actuallymentor/battery v2.0.0-beta.1

Battery 2.0.0-beta.1 (native rewrite, beta)

on GitHub

Beta. Battery v2 is a ground-up native rewrite: a small SwiftUI menu bar app plus a root helper, replacing v1's shell scripts and Electron app. It is not the default download yet, v1.4.0 stays the stable release. Please try it and report what you see.

Install

1. Download Battery-2.0.0-beta.1-mac-arm64.dmg below, drag Battery to Applications, open it.
2. Click Enable helper and approve Battery in System Settings → General → Login Items & Extensions (once).
3. Switch on the charge limit. The default is 80%, change it in Settings → Charging.

Apple Silicon, macOS 14 or newer. Coming from v1? The first launch offers to remove v1's leftovers (/usr/local/bin/battery, sudoers entry, launch agent).

What's new

• No sudoers, no password prompts, no visudo. A signed, notarized helper registered through macOS (SMAppService) does the SMC work. It holds the limit at boot, before login.
• Works on macOS 15 and 26 (Tahoe): the charge-control method is picked by probing the Mac's SMC keys (CHTE, CH0B/CH0C, firmware bfD0/bfE0/bfF0, adapter cut), not by OS version. Writes are verified; if your Mac ignores the limit, the app says so.
• Menu bar: battery icon with continuous fill, optional percentage, status line in the menu ("Holding at limit", "On battery · 2:10 left").
• Allow discharge (on by default): above the limit while plugged in, run on battery down to the limit. Paused while the lid is closed (clamshell mode needs the adapter).
• Charge to 100%, Discharge, Calibrate, a scheduled top-off to 100%, low-battery alert, launch at login.
• CLI for scripts: battery status, battery maintain 80, battery maintain 70-80, battery charging on|off, battery logs, battery probe (turn it on in Settings → Helper).
• Sleep/wake and plug/unplug re-check the limit; the helper repairs itself if macOS leaves it dead after an app replace.

Full list: CHANGELOG.

Known limits

• No automatic updates for betas. Grab new betas from this Releases page.
• macOS 27: the native macOS charge limit is not used yet.
• Intel Macs are not supported.

Reporting

Please open an issue with the v2 details:

battery version
battery status
battery probe
battery logs | tail -50

plus your Mac model and macOS version. Most useful: does the limit hold (charging stops at the limit and stays stopped, also after sleep and reboot)?

Going back to v1

Settings → Helper → Uninstall Battery… (restores normal charging, removes the helper), drag Battery to the Trash, then install v1.4.0.