ShiftKit

ShiftKit is a macOS menu-bar app that turns AI model and reasoning-level changes into satisfying audio cues, like gear shifts, engine swaps, and startup sounds.

The first version is planned as a Tauri app with global hotkeys, local JSON sound packs, and a tiny transition engine that makes model switching feel tactile.

Concept

AI tools already have meaningful "states": provider, model, version, reasoning level, and sometimes latency or cost profile. ShiftKit maps those state changes to sound.

Examples:

• Switching from GPT-5.5 High to GPT-5.5 Medium plays a downshift.
• Switching from GPT-5.5 Medium to GPT-5.5 High plays an upshift.
• Switching from GPT-5.5 to GPT-5.4 plays a vehicle change.
• Switching engine packs changes the sound identity for a model.

Planned Stack

• Tauri v2 app shell
• React, TypeScript, and Vite for the settings UI
• Rust for app state, hotkey handling, config loading, and sound routing
• Tauri tray/menu-bar APIs
• Tauri global shortcut plugin
• Local JSON config and sound-pack manifests
• AVFoundation-backed macOS audio polish later if needed

MVP

ShiftKit v0.1 should make the core loop real:

1. Run as a macOS menu-bar app.
2. Register configurable global hotkeys.
3. Map each hotkey to a provider, model, version, reasoning level, and engine pack.
4. Track the previous selection.
5. Classify the transition.
6. Play the matching sound from a local sound pack.

Development

Install dependencies:

npm install

Run the settings UI in a browser:

npm run dev

Build the frontend:

npm run build

Run the native Tauri app after installing Rust and the Tauri prerequisites:

npm run tauri dev

Roadmap

See docs/roadmap.md.

Sound Packs

Sound packs are ordinary folders with a pack.json manifest and local audio files. See docs/sound-packs.md and examples/sound-packs/classic-v8/pack.json.

License

ShiftKit code is licensed under MIT. Sound packs may use separate licenses, and bundled/community packs should declare their own license in pack.json.