KIN

KIN is a portable lightweight tray utility which sends realtime data from your system to USB HID devices. It can be integrated with keyboards, macro pads and other HID to make them more intelligent.

Showcase: Here's a video showcasing what KIN looks like in action: https://youtu.be/6Xd1AGg_jqw?si=QLRqIY1OVC_iMn7x

To be exact the video showcases my hackpad and how I've integrated it with KIN. It uses KIN in order to have per-application macros and to display system information on the screen

Currently supported payloads are:

Payload	Description	Default refresh rate
volume	System audio volume (0-100)	200ms
active_app	Name of the currently focused application	1000ms

Installation

Platform support

🟢 Strong Support - Payload supported through native APIs
🟡 Weak Support - Payload supported through CLIs
🔴 No Support - Payload not supported on platform

OS	Volume	Active app
macOS	🟢 CoreAudio	🟢 CoreGraphics
Windows	🟢 Windows Core Audio	🟢 Win32 API
Linux	🟡 wpctl & pactl	🟡 hyprctl

Install from release

Download the appropriate binary for your operating system from the Releases page, unzip the archive, and place the binary wherever you'd like.

Note: prebuilt versions for linux-arm64 and windows-arm64 are untested and may not work, but they should.

Install from source

The only prerequisite to install from source is Go. To install Go follow the directions found at https://go.dev/doc/install or install through your preferred package manager.

git clone https://github.com/Protract-123/KIN.git

Windows

go build -ldflags="-s -w -H=windowsgui" -trimpath .

macOS/Linux

go build -ldflags="-s -w" -trimpath .

Running the commands above will output a KIN (or KIN.exe) binary in the repository directory, which can then be moved anywhere.

Usage

After running the binary, KIN will appear in the system tray and begin sending data to any configured devices connected to the system.

From the tray menu you can :-

• See the connection status of all configured devices
• Open the config folder
• Quit KIN

Note: On Linux you may need to configure your system in order to allow information to be sent to the configured HID devices.

Configuration

KIN exposes a TOML configuration file which allows you to change application behavior. Its location depends on your operating system, and can be directly opened through the tray item.

OS	PATH
Windows	%AppData%\KIN\config.toml
macOS	~/Library/Application\ Support/KIN/config.toml
Linux	$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/KIN/config.toml

Sample Configuration

[devices]
  [devices.default]
    vendor_id = "0xFEED"
    product_id = "0x4020"
    usage_page = "0xFF60"
    usage = "0x61"
    report_length = 32
    authorized_payloads = ["volume", "active_app"]

[payloads]
  [payloads.active_app]
    refresh_rate = "1s"
    enabled = true
  [payloads.volume]
    refresh_rate = "200ms"
    enabled = true

Devices

Each entry under [devices] represents a USB HID device that KIN will try to connect to. [devices.default] represents a device which is named "default".

To find an HID device's information you can use "System Information" on macOS, "Device Manager" on Windows, and "lsusb" on linux.

Field	Description
vendor_id	USB vendor ID (hex)
product_id	USB product ID (hex)
usage_page	HID usage page (hex)
usage	HID usage (hex)
report_length	HID report length in bytes
authorized_payloads	Which payloads this device should receive

Payloads

Each entry under [payloads] controls the behavior of a data source. [payloads.active_app] represents the configuration for the payload active_app. A list of payloads can be found at the top of this README.

Field	Description
refresh_rate	How often to send data (requires unit)
enabled	Set to false to disable this payload entirely

HID Report Format

KIN sends data using the following report structure:

Byte 0-2 : KIN identifier (0x10, 0xFF, 0x5B)
Byte 3   : Payload type (1 = active_app, 2 = volume)
Byte 4+  : Null-terminated UTF-8 string payload

License

KIN is released under the MIT License
Third party licenses can be found in the Licenses directory.