16 recognized gestures
Three and four finger swipes in four directions, three and four finger taps, pinch in and out, and two finger swipes. A short stability check stops a stray extra finger from misfiring.
Open source · macOS 14+ · Universal binary · Input and Gestures
Your trackpad,
mapped your way.
Assign three and four finger swipes, taps and pinches to shortcuts, apps and system actions, with different mappings per app. Lives in the menu bar hold Control for two finger gestures.
Free & MIT licensed · Apple Silicon & Intel · Latest release
Features
Gestures that do real work.
One focused job: turn trackpad gestures into actions, and stay out of the way otherwise.
Six kinds of action
Record a keyboard shortcut, launch an app, open a URL or path, run a Shortcuts shortcut by name, trigger a system action, or do nothing.
Per-app overrides
Give any app its own mapping by bundle identifier. Gestures you leave unset inherit your global mapping and appear dimmed.
Scrolling stays untouched
Two finger swipes and pinches only fire while your chosen modifier is held: Control, Option, Command or Shift. Swipe distance and pinch threshold are adjustable.
Built-in Gesture Tester
A floating panel shows the last recognized gesture with its finger count, direction and timestamp, so you can confirm detection before mapping it.
Native and private
Written in Swift with Apple frameworks only. No network calls, no analytics, no third-party dependencies.
Screenshots
See it in action.
Install
Up and running in a minute.
TrackpadGestureMap is open source and not notarized with a paid Apple Developer ID, so macOS needs one extra step the first time.
- Download TrackpadGestureMap-macOS.zip and unzip it.
- Move TrackpadGestureMap.app to your Applications folder.
- Clear the quarantine flag once, then right-click the app and choose Open:
xattr -cr /Applications/TrackpadGestureMap.app
- Grant Accessibility access when prompted, under System Settings Privacy Security Accessibility, so the app can post shortcuts and watch modifier-gated gestures.
Download
Get TrackpadGestureMap for macOS
Free, forever. Built for macOS 14 Sonoma or newer, Apple Silicon and Intel.
Not notarized: on first launch right-click TrackpadGestureMap.app → Open.
- macOS 14 Sonoma+
- Universal (Apple Silicon + Intel)
- MIT licensed · open source
- No ads, no accounts, no telemetry
- Built with Claude Code · how and why
FAQ
Questions, answered.
Is TrackpadGestureMap really free and open source?
Yes. It is released under the MIT license and the full source is on GitHub. If it saves you time, there is an optional Support button that links to Ko-fi.
What permissions does it need?
Only Accessibility, which is required to post keyboard shortcut and system action key events and to create the event tap for two finger gestures. Until you grant it, recognition stays off. It does not ask for Screen Recording, Microphone or network access.
Where is my data stored?
Your mappings are saved as a single JSON file named profile.json in ~/Library/Application Support/TrackpadGestureMap. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Why is the app not notarized?
Notarization requires a paid Apple Developer account, and this is a free project. Right-click the app and choose Open once to get past Gatekeeper, or build it yourself from source with Xcode.
Was this written by AI?
Yes. TrackpadGestureMap was generated by Claude Code from a written spec as a clean-room reimplementation, with no code or assets from any commercial app. The full source is on GitHub under MIT, so you can read every line before you run it. It has had less human review than a hand-written app, so bug reports are welcome.
Support ❤️
Built by one person, given away for free.
TrackpadGestureMap is a free, open-source alternative to paid utilities. If it earns a spot on your Mac, a coffee keeps the updates coming.
☕ Support Or on Ko-fi