The software your keyboard should have shipped with.

ShiftWire shows your real QMK/VIA keymap, switches layers with the app in focus, and puts editor state on supported boards with live per-key control.

Coming to MacOS

You shouldn't need to memorize your keyboard.

Layers are useful right up until you forget what you put on them. Then the custom board you spent hours setting up becomes a nicer way to type the defaults.

ShiftWire renders your actual layout and keeps the map visible while you edit it. Edits stay in preview until you apply them.

Cursor opens. Your coding layer turns on.

Cursor gets one layer. The terminal gets another. Figma gets a third. ShiftWire watches which app is in focus and activates the layer you assigned to it.

App switching reads the application's bundle identifier. No window titles, document names, or keystrokes.

Warnings are amber. Staged changes are green.

On boards with live per-key control, the key you use to jump to a warning will light amber when the active TypeScript file has one. When the active repository has staged changes and no merge conflict, the key you use to commit will light green.

This will require the ShiftWire extension for Cursor. It will send ShiftWire the current language, diagnostic counts and severity, and whether Git has staged changes. No source code, file names, paths, repository names, diagnostic text, or keystrokes. Those signals will stay on your Mac.

Hold the layer key. See the map.

Mapped keys will light by category, so the active layer reads like a legend on the board. ShiftWire will use the strongest treatment the firmware exposes, including dimming unused keys on boards that support it.

Your keyboard becomes the reference for your keyboard, on the hardware, where you're already looking.

VIA keymaps do not guarantee live lighting.

ShiftWire works over USB on macOS 13 and later. A supported board may still be keymap-only. ShiftWire lists keymap support and live per-key lighting separately, because semantic lighting requires firmware that accepts host-controlled per-key RGB.

You see what the connected board supports before you write anything to it.

Connection: USB on macOS 13+
Keymaps: Supported QMK/VIA boards
App layers: Boards with writable layer control
Semantic lighting: Requires host-controlled per-key RGB

$49. Once.

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