BluetoothConnector

Simple macOS CLI to connect/disconnect a Bluetooth device. I made it to easily connect my BeatsX earbuds (I thought the W1 chip would make the switch from my iPhone to my Mac seamless, but we’re not there yet, apparently). There’s probably a program that already does this but I didn’t find it.

You can download a compiled version here: https://github.com/lapfelix/BluetoothConnector/releases

If you have issues running the compiled binary (permission denied error), try running this command in Terminal:
chmod +x /path/to/BluetoothConnector

Installation

Homebrew

brew install bluetoothconnector

Mint

mint install lapfelix/BluetoothConnector

Manually

swift package update
swift build -c release
mv .build/release/BluetoothConnector /usr/local/bin/BluetoothConnector

Usage

Running

Replace 00-00-00-00-00-00 with your device’s MAC address. You can get it by alt-clicking the Bluetooth menu icon or by running BluetoothConnector without any arguments

To toggle the connection (connect/disconnect) and be notified about it

BluetoothConnector 00-00-00-00-00-00 --notify

To connect and be notified about it

BluetoothConnector --connect 00-00-00-00-00-00 --notify
BluetoothConnector -c 00-00-00-00-00-00 --notify

To disconnect

BluetoothConnector --disconnect 00-00-00-00-00-00
BluetoothConnector -d 00-00-00-00-00-00

Notification Center

You can have BluetoothConnector send a notification to say what it did (connect or disconnect), if the action succeeded or get an error description if something goes wrong

BluetoothConnector 00-00-00-00-00-00 --notify

To reduce Notification Center pollution, I’d recommend turning off “Show in Notification Center” for the Script Editor app in the Notifications system preferences:

With Automator to bind a shortcut to it (this is how I’m using it)

I included an Automator workflow service that calls BluetoothConnector from /usr/local/bin to make it easier to run BluetoothConnector with a keyboard workflow (this is how I’m using it).

To this, you will need a copy of this repo, a brew install is not enough.

1. Clone the repo.
2. In the root directory there is a file named “Connect Bluetooth Device.workflow”, click on it, accept the install prompt.
3. In settings, Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services > General and bind the Bluetooth Connect to whatever you’d like.
4. Set the MAC address, the workflow can be found in `/Users/[username]/Library/Services, open it and set your MAC address.
5. Create a link: in terminal, head over to usr/local/bin and create a link to your brew install.
   1. Something like: sudo ln -s /opt/homebrew/Cellar/bluetoothconnector/2.1.0/bin/BluetoothConnector

Test out the keyboard shortcut!
You will need to grant permissions the first time you run the workflow.