Larakey

Mechanical keyboard and mouse sounds, everywhere you type.
Free and open source, for macOS, Windows and Linux. Built with Laravel and NativePHP.

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Larakey lives in your menu bar (macOS) or system tray (Windows) and plays mechanical keyboard and mouse sounds as you type and click, in every app.

Features

• 12 keyboard switch packs: Classic Mechanical, Creamy Linear, Tactile Brown, Clicky Blue, Box Jade, Buckling Spring, Low Profile, Silent Linear and four Keychron-style packs (K Red, K Brown, K Blue, Q Thock)
• 4 mouse click packs: Classic Mouse, Gaming Mouse, Heavy Click and Muted Mouse
• Per-key sounds: space, enter, backspace and modifier keys each sound different, with stabilizer rattle on the big keys
• Key release sounds and natural pitch variation, so fast typing never sounds robotic
• Global shortcut to mute and unmute: Cmd+Shift+K on macOS, Ctrl+Shift+K on Windows
• Launch at login
• Low latency: sounds are decoded once and played with the Web Audio API
• Private: Larakey only sees which kind of key was pressed, never what you type. Nothing is recorded, stored or sent anywhere.

Download

Get the latest version from the Releases page.

Platform	File
macOS (Apple Silicon: M1, M2, M3…)	Larakey-x.x.x-arm64.dmg
macOS (Intel)	Larakey-x.x.x-x64.dmg
Windows (64-bit)	Larakey-x.x.x-setup.exe
Linux: Debian, Ubuntu, Mint… (64-bit)	larakey_x.x.x_amd64.deb
Linux: Debian, Ubuntu, Mint… (ARM64)	larakey_x.x.x_arm64.deb
Linux: any distribution (64-bit)	Larakey-x.x.x-x86_64.AppImage
Linux: any distribution (ARM64)	Larakey-x.x.x-arm64.AppImage

Installation

Larakey is free and not code-signed (signing costs money every year). Your operating system will warn you the first time you open it. That warning is expected.

macOS

1. Open the .dmg and drag Larakey into Applications.

2. Open Larakey. If macOS says "Larakey can't be opened" or "Larakey is damaged", open Terminal and run:

   xattr -cr /Applications/Larakey.app

   Then open Larakey again. Alternatively, go to System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down and click Open Anyway.

3. Grant Accessibility access. Larakey needs it to hear your keyboard and mouse outside its own window. When prompted, open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility and switch Larakey on. Sounds start within a few seconds.

After updating on macOS: macOS may forget the Accessibility permission for unsigned apps. If the sounds stop after an update, select Larakey in the Accessibility list, remove it with the − button, then add it again with +.

Windows

1. Run Larakey-x.x.x-setup.exe.
2. If you see "Windows protected your PC", click More info, then Run anyway.

Linux

Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint and other Debian-based distributions (recommended):

sudo apt install ./larakey_x.x.x_amd64.deb

Any other distribution: make the AppImage executable, then run it:

chmod +x Larakey-x.x.x-x86_64.AppImage
./Larakey-x.x.x-x86_64.AppImage

On Ubuntu 24.04 and later, AppImages of Electron apps can be blocked by Ubuntu's AppArmor restrictions. If the AppImage won't start, use the .deb instead.

Wayland (the default on Ubuntu, Fedora and Debian)

Wayland doesn't let apps see keyboard and mouse input from other windows. On Wayland, Larakey reads your input devices directly instead, which needs your account to be in the input group:

sudo usermod -aG input $USER

Then log out and back in. Larakey's Settings window shows a reminder if it can't read your devices. Being in the input group lets any program you run read input devices, so only do this if you're comfortable with that. On X11 sessions, none of this is needed.

Tray icon on GNOME

GNOME hides tray icons by default. Install the AppIndicator and KStatusNotifierItem Support extension (preinstalled on Ubuntu) to see Larakey's icon. Most other desktops show it out of the box.

