- Meter
- One item in your menu bar: a source, drawn by a face, with your settings (label, color, range, alerts). Getting started
- Face
- How a meter is drawn. A small folder with an HTML file, a stylesheet and a script. Multimeter comes with 13, and you can make your own. The built-in faces
- Source
- What a meter measures: the battery, CPU, network, a timer, or a number you supply. Menu bar how-tos
- Theme
- A saved set of meters you switch between from the menu bar, for example a work set and a quiet set. Getting started
- Sent Value
- The source fed by multimeter:// links. Each meter listens for one key. Send a number with a link
- multimeter:// link
- A link like multimeter://set?key=deploys&value=42. Opening it from Terminal, Shortcuts or any app updates the Sent Value meter with that key. URL scheme guide
- Key path
- Where to find the number in JSON: dots walk into objects and numbers pick array items, as in data.items.0.count. Web address and JSON meters
- Script meter
- A meter that runs a shell command on a schedule and shows the number it prints. Direct download version only. Script meters
- Thermal pressure
- The four-step state (Nominal, Fair, Serious, Critical) macOS uses to decide when to slow the chip to manage heat. Not a temperature. Thermal pressure explained
- Power draw
- How many watts the whole Mac is using right now. MacBooks report it; desktops don’t. Watts in the menu bar
- Fan speed (RPM)
- How fast the fans spin, in revolutions per minute, averaged across the Mac’s fans. Fan speed in the menu bar
- SMC
- The System Management Controller, the part of a Mac that runs the fans and reports their speed. Multimeter reads it, never writes to it. Fan speed
- Sparkline
- A small line graph without axes. The Sparkline face draws the last couple of minutes of a meter. The Sparkline face
- Warning and critical levels
- Values where a meter changes color, and optionally sends a notification (critical only). Battery defaults to below 20% and 10%, CPU to above 70% and 90%. Alerts and colors
- Meter data
- What Multimeter sends a face: window.meterData plus a meterUpdate event, with level (0 to 1), formatted text, state, tint, history and more. Creating Meters
- .multimeter file
- A face folder, zipped and renamed, ready to share. Double-click it or use Import… to add it. Build your first face
- Gallery
- Faces other people made and shared on this site. The gallery
- Direct download version
- Multimeter bought on multimeterapp.com: Developer ID signed, notarized by Apple, updated with Sparkle. It can read fan speed and run scripts. Get Multimeter
Glossary
The words this site uses, in plain terms.
Put it in your menu bar
$19.99 one-time. No subscription. 30-day refund. Needs macOS 13 Ventura or later.