Show a number from a file in your menu bar

Add the meter

1. Create the file first, so you can pick it: echo 0 > ~/.meters/inbox (make the folder with mkdir -p ~/.meters).
2. Choose Add Meter…, pick File and choose the file.
3. Add a key path if it’s JSON.

How it watches

• Multimeter is told by macOS when the file is written, so updates are immediate. It also re-reads every 30 seconds.
• Editors and scripts that replace the file (write a new one, then rename) are followed to the new file.
• Up to 256 KB is read.

What the file can contain

Web addresses, files and scripts all read the same two formats.

A plain number, or any text with a number in it. Multimeter takes the first number it finds, and drops thousands separators between digits, so 1,284 stars reads as 1284.

JSON. Either a bare number, or an object with value and any of these extras:

{
  "value": 38,
  "min": 0,
  "max": 50,
  "label": "DEPLOY",
  "unit": "today",
  "formatted": "38 of 50"
}

Pointing at bigger JSON you don’t control, like an API response? Give the meter a key path. Dots walk into objects and numbers pick array items: data.items.0.count. Numbers inside strings work too ("67012.45"), and true/false count as 1 and 0.

Without min and max the range is 0 to 100, so for bigger numbers set a range in Customize This Meter… or send max.

Examples

Write it from anything:

echo 12 > ~/.meters/inbox

Write it safely from a job that might be read mid-write (write a temp file, then move it into place):

echo '{"value": 12, "label": "INBOX"}' > ~/.meters/inbox.tmp && mv ~/.meters/inbox.tmp ~/.meters/inbox

From Python:

from pathlib import Path
Path.home().joinpath(".meters/queue").write_text('{"value": 17, "max": 100}')