Lokasta's Fader 1.7.1

Chrome now expands into separate volume, mute and reset controls for compatible tabs playing HTML audio/video, without an extension. Unresponsive tabs no longer make the entire list fail.

Chrome tabs

• Sleeping or discarded Chrome tabs no longer make the entire list fail. Each media command has its own deadline, unresponsive tabs back off for 15 seconds, and pending controls survive a temporary timeout.
• Expand Google Chrome to control compatible playing audio/video tabs separately, with a 0-100% slider, mute and reset for each tab. Paused, ended, site-muted and video-only players are excluded; a tab muted by Fader stays listed while its player runs so it can be unmuted.
• Opt in from the Chrome row or the gear menu. Allow Automation access to Chrome and enable Chrome's View > Developer > Allow JavaScript from Apple Events. No extension, network connection or microphone access is used.
• Tab controls scale each player's existing volume and preserve its mute setting. Reset, disabling the feature and quitting Fader restore the player's settings. A watchdog also restores them after loss of contact (Chrome can delay timers in background tabs).
• Web Audio, inaccessible cross-origin frames and other unsupported sources remain on Chrome's main slider. Tab titles, URLs and adjustments stay in memory and are not saved across browser sessions.
• Snapshots and unit-test hosts no longer remap keys, request permissions, start microphone meters or control live Chrome tabs. --snapshot-chrome-tabs supplies a deterministic panel fixture.
• CI exercises playback filtering, mute, volume scaling, navigation and restoration against offline media fixtures in an isolated Chromium instance.

Project

• Release packages include SHA-256 checksums. Publishing requires a clean checkout and a pushed version tag at the release commit, and uploads notes from the versioned changelog.
• CI (.github/workflows/ci.yml): every push to main and every pull request builds the app and runs the unit tests on macOS 26 with Xcode 26, ad-hoc signed, and fails if any tracked file contains an em dash.
• CONTRIBUTING.md, issue forms (bug report with macOS/Fader version, output device and a logs command; feature request), a pull request template with the checklist, and Dependabot for GitHub Actions. README shows the CI badge.

Website

• Chrome tab controls and the optional Automation permission are documented on the landing page and in the README, with an updated panel example.
• The hero screenshot is now an interactive HTML copy of the panel: draggable sliders with the 100% detent, mute buttons, and live meters shaped per app (music, call, game, video). With reduced motion the meters hold steady levels that still follow volume and mute.
• "Why" section compares a faithful Control Center (Sound module highlighted) with a compact Fader panel, instead of abstract sliders.
• Features are a bento grid where each tile shows its feature: the 0-200% sweep, live meters, the device menu, keycaps, the idle CPU number, restored volumes, helper-to-app names and "0 network requests".
• --snapshot renders at 3x; the README screenshot is sharp on Retina screens. The social card uses a 3x render of the interactive panel.

Validation

25 Swift tests and 15 offline browser checks passed locally and in CI. Volume, mute and reset were also verified through the installed Fader panel in a live Chrome test tab.

Install

Download LokastasFader.dmg, open it and drag Fader into Applications. Requires macOS 15+. Signed with Developer ID and notarized by Apple. To update, replace the existing app; your app volumes and preferences are kept.

Chrome tab controls are optional: allow Fader to automate Chrome, enable View > Developer > Allow JavaScript from Apple Events in Chrome, then enable tab controls in Fader. Web Audio and unsupported players use Chrome's main slider.

Checksums are available in SHA256SUMS.

Full history: CHANGELOG.md

Lokasta's Fader 1.6.1

Website / Fix

• Landing page in site/ (single static HTML, no JavaScript), deployed to GitHub Pages by .github/workflows/pages.yml. Social card generated by scripts/make-og-image.swift.
• release.sh also uploads a stable LokastasFader.dmg, so releases/latest/download/LokastasFader.dmg always serves the newest build. PUBLISH=1 creates the GitHub release.
• The Dictation key (F5) is restored when Fader quits.

Install

Download LokastasFader.dmg, open it and drag Fader into Applications. Requires macOS 15+. Signed with Developer ID and notarized by Apple.

Full history: CHANGELOG.md