Usage

• Click the Larakey icon in the menu bar or system tray to:
  • turn Keyboard Sounds on or off
  • open Settings…
  • see your version and Check for Updates…
  • Quit
• Press Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + K anywhere to mute or unmute. On Linux with Wayland, this needs a desktop that supports global shortcuts (the GlobalShortcuts portal), which may ask you to allow it the first time.
• In Settings, pick a keyboard pack and a mouse pack, set the volume and choose your options: key release sounds, pitch variation, mouse sounds and launch at login. Changes apply instantly.

Updates

Choose Check for Updates… in the Larakey tray menu to see whether a newer version is out. On macOS and Linux, Larakey also checks when it starts and shows a notification once for each new version; click it to download the update.

• Windows: Larakey also checks automatically. Updates download in the background and install when you quit.
• macOS: automatic updates require a signed app. When an update is available, Download opens the Releases page; replace the app in Applications with the new one. Your settings are kept.
• Linux: the AppImage updates itself. For the .deb, Download opens the Releases page; install the new version over the old one with the same apt install command.

Development

Requirements

• PHP 8.3+ and Composer
• Node.js 22+ and npm

Setup

git clone https://github.com/codingwithrk/larakey.git
cd larakey
composer install
cp .env.example .env
php artisan key:generate
npm install
npm run build

Run

composer native:dev

On macOS, grant Accessibility access to the development Electron app when prompted.

Tests

php artisan test --compact
node --test 'nativephp/electron/src/main/larakey/**/*.test.js'

How it works

Part	Location
Settings window, tray menu, global shortcut	Laravel: app/, resources/views/
Sound engine: audio playback and Linux autostart	Electron: nativephp/electron/src/main/larakey/
Input on macOS, Windows and Linux X11: global hook (uiohook-napi)	nativephp/electron/src/main/larakey/input/uiohook.js
Input on Linux Wayland: input devices (/dev/input), read in a utility process	nativephp/electron/src/main/larakey/input/evdev-*.js
Sound pack recipes	config/larakey.php
Generated sound packs	public/sounds/keyboard/ and public/sounds/mouse/

Laravel saves settings to NativePHP's settings store. The Electron sound engine watches that store and applies changes immediately. Key events never pass through PHP, which keeps latency low.

Important: the sound engine lives inside the published NativePHP Electron project. composer update runs native:install --force --publish, which overwrites nativephp/electron. Commit your work before updating dependencies and restore nativephp/electron/src/main/larakey/, the startLarakey(app) call in nativephp/electron/src/main/index.js and the uiohook-napi dependency if they are replaced.

Sound packs

All sounds are synthesized (modal synthesis). There are no recordings, so there are no licensing concerns. To tweak a pack or add a new one, edit its recipe in config/larakey.php and regenerate:

php artisan larakey:generate-sounds

You can also add your own recorded pack: create a folder under public/sounds/keyboard/ or public/sounds/mouse/ containing WAV files and a pack.json manifest in the same format as the generated packs.

Releasing

Every push to main runs the Tests workflow (code style and the test suite). Releases are never automatic. A release is only offered when the tests pass and the version has changed, and it only goes ahead after a maintainer approves it.

1. Bump NATIVEPHP_APP_VERSION in .env.example, for example 1.0.0 → 1.1.0, and push to main.
2. Once the tests pass, the Release workflow pauses with Review deployments. Open it from the Actions tab, or from the notification email.
3. Approve to build the macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel) and Windows installers and publish them as v1.1.0, or Reject to skip.

Pushes that don't change the version never offer a release, and failing tests never offer one. Builds are unsigned.

One-time setup: go to Settings → Environments → New environment, name it release, enable Required reviewers and add yourself. The release workflow refuses to run without this protection.

To build locally instead, set GITHUB_TOKEN (with repo scope) in .env, then run php artisan native:publish mac on a Mac or php artisan native:publish win on Windows.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Read CONTRIBUTING.md for setup, coding standards and how to submit sound packs and pull requests.

Security

Please report vulnerabilities privately. See SECURITY.md. Never open a public issue for a security problem.

Disclaimer

The "Keychron-style" packs are synthesized imitations of the general sound character of those keyboards. Larakey is not affiliated with or endorsed by Keychron, and contains no Keychron recordings. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.

License

Larakey is open-source software licensed under the MIT license.