sk heavy industries

virtual desktop badge active

https://github.com/mr-sk/virtualdesktopbadge
macosswiftmenu-barutility
virtual desktop badge

I've been using virtual desktops since my early linux days. My workflow is that I create at least ~10 virtual desktops (mission control) and bind each one to a hot key: ctrl+1 == desktop 1, ctrl+2 == desktop 2, etc.

Spotify/music is always in desktop 8 and that is easy to remember long term, but as projects come and go, the intermediate desktops ~3-7 are not kept in memory. I always wanted this simple app so I finally built one.

It's a small-footprint menu-bar app that shows which desktop (Space) you're on as a number in a small box, with no Dock icon and no window. macOS lets you jump between Spaces with ctrl+1/ctrl+2/… but gives no on-screen indication of which one you're on; this fills that gap. Swift, macOS 13+. Source + releases.

Features

  • A boxed number in the menu bar for the current desktop.
  • Instant updates when you switch with ctrl+1 … ctrl+0 (desktops 1–10); higher desktops update via the system read.
  • Self-correcting after trackpad swipes and Mission Control, via the system space-change notification.
  • Multi-monitor aware. It tracks the primary (menu-bar) display and re-reads when you dock/undock.
  • Per-desktop labels beside the number (see below).
  • Launch at Login toggle.

Labels

Beside the number, the badge shows a label for the current desktop: a manual note you set (email, deep work), or, if you haven't set one, the apps currently on that desktop (frontmost first, up to 3 then +N), updated live as you open and close them.

A manual note versus the automatic app list

How it works

macOS exposes no public API for "what Space number am I on," so the badge uses a hybrid of two signals:

  1. Keyboard (instant, no private API). A global monitor watches for ctrl+digit by physical key code (layout-independent) and sets the number immediately.
  2. System notification + private API (always correct). NSWorkspace.activeSpaceDidChangeNotification fires on any switch, including swipes. The badge then re-derives the true number from the private CGSCopyManagedDisplaySpaces API for the primary display, so the number is right at rest no matter where focus is.

The private API is isolated to a single file (CGSBridge.swift). If a future macOS changes it, only that one file needs attention, and the keyboard path keeps working regardless. The rest of the logic lives in a pure, unit-tested VirtualDesktopBadgeCore (no system calls), with the AppKit executable as thin wiring around it, so the Space-number logic is testable without a GUI.

Install

macOS 13 (Ventura) or later. Grab the latest .zip from Releases (it's ad-hoc signed, so allow it once on first launch), or build from source with ./scripts/package_app.sh.

Stack: Swift, AppKit, Swift Package Manager, XCTest; a private CoreGraphics (CGS) Spaces API.