Jaster

Bring mechanical typing sounds to your native keyboard.

Jaster is a lightweight CLI application that adds realistic mechanical typing sounds to any keyboard on Linux, macOS and Windows, providing an immersive typing experience with minimal setup.

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Note

Current Platform Support

Jaster supports Linux, macOS and Windows.

Installation

Linux

Copy and paste the following commands into your terminal:

# Download and install Jaster
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JoeCelaster/Jaster/main/install.sh | bash

# Allow your user to access keyboard input devices
sudo usermod -aG input $USER

# Refresh your login session so the new permission takes effect
exec su - "$USER"

# Start Jaster and enable typing sounds
jaster start

macOS

Copy and paste the following into your terminal:

# Download and install Jaster
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JoeCelaster/Jaster/main/install.sh | bash

# Start Jaster and enable typing sounds
jaster start

macOS will not let anything read the keyboard until you say so. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Input Monitoring and turn on the entry for the terminal you ran Jaster from, then quit that terminal completely (⌘Q — a new window is not enough) and reopen it.

The permission belongs to the app that launched Jaster, not to Jaster, so the switch is named after your terminal — Terminal, iTerm2, Ghostty, VS Code — and there may be no "jaster" entry in the list at all.

One universal binary covers both Apple Silicon and Intel.

Windows

Paste this into PowerShell. No administrator rights are needed — Jaster installs into your own user profile:

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JoeCelaster/Jaster/main/install.ps1 | iex

Then open a new terminal so the PATH change takes effect, and run:

jaster start

That's it. Jaster is now running, and your keyboard will produce typing sounds.

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Commands

Command	Description
jaster start	Start Jaster and enable typing sounds. Asks which sound pack to use.
jaster <sound>	Switch to a sound pack by shortcut, e.g. jaster oreo.
jaster sounds	List the installed sound packs and their shortcuts.
jaster volume	Show or set how loud typing is.
jaster stop	Stop Jaster.
jaster update	Update Jaster to the latest version.
jaster doctor	Check installation, permissions, and system status.
jaster event	Display keyboard events detected by Jaster.
jaster version	Jaster's latest version.

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Sound packs

Running jaster start asks which keyboard you want to sound like:

  Choose your keyboard sound (↑/↓ to move, enter to select)

  ❯ CherryMX Black - PBT keycaps       cherrymx-black-pbt
    CherryMX Blue - PBT keycaps        cherrymx-blue-pbt
    CherryMX Brown - PBT keycaps       cherrymx-brown-pbt
    CherryMX Red - PBT keycaps         cherrymx-red-pbt
    EG Crystal Purple                  eg-crystal-purple
    EG Oreo                            eg-oreo
    NK Cream                           nk-cream
    Topre Purple Hybrid - PBT keycaps  topre-purple-hybrid-pbt

Your choice is remembered, so the next jaster start defaults to it.

Switching sounds

Every pack has a one-word shortcut. Type it to switch immediately — Jaster restarts on the new sound, or starts if it wasn't running:

jaster oreo      # EG Oreo
jaster blue      # CherryMX Blue
jaster nkcream   # NK Cream

Shortcut	Sound pack
jaster black	CherryMX Black - PBT keycaps
jaster blue	CherryMX Blue - PBT keycaps
jaster brown	CherryMX Brown - PBT keycaps
jaster red	CherryMX Red - PBT keycaps
jaster crystal	EG Crystal Purple
jaster oreo	EG Oreo
jaster nkcream	NK Cream
jaster topre	Topre Purple Hybrid - PBT keycaps

Run jaster sounds any time to see the list with the current pack marked.

To pick a pack without the picker in a script or startup service, use the flag form instead:

jaster start --sound topre

Both forms accept the shortcut, the full id, or any unambiguous fragment of either. jaster cherry is rejected, since four packs match, and Jaster lists the candidates instead of guessing.

Every pack is levelled to the same loudness when it loads, so switching sounds changes the character of the typing, never the volume.

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Volume

60 is best for headphones. 150 is best for speakers — and 150 is where Jaster starts, so headphone users want:

jaster volume 60

🔉 ▓▓▓░░░░░░░ 60%

The rest:

jaster volume        # show the current level
jaster volume up     # ±10 per step
jaster volume down
jaster volume mute   # same as 0
jaster volume max    # 200, the ceiling

Changes apply to a running Jaster within a moment — no restart, no need to stop typing. jaster vol is a shorter alias. Loud settings stay clean: the peaks of each keypress are eased down rather than allowed to clip.

To see what is installed:

jaster sounds

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How it works

Jaster listens for keyboard input events and plays synchronized typing sounds in real time. It is designed to be lightweight, responsive, and easy to install.

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Requirements

Linux

• Audio system supported by your distribution (ALSA/PipeWire/PulseAudio)
• Permission to access /dev/input devices

macOS

• macOS 10.15 (Catalina) or later
• Apple Silicon or Intel — the installer ships one universal binary
• Input Monitoring granted to the terminal you start Jaster from
• Nothing else. Audio and key capture both use built-in system frameworks.

Windows

• Windows 10 or later
• Nothing else. Audio and key capture both use built-in Windows APIs, and the install needs no administrator rights.

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Troubleshooting

Typing sounds are not working

Verify your installation:

jaster doctor

Check whether keyboard input is being detected:

jaster event

On Linux, if no keyboards appear, ensure your user has been added to the input group and that you've refreshed your login session:

sudo usermod -aG input $USER
exec su - "$USER"

On macOS, four things are worth knowing:

• The Input Monitoring switch carries your terminal's name, not Jaster's. Grant it to every terminal you start Jaster from.
• Granting it only affects processes started afterwards, so quit the terminal with ⌘Q and reopen it. Opening a new window is not enough.
• Typing is silent in password fields and in any app using Secure Keyboard Entry (Terminal has it in its own menu). macOS shuts every event tap out of those deliberately, and there is nothing Jaster can do about it.
• The grant is tied to the exact binary, so jaster update needs you to allow it once more.

jaster doctor reports which of these is in the way.

On Windows, two things are worth knowing:

• Anti-cheat software (Vanguard, EasyAntiCheat, BattlEye) and some endpoint security agents block low-level keyboard hooks. jaster doctor tells you whether the hook can be installed.
• Keys typed into windows running as administrator are silent unless Jaster is also running elevated. That is a Windows security boundary, not a bug.

The detached daemon writes its output to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Jaster\daemon.log, which is the place to look if jaster start succeeds but nothing plays.

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Uninstall

Linux — remove the installed binary and its sounds:

sudo rm /usr/local/bin/jaster
sudo rm -rf /usr/share/jaster
rm -rf ~/.local/share/jaster

macOS — remove the installed binary and its sounds, then revoke the permission under System Settings → Privacy & Security → Input Monitoring:

sudo rm /usr/local/bin/jaster
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/share/jaster
rm -rf ~/.local/share/jaster

Windows — stop Jaster, then remove its folder and PATH entry:

jaster stop
Remove-Item -Recurse -Force "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Jaster"

Then remove %LOCALAPPDATA%\Jaster from your user PATH under Settings → System → About → Advanced system settings → Environment Variables.

Verify removal by opening a new terminal and checking that jaster is no longer found.

Contributing

Contributions are always welcome.

If you find a bug, have a feature request, or want to improve Jaster, please open an issue or submit a pull request.