Processor
NOMINAL0%CPU 0%GPU 0%Load avg 0.00
COMING SOON First public release is on its way →
Your Mac’s vitals,
Your Mac’s vitals,
in your menu bar.
CPU, memory, disk, network, battery, GPU, temps and fans — live in the menu bar, with a card dashboard you can rearrange, expand, and put on your desktop. Everything stays on your Mac.
No accounts
No in-app analytics
History off by default
Native SwiftUI
Free for personal use
Live demo
Take the dashboard for a spin.
A simulation of Specto running right here in your browser. Pick a workload and watch every card react — then scrub the charts, link them, or rearrange the board.
1Pick a workload
2Hover a chart to scrub
3Tap a vital to jump to its card
4Edit to drag cards around
SPECTO
OK
UPTIME 00:00
Simulate
Mac Weather
Calm
Loads are light and there’s plenty of headroom.
CPUlight
RAMopen
Heatcool
Network & Disk
0 MB/sDown 0Up 0Disk read/write 0 MB/sSession 0 MB
Memory
LOW8.3 / 16 GB
AppWiredCompressed
Top Processes
Temps & Fans
Fan idle
Battery
0 W86%On battery9h 40m left
CPU is running hotAbove 80% for 3 seconds.
Simulated data · nothing is read from your device
Features
Every sensor you need. Nothing you don’t.
Glance at the menu bar, open the board when something looks off, and get straight to the card — or the app — that explains it.
Menu bar, your way
One compact strip or separate sensors, with optional sparklines and smart hide. Start from Compact, Detailed, or Custom profiles, and pick which drive the disk reading follows.
Cards you can move
Drag, collapse, hide, or switch half and full width in a calm Edit mode. Add Top Apps Today, Disk Activity, Battery Power, Network Quality, System, or Alert History when you want them.
Expanded HUD
Expand opens a wide board with a vitals strip on top. Tap CPU, GPU, Memory, Disk, Network, or Battery to jump to its card.
Linked timeline
Link cards into one 5m / 1h / 6h window. One crosshair scrubs every chart, so you see CPU, network, and disk at the same instant.
Mac Weather
A one-word read on your machine’s climate — Calm, Building, Storm — plus Pressure Map, Session Receipt, and Personal Bests.
Temps & Fans
Package temperatures and fan RPM straight from the sensors. Fanless Macs show temps only. CPU picks up a thermal badge when macOS isn’t at Nominal.
Alerts you can act on
Threshold colours and notifications that open the right card, Activity Monitor, or Disk Utility. Cooldowns, Snooze, and battery guards included.
Every drive, its own card
Turn any volume into a card that keeps its place while unplugged. Open, reveal, eject, or launch Disk Utility from the row.
Light on the Mac
Adaptive sampling pauses GPU, process, and volume work whenever nothing on screen needs it. Specto measures your Mac without becoming the thing on the chart.
Keyboard & Shortcuts
⌥⌘S toggles Specto, ⌘1 / ⌘2 switch tabs, Esc closes. App Intents expose CPU, memory, battery, and network stats to Shortcuts and Siri.
Dashboard
Fits the popover. Expands when you need room.
The menu popover and the expanded window each keep their own layout, so the quick glance stays small and the deep dive stays wide.
History you opt into
Network and per-app Resource History are off until you turn them on. When they’re on, they stay on this Mac and prune themselves after 30 days.
- See who used your bandwidth today, and when
- Run an on-demand Network Quality check for latency and jitter
- Export to CSV — to a file you choose, nowhere else
- Turn it off and the file is cleared
Customize
Glass or Dark. Accent yours.
Settings is one searchable list with jump chips for Menu Bar, Desktop Widgets, Dashboard, History, and Health — find the switch, flip it, done.
Glass
Translucent panels that follow macOS Light and Dark.
Dark
Solid deep-dark panels for high-contrast setups and late nights.
Density & profiles
Start from a Quiet, Balanced, or Detailed profile, then set card density from Compact to Detailed. Auto-fit keeps the popover tidy on small screens.
QuietBalancedDetailed
Privacy
It runs on your Mac. And stays there.
No accounts, no in-app analytics, no data sold. Here is everything that can leave your Mac, and when.
Local by default
CPU, memory, volumes, speeds, battery, and processes are read on device for display — never uploaded as telemetry.
History is optional
Off by default. Stored under Application Support, auto-pruned after 30 days, and cleared when you turn it off. Personal Bests reset from their card.
Wi‑Fi name stays local
Your SSID may appear on screen and in the local widget snapshot. It is never written to history files or sent to a server.
You choose outbound
Public IP lookup (ipapi.co) is off by default. Network Quality’s five Cloudflare probes only run when you press Run Check.
What can leave your Mac: Public IP refresh and Network Quality, only when you start them; and Sparkle’s update check against specto.biz/appcast.xml (about once a day) in released builds.
Progress
Built steadily, tested privately.
Specto has been in private testing since July. Here’s what has landed most recently on the way to the first public release.
Sep 2026 Latest
Expanded dashboard HUD
Expand opens a dedicated window: vitals strip across the top, wide card grid below. Tap a vital to focus its card; GPU tile and mini sparklines; clearer Link vs Expand.
Aug 2026
Linked timeline in the popover
Link cards into one shared time window with a synced crosshair, unlink all from a chip, and scrub Disk Activity alongside everything else.
Aug 2026
Live widgets & one Settings list
Desktop widgets reliably get live data, leftover widget placements render again, Settings becomes one searchable list, and App Intents arrive for Shortcuts.
Jul 2026
Layouts, insights & widgets
Mac Weather and insight cards, Temps & Fans, Auto-fit, per-drive cards, actionable alerts, CSV export, Sparkle updates, and Glass that follows macOS Light/Dark.
FAQ
Good questions.
When can I get Specto?
Soon. Specto is in private testing and public downloads aren’t available yet. There is nothing to install from this site until launch — anything claiming to be a Specto download before then isn’t from us.
Will Specto be free?
Yes — it’s planned to be free for personal, non-commercial use. No account, no trial, no in-app purchases.
Which Macs will it run on?
Any Mac on macOS 14 Sonoma or later — Apple silicon and Intel. Temps & Fans shows fan speeds only on Macs that have fans.
Will macOS let me open it?
Yes. Public builds will be signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so it opens without security prompts.
How will updates work?
Released builds will use Sparkle: choose Check for Updates… or let it check about once a day. Updates are verified with an EdDSA signature before installing.
Will it be on the Mac App Store?
That’s on the roadmap. Features like Temps & Fans and Force Quit need access the App Sandbox doesn’t allow, so the full app will ship directly from specto.biz first.
How will the desktop widget work?
Launch Specto once, then right-click your desktop → Edit Widgets → search “Specto”. Right-click the placed widget → Edit Widget to pick CPU, Memory, Overview, and more. If a widget looks stuck, Settings → Desktop Widgets → Fix Widgets refreshes it.
Specto for macOS
Coming soon to your menu bar.
Specto is in private testing. Public downloads aren’t available yet — the first release will be announced right here.
Coming soon
Explore features
Planned: macOS 14 Sonoma or later · Apple silicon & Intel · Free for personal use