FanPilot
0GitHub

Fan speed,on two keys.

Open-source fan control for Apple Silicon. fn F5 makes the fans faster, fn F4 slower, one step per press.

Get FanPilotWatch the film

For Apple Silicon Macs on macOS 14 or later. Source on GitHub.

 
slower
faster

Press fn F5 on your Mac, or click a key. Hold ⇧ for Automatic and the next profile.

FinderFileEditViewGoWindowHelp
Wed 14 Oct  9:41
Workload
CPU 44.0 °CFans 0 RPM
Fan sound

This Mac is live. It follows the same rules as the app, right in your browser, with two fans modeled on a MacBook Pro with M5 Pro.

See it in 35 seconds.

The launch film. Turn your sound on.

On-screen text: Your Mac runs hot. And you can't do anything about it. Until now. FanPilot. Fan control for Apple Silicon. On your keyboard. Faster. Slower. One key back to auto. Profiles for every mood. Draw the curve. Fans follow. Returns to auto on quit. Never below SMC minimum. Signed helper, XPC-verified. Cool. Quiet. Yours. FanPilot. Take the controls.

Four shortcuts. No permissions.

No Accessibility or Input Monitoring prompts to approve. F4 and F5 still open Spotlight and Dictation; FanPilot only answers when you hold fn.

The lit keys work. Click them, or press fn F5 on your own keyboard.

AutomaticFans stopped at idle
Step

Five profiles built in. Add your own.

A profile sets each fan to Automatic, a fixed share of its range, or a temperature curve. Pick one from the menu, press fn ⇧F5 to step through them, or save the speed you're on as a new one.

Automatic

Automatic

macOS runs the fans with its own thermal management. On the M5 Pro they stop completely at idle.

30 °C50 °C70 °C90 °C
Now: 44 °C

Quiet

CPU average 60–90 °C

Fans stay quiet until the chip averages 60 °C, then ramp to full speed at 90 °C.

30 °C50 °C70 °C90 °C
Now: 44 °C

Balanced

CPU average 50–80 °C

Starts at 50 °C average and reaches full speed at 80 °C.

30 °C50 °C70 °C90 °C
Now: 44 °C

Performance

CPU hottest 45–75 °C

Follows the hottest part of the chip instead of the average, from 45 °C to full speed at 75 °C.

30 °C50 °C70 °C90 °C
Now: 44 °C

Full Speed

Fixed 100%

Both fans held at 7,826 RPM, the top of their range, until you change it.

30 °C50 °C70 °C90 °C
Now: 44 °C

Draw the curve. Fans follow.

Choose where the fans start ramping and where they reach full speed. FanPilot spins them up quickly when things heat up and eases them down gently as they cool, so you don't hear them hunting up and down.

FanPilot Profiles
CustomCPU average 50–80 °C
30°40°50°60°70°80°90°100°2,3173,6945,0726,4497,8260%25%50%75%100%CPU average, °C44 °C50 °C80 °C
Last 60 secondsCurve asks for Fans get
Workload

It always hands the fans back.

Whatever happens, macOS gets the fans back. The background helper can change fan speed and nothing else. Try each case and watch the fans.

  • You quit

    FanPilot hands both fans back to macOS before it closes.

  • Your Mac sleeps

    Fans go back to automatic before sleep, and FanPilot picks up again a few seconds after you wake it.

  • The app crashes

    A small background helper notices and resets the fans on its own.

  • Macs Fan Control opens

    FanPilot steps aside while it runs, so the two apps never fight over the fans.

  • You ask for 0%

    The slowest FanPilot will go is the minimum speed Apple set for your fans. Never off.

Get FanPilot.

Let your coding agent do it. Copy the prompt into Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or any agent that can run terminal commands. It checks your Mac, builds and installs FanPilot, and tells you whenever something needs you, like approving FanPilot in System Settings.

notvasub/fanpilot

Needs an Apple Silicon Mac with fans, macOS 14 or later, and Xcode 16. Prefer doing it by hand? The manual steps are in the README.

Install promptPaste into your agent

Install FanPilot (https://github.com/notvasub/fanpilot), an open-source menu-bar fan controller for Apple Silicon Macs, on this Mac. Run each step in the terminal, check its output, and stop to tell me if anything fails. Do not use sudo.

1. Preflight checks. Stop and explain if any fail:

- `uname -m` must print `arm64` (Apple Silicon).

- `sw_vers -productVersion` must be 14.0 or later.

- `sysctl -n hw.model` must not be a MacBook Air (fanless; nothing to control).

- `swift --version` must work and report Swift 6 or later. If it doesn't, tell me to install Xcode 16+ from the App Store, open it once, then rerun this prompt.

2. Clone the repo into ~/fanpilot (if that folder already exists and is this repo, `git pull` instead):

git clone https://github.com/notvasub/fanpilot.git ~/fanpilot

cd ~/fanpilot

3. Run the tests: `swift test`. All tests must pass before continuing.

4. Check for a code-signing identity: `security find-identity -v -p codesigning`.

- If an "Apple Development" or "Developer ID Application" identity is listed, continue.

- If none is listed, tell me that the build will be ad-hoc signed (works, but the helper must be reinstalled after every rebuild) and that I can get a free identity in Xcode → Settings → Accounts → Manage Certificates → + → Apple Development. Then continue with ad-hoc signing.

5. Build, sign and install the app to /Applications:

scripts/build-app.sh --install

Confirm the output ends with "Installed /Applications/FanPilot.app".

6. If Macs Fan Control is running (`pgrep -x "Macs Fan Control"`), tell me to quit it. FanPilot pauses fan control while it runs.

7. Register the root helper:

/Applications/FanPilot.app/Contents/MacOS/FanPilot --install-helper This opens System Settings → General → Login Items. Tell me to turn on "FanPilot" under "Allow in the Background" (it asks for my admin password), and wait for me to say I've done it.

8. Verify: /Applications/FanPilot.app/Contents/MacOS/FanPilot --helper-status must print "helper: enabled". If it says "requires approval", repeat step 7's instructions.

9. Launch the app: open /Applications/FanPilot.app

10. Finish by telling me:

- A fan icon is now in the menu bar; click it for temperatures, RPM and profiles.

- fn F5 = faster, fn F4 = slower, fn ⇧F4 = back to Automatic, fn ⇧F5 = next profile.

- To uninstall: /Applications/FanPilot.app/Contents/MacOS/FanPilot --uninstall-helper then rm -rf /Applications/FanPilot.app

Automatic
Automatic