Keyboard Cleaning Mode for Mac
LUCE is a lightweight macOS menu bar utility that lets you safely clean your keyboard without triggering accidental key presses or system shortcuts. One click locks the keyboard entirely — and one click brings it back.
“In Italian, LUCE translates to ‘light’ or ‘illumination.’ Ferrari chose this name to symbolize a ‘new dawn’ for the company and their forward-looking multi-energy strategy, rather than purely referencing the car’s weight.” — Ferrari, 2026
LUCEvideo.mp4
- Keyboard Cleaning Mode — Locks all keyboard input at the system level using a CGEvent tap, blocking key-down, key-up, modifier flags, and media keys (brightness, volume, play/pause).
- Brightness Safety Check — Before locking, LUCE reads the current display brightness. If it is below 20%, a persistent warning is shown prompting you to raise it first — so you can always see the Unlock button while cleaning.
- Floating Panel — A compact, always-on-top panel that anchors to the top edge of your screen and stays accessible during keyboard lock. Dismisses with Escape when unlocked.
- Crash-Safe Unlock — An
atexithandler anddeinitpath both callemergencyUnlock, ensuring the keyboard is always restored even on unexpected termination. - Theme Customisation — Choose from four ambient background themes: Default, Rare Jade, Deep Ocean, and Floral.
- Menu Bar Icon Selection — Pick from a set of SF Symbols to match your setup.
- Automatic Update Check — The About panel checks GitHub Releases for newer versions and links directly to the download page when one is found.
- Minimal footprint — Pure Swift/SwiftUI, no third-party dependencies, no background services.
- macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later
- Xcode 15 or later (to build from source)
- Accessibility permission — required for the CGEvent tap that blocks keyboard input. LUCE will prompt for this automatically.
Download the latest .dmg from the Releases page, open it, and drag LUCE to your Applications folder.
If macOS blocks the app on first launch, run the following in Terminal after installation:
xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine /Applications/LUCE.appThen open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility and enable LUCE.
- Click the LUCE icon in your menu bar.
- Click Lock Keyboard — the panel switches to Locked state and all keyboard input is blocked.
- Clean your keyboard.
- Click Unlock (mouse or trackpad only) to restore normal input.
The panel can be dismissed at any time by pressing Escape (when unlocked) or by clicking the menu bar icon again.
LUCE checks your screen brightness when you attempt to lock. If it is below 20%, locking is blocked and a warning is displayed:
Screen brightness is at X%. Increase to at least 20% before locking so you can see the Unlock button.
Raise brightness using your trackpad or the Control Centre, then click Lock Keyboard again.
The About panel exposes four ambient themes that apply a subtle animated radial glow to the panel background:
| Theme | Accent |
|---|---|
| Default | System blue |
| Rare Jade | Teal green |
| Deep Ocean | Electric blue |
| Floral | Magenta pink |
Theme preference is saved to UserDefaults and restored on next launch.
- Swift 5.9+
- SwiftUI — UI layer
- AppKit / NSPanel — Floating panel, status bar item
- CoreGraphics — CGEvent tap for keyboard blocking
- IOKit / DisplayServices — Brightness reading (Apple Silicon + Intel)
- ApplicationServices — Accessibility permission checks
No third-party packages or Swift Package Manager dependencies.
LUCE/
├── Assets.xcassets/ # App icon and asset catalog
├── FloatingPanel.swift # NSPanel subclass — floating, borderless, top-edge-anchored
├── LUCEApp.swift # App entry point, AppDelegate, status bar setup
├── LUCEClient.swift # Core logic — keyboard lock, brightness, permissions
├── LUCETheme.swift # Theme definitions and ambient background view
└── LUCEView.swift # SwiftUI views — main, locked, about panels
git clone https://github.com/arinltte/LUCE.git
cd LUCE
open LUCE.xcodeprojBuild and run the LUCE scheme in Xcode. No dependency resolution required — there are no external packages.
LUCE does not collect, transmit, or log any data.
| Location | Contents |
|---|---|
~/Library/Preferences/com.arinltte.LUCE.plist |
Theme and menu bar icon preference |
To uninstall completely:
rm -rf /Applications/LUCE.app
rm -f ~/Library/Preferences/com.arinltte.LUCE.plist
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/com.arinltte.LUCE 2>/dev/null
rm -rf ~/Library/Saved\ Application\ State/com.arinltte.LUCE.savedState 2>/dev/nullDistributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.
Developed by arinltte · cjshen00@gmail.com