Audio Priority is a macOS CLI daemon that automatically manages audio device priorities. Configure preferred input/output order and let the daemon keep your defaults in sync as devices connect and disconnect.

Website: https://badalotti.dev/audio-priority

• Priority-based auto-switching: Always picks the highest-priority connected device.
• Manual mode: Disable auto-switching when you want to manage defaults yourself.
• Device memory: Remembers devices you've connected (even when disconnected).
• Boot on login: LaunchAgent starts the daemon automatically.

• macOS 14.0 (Sonoma) or later

brew install mateusbadalotti/audio-priority-cli/audio-priority-cli

./build.sh

The CLI binary will be at dist/audio-priority. The build also outputs dist/Frameworks/AudioPriorityCore.framework, which must stay alongside the binary.

xcodebuild -scheme AudioPriorityTests test

Note: running tests requires macOS 14 or later.

# Install LaunchAgent using the current binary
./dist/audio-priority install

# Or copy the binary to a directory and install using that path
./dist/audio-priority install --path ~/.local/bin

By default, the install command copies the binary to ~/.local/bin, writes a LaunchAgent to ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.audio-priority.daemon.plist, and starts it. If you use --path, the installer copies the binary to that location instead. In both cases, it also copies Frameworks/AudioPriorityCore.framework alongside the binary.

# List output devices (indexes shown in order)
audio-priority list --output

# Set output priority by index (1 = highest priority)
audio-priority set output 2 1 3

audio-priority [--output] [--input] [--json]   # show priorities (default)
audio-priority list [--output] [--input] [--known] [--json]
audio-priority set <input|output> <indexes...>
audio-priority set <input|output> --uids <uids...>
audio-priority mode <auto|manual>
audio-priority apply
audio-priority forget-disconnected [--output] [--input]
audio-priority status [--json]
audio-priority --version

audio-priority install [--path <dir|path>] [--bin <path>] [--no-start]
audio-priority uninstall [--keep-binary]
audio-priority start
audio-priority stop

1. Device Discovery: Uses CoreAudio to enumerate devices and listen for changes.
2. Priority Storage: Priorities are stored in UserDefaults by device UID.
3. Auto-Switching: When a device appears, the daemon selects the highest-priority connected device (unless manual mode is enabled).

• Uses CoreAudio device APIs to list input/output devices and to set system defaults.
• Monitors CoreAudio property changes to react to device connects/disconnects and default changes.
• Requires macOS (CoreAudio is part of the system frameworks).

AudioPriority/
├── main.swift                     # CLI entrypoint
├── AudioPriorityCLI.swift         # Command parsing
├── AudioPriorityController.swift  # Core logic
├── Models/
│   └── AudioDevice.swift
├── Services/
│   ├── AudioDeviceService.swift
│   └── PriorityManager.swift
└── LaunchAgentManager.swift

• AudioPriority: CLI tool.
• AudioPriorityCore: shared framework target for core logic.
• AudioPriorityTests: unit tests (links against AudioPriorityCore).

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.

See CHANGELOG.md.