# Install kanata-tray with Homebrew

System tray for kanata keyboard remapper. Version 0.8.0 via Homebrew; verified 2026-07-27.

## Install

```sh
sudo av install brew:kanata-tray
```

Additional install commands:

### macOS

- Homebrew (100%):

```sh
brew install kanata-tray
```

  Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata

## Package facts

- **Package key:** brew:kanata-tray
- **Package manager:** Homebrew
- **Version:** 0.8.0
- **Source summary:** System tray for kanata keyboard remapper
- **Homepage:** <https://github.com/rszyma/kanata-tray>
- **Repository:** <https://github.com/rszyma/kanata-tray>
- **Last updated:** 2026-07-27T21:58:36+02:00
- **Generated:** 2026-08-03T19:37:03+00:00

## Executables

- kanata-tray (alias)

## Install behavior

- Bottle: not available

## Freshness

- Page generated: 2026-08-03
- Package-manager version: 0.8.0
## Project history and usage

Kanata Tray is a desktop tray wrapper for the Kanata keyboard remapper. It gives Kanata users start, stop, pause, preset switching, layer icons, hooks, and multi-instance control from a tray icon instead of a terminal process.

### Project history

The repository was created on 2024-02-07 and v0.1.0 was published on 2024-02-09. The README describes it as a simple wrapper for Kanata that works on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

The project exists because Kanata itself is primarily a keyboard-remapping engine and CLI. Kanata Tray fills the desktop-control gap, while its README notes that Kanata later gained Windows-only native tray-app support and links to a comparison issue.

### Adoption history

Adoption is tied directly to Kanata users who want visible runtime state, quick profile switching, or a friendlier way to start and stop remapping. Homebrew packaging makes the wrapper installable on macOS alongside the `kanata` package.

### How it is used

Kanata Tray can run without initial configuration and can generate a TOML configuration file on first run. Users define presets that point at Kanata executables and configuration files, then switch or autorun those presets from the tray.

### Why package nerds care

Kanata Tray is a small example of a companion GUI-ish package around a lower-level CLI daemon. The package is not historically broad, but it matters to desktop package catalogs because it turns a powerful keyboard remapper into something a normal workstation session can supervise.

### Timeline

- 2024: rszyma/kanata-tray repository created and v0.1.0 released.
- 2025: v0.8.0 release added hook-related changes and shutdown fixes.
- 2025: README documented Kanata v1.6.0 as the minimum supported Kanata version.

### Related projects

- Kanata is the keyboard remapper that Kanata Tray controls.
- Kanata's Windows-only tray support is adjacent but does not replace Kanata Tray's cross-platform wrapper role.

### Sources

- <https://api.github.com/repos/rszyma/kanata-tray>
- <https://github.com/jtroo/kanata>
- <https://github.com/rszyma/kanata-tray>
- <https://github.com/rszyma/kanata-tray/issues/24>
- <https://github.com/rszyma/kanata-tray/releases>


## Security Notes

narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.

- **Geiger risk:** green / low
- narrow executable package without higher-risk signals


## Combined YAML source

View the package source record on GitHub. [combined/kanata-tray.yml](https://github.com/mxcl/pkgdb/blob/main/combined/kanata-tray.yml)


## Sources

- pkg.so package database
- Geiger risk classifier
- curated package history
- pkgdb category and tag curation
- cross-ecosystem install command graph