A very serious macOS menu bar app

Every.
Keystroke.
Fires.

ShotgunKeyboard plays a shotgun blast every time you press a key. Anywhere. System-wide. War has rules; this app has none.

Get it for $1.99

One-time purchase. The ammo is free forever. Mac App Store coming soon.

ShotgunKeyboard app icon: a keycap blasting off a mechanical switch, with shotgun shells

Your arsenal of settings

Everything lives behind one little menu bar icon. No dock icon, no windows, no onboarding carousel. Just violence for your ears.

On / Off switch

One click declares war. One click calls a ceasefire. The menu bar icon dims so you know the guns are down.

Volume 10–100%

From “polite office skirmish” to “the neighbors are calling someone”. You pick the caliber.

Hold-to-repeat? Optional.

Holding backspace shouldn't sound like a machine gun. Unless — hear us out — you want it to.

Modifier keys too

Let ⇧ ⌘ ⌥ ⌃ join the fight. ⌘S has never felt this dramatic. Save your document. Save yourself.

Launch at login

For a permanent state of war. Your Mac boots, the shotgun racks. Settings persist across restarts.

Test sound button

Preview the blast without typing a single character. It's called range practice. Look it up.

A mechanical keyboard with keycaps blasting off in muzzle flashes while shotgun shells bounce off the keys

Setup is one switch

macOS makes every app ask before it can hear keystrokes system-wide. Reasonable! ShotgunKeyboard walks you through it and handles the rest itself.

01

Launch the app

macOS demands Input Monitoring permission before any app may hear your keys. Fair. The app points you to the right screen.

02

Flip one switch

Privacy & Security → Input Monitoring → ShotgunKeyboard: ON. That's the entire setup. No account, no tutorial, no newsletter.

03

It reloads itself

The app notices the grant within a second and restarts on its own. From then on: every. keystroke. fires.

Loud, not creepy

ShotgunKeyboard never records or stores what you type. It only reacts to the fact that a key went down — which key is none of its business. Nothing leaves your Mac. The only thing it shoots is air.

An ammo crate overflowing with shotgun shells and keyboard keycaps

Arm your keyboard

$1.99, once. Cheaper than a real shotgun, and legal in open-plan offices. No subscription, no account — just ammo.

Prefer the Mac App Store? Same shotgun, currently trundling through App Review — coming soon.

Reasonable questions

Is it really just $1.99?

Yes. $1.99, once, forever. No subscription, no account, no "pro tier". The ammo doesn't run out.

Will my coworkers hate me?

Almost immediately. That's the volume slider's problem, not ours. Headphones exist; we checked.

Does it record what I type?

Never. It only reacts to the fact that a key went down — which key is none of its business. All sound, zero surveillance, nothing stored, nothing sent anywhere.

Why does a keyboard need a shotgun?

Why does a mechanical keyboard need artisan keycaps? Some questions answer themselves the first time you hear ⌘S go BOOM.

Is this... productive?

Studies we made up show a 400% increase in typing motivation. Your words per minute won't go up, but they'll feel faster.