDisplay covers this. I still think this specific shape is small enough to
fit: it adds no new window, no new tab, and nothing changes for a user who
never records a preset shortcut.
Please close this if you disagree. I will keep using my fork and I will not
argue the point.
Design notes
Display.setBrightness already existed and already picks DDC, the Apple
protocol, gamma, or the shade layer. Nothing in that path is touched.- The new action repeats the three side effects of
stepBrightness: the OSD,
the menu slider, and brightnessSyncSourceValue. The last one matters,
because AppDelegate.job() compares against it and a stale value makes the
sync push the difference to every other display.
- A relative URL change does its arithmetic per display inside the app. A
caller therefore never has to read the brightness first. Many monitors accept
writes but return noise on reads.
- Presets stay active whichever way the brightness keys are set. Most users
keep the media keys, and a preset must still work for them.
- The settings rows are built in code, not in the storyboard, to keep the new
text in Localizable.strings only instead of 19 Main.strings files.
- Any app can open a URL, so
disableExternalControl switches the scheme off
and a 1% floor stops a URL from making a screen fully black.
- No change to the deployment target. App Intents would have needed macOS 13.
Testing
Built and run on macOS 26.5.2, Apple silicon, with 4 external displays
(3x LG UltraFine, 1x N27p) in clamshell mode. Two of those monitors accept DDC
writes but return noise on reads, which made them a useful test.
Checked: absolute set, relative change, all four displays reaching the target,
the OSD, the menu sliders, the brightness sync not fighting the change, the 1%
floor, the off switch, and malformed URLs (value=abc, value=999, unknown
action) being ignored without a crash.
The diff carries no SwiftFormat churn and no CFBundleVersion bumps.
Disclosure
This was written with AI assistance (Claude). You said on 2026-05-09 that you
do not review AI generated PRs, and asked to be told. So: this is one. I am not
asking you to make an exception. If the AI contribution / fork recommendation
label is the right home for it, that is completely fine, and the fork is at
https://github.com/Erik5000/MonitorControl for anyone who wants the feature.
Every line was read, built, and tested on real hardware before opening this.