Add the meter
- Choose Add Meter… from any meter’s menu and pick Sent Value.
- In Customize This Meter…, give it a key, like
deploys. Keys ignore case. - Send it a value with a link (below). Until the first one arrives the meter says it’s waiting for a value.
Parameters
| Parameter | What it does |
|---|---|
key | Which meter. Required. Case doesn’t matter. |
value | The number. Required. The first number in the text is used, so value=42%25 works. |
min, max | The range, so gauges and bars fill correctly. Default 0 to 100. |
label | Text for the meter’s label. |
unit | Shown after the number, like cups. Use %25 (an encoded %) for a percentage. |
formatted | Your own text, shown instead of the number. The value still drives colors and alerts. |
Multimeter remembers the last value for each key, across restarts. Encode spaces as %20.
Link builder
Link
multimeter://set?key=deploys&value=42&max=50Terminal or any script
open -g "multimeter://set?key=deploys&value=42&max=50"Nothing you type here leaves your browser.
Recipes
From Terminal or any shell script. -g keeps Multimeter in the background so your focus doesn’t jump:
Terminal
open -g "multimeter://set?key=coffee&value=3&max=5&label=COFFEE"A small shell function for your ~/.zshrc:
~/.zshrc
mm() { open -g "multimeter://set?key=$1&value=$2"; }
# mm deploys 42Count uncommitted files after every commit, from a git hook:
.git/hooks/post-commit (make it executable)
#!/bin/sh
n=$(git status --porcelain | wc -l | tr -d ' ')
open -g "multimeter://set?key=dirty&value=$n&label=DIRTY"From Shortcuts: add a URL action with your link, then Open URLs. Run it from the menu bar, a keyboard shortcut or an automation.
From a Raycast script command: any bash script can run the same open -g line.
From Python and Node:
Python
import subprocess
subprocess.run(["open", "-g", "multimeter://set?key=queue&value=17&max=100"])Node or Bun
import { spawnSync } from "node:child_process"
spawnSync("open", ["-g", "multimeter://set?key=queue&value=17&max=100"])Check it worked
Run the Terminal line above with your key. The meter should change within a second, and its menu should show the new value.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| The meter says to give it a key | The Sent Value meter has no key yet. | Set one in Customize This Meter…, the same word you use in key= in the link. |
| The meter keeps waiting for a value | No link with that key has arrived since the meter was set up, or the keys differ. | Check the spelling of key= against the meter. Case doesn’t matter, spelling does. |
| macOS asks which app to open the link with, or nothing happens | Multimeter isn’t installed in /Applications or hasn’t been opened yet. | Open Multimeter once, then try again. |
| Spaces in the label show up as plus signs | The link encoded spaces as +. | Use %20 for spaces. The link builder above does this for you. |