Reff puts time-synced Spotify lyrics on your MacBook Touch Bar. It sits in the Control Strip, so it stays there no matter which app you're in — tap it, and the current line follows along with whatever's playing.
It's a menu bar app with no window and no Dock icon. No account, no sign-in, nothing to configure.
Free and open source. You build it yourself — takes about a minute.
Requirements
-
A Mac with a Touch Bar 2016–2023 models
-
macOS 12 or later Monterey and up
-
Spotify desktop app not the web player
Apple dropped the Touch Bar from the 14″ and 16″ MacBook Pro in 2021, and the last Touch Bar model was discontinued in 2023. If your Mac has function keys, Reff has nowhere to draw.
Installing
-
1
Open Terminal — press
⌘ Space, type
Terminal, press Enter. -
2
Paste this and press Enter to get Apple's build tools. If it
says they're already installed, carry on.
xcode-select --install -
3
Paste this and press Enter. It downloads the code, builds the
app, and launches it — about a minute.
git clone https://github.com/cehaaa/reff.git ~/reff && cd ~/reff && ./scripts/build-app.sh && cp -R dist/Reff.app /Applications/ && open /Applications/Reff.app - 4 macOS asks to let Reff control Spotify. Click OK — that's how it knows what's playing.
- 5 Play something, then tap the R in the Control Strip on the right of your Touch Bar.
Because you build it on your own Mac, macOS doesn't flag it as coming from an unidentified developer — there's no security warning to click through.
How it works
-
Reads Spotify locally AppleScript
-
Fetches synced lyrics lrclib.net
-
Lives in the Control Strip always visible
Track name, artist, and duration are sent to lrclib.net to look up lyrics. Nothing else leaves your Mac — no account, no analytics, no listening history.