Native macOS app for managing the JACK audio server — from your menu bar or as a standard window.
- Start / stop jackd with full custom configuration (sample rate, buffer size, I/O device, hog mode, clock drift, channel selection)
- Real-time display of the generated command, with a one-click copy button
- Automatic detection of the Jack executable name (
jackdorjackdmp) - Automatic switch between Configuration and Patchbay views based on Jack state
- Full session capture: Jack parameters, clients, connections, node positions
- Smart loading: full command comparison (all parameters, channel selection), restarts Jack only if necessary
- Graceful shutdown of all clients (GUI and CLI) before switching studios
- Automatic save and relaunch of CLI clients (full command with arguments)
- Visual editor for Jack client connections
- Node drag & drop, group drag (move selected clients together)
- Node collapse/expand, meta-cables
- Connect-All: bulk connection between two clients with canvas preview
- Automatic layout (Sugiyama / tidy algorithm)
- Multi-selection (Shift+click, ⌘A), selection overlay
- Out-of-view node indicators, zoom reset, haptic feedback
- Play / Pause / Stop / Seek
- BBT, HMS, Frames display
- Timebase master, BPM
- Menu bar mode and standard window mode
- Native macOS menus: View ⌘1/⌘2, Help with documentation link, custom About panel
- Automatic Jack detection at launch and on every app reactivation
- Jack version check: green ✓ badge if up to date, clickable amber ↑ badge if update available
- Aggregate warning sheet: when the device selection will cause Jack to silently create an aggregate, a modal shows a patchbay-accurate preview of the resulting channel layout before Jack starts — with a "don't show again" option per device combination
- Installation helper modal when Jack is absent (Homebrew or .pkg, with copyable command)
- 🇫🇷 French · 🇬🇧 English · 🇩🇪 German · 🇮🇹 Italian · 🇪🇸 Spanish — want to add yours? See
i18n/
Full documentation at zinc75.github.io/JackMate.
- macOS 15.0 (Sequoia) or later — Intel and Apple Silicon
- JACK2 installed (
/usr/local/lib/libjack.dylibor/opt/homebrew/lib/libjack.dylib)
Head to the Releases page, download the latest JackMate-x.x.x-Installer.dmg, and drag JackMate to your Applications folder.
Note: The app is not yet notarized. On first launch, macOS may block it.
Option 1 — Terminal (recommended):
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/JackMate.appOption 2 — System Settings (macOS Ventura and later): Open System Settings › Privacy & Security, scroll down, click "Open Anyway". (Note: "Right-click → Open" no longer works on macOS Sequoia and later.)
Notarization requires a paid Apple Developer account ($99/year). If you find JackMate useful, buying me a coffee helps cover that cost — and gets everyone a smoother install experience.
See src/ for full build instructions, tech stack, and project structure.
Contributions are welcome:
- Localization — Copy
i18n/Localizable_template.strings, translate it, and open a pull request. Seei18n/for the full guide. - Bug reports — open an issue with your macOS version, JACK version, and steps to reproduce.
- Pull requests — please open an issue first to discuss significant changes.
JackMate is free and open source. If it saves you time or fits into your workflow, consider buying me a coffee.
Contributions go toward the Apple Developer account ($99/year) required to notarize the app — which would remove the Gatekeeper warning on first launch and make installation seamless for everyone.
JackMate source code is released under the MIT License.
JackMate dynamically loads libjack (JACK2) at runtime via dlopen. JACK2 is distributed under the LGPL 2.1 license. libjack is not bundled with JackMate; it must be installed separately by the user.
