Helm
Helm v1.1 · iPhone for macOS · Cappsule Teknoloji

Take the helm of your Mac. A premium iOS app that turns the iPhone in your pocket into a steady, sovereign command surface for the Mac across the room — over the same private network you already trust.

Trackpad, keyboard, media, screenshots, brightness, audio — the controls a captain reaches for without looking. Each one runs as a single quiet shell command over SSH on your local network. No cloud relay. No middleman. Your machine answers only to you.

Download on the App Store See the bridge
RequiresiOS 17+ ChannelSSH · local LanguagesSix tongues Helm ProIn-app unlock
Specimen · Live
Trackpad 69 cmd 11 categories
›
Keyboard 22 keys 7 groups
›
Languages 6 tongues 235 keys
›
Pro unlocks 7 advanced One-time
§ 01 — On the bridge

Three orders, one command.

Helm doesn't ask for a relay or a sign-up. The Mac on your local network already speaks the language of SSH. We just put a beautiful surface on top — and a captain's wheel beside it for posture.

01
Cast off
Open Remote Login.
On the Mac: System Settings → General → Sharing → Remote Login. Note the username and IP that appears. That's your bearing — the rest is automatic. Optional helpers cliclick and blueutil unlock pointer + bluetooth control for the captain who wants the full panel.
02
Set the bearing
Bonjour finds you.
Helm scans the local network through Apple's own mDNS / Bonjour. Your Mac surfaces with its real name — bahadir-macbook.local. Tap, type the password once, and Keychain quietly remembers it for next time. The host fingerprint is pinned so a stranger on the network can't pose as your machine.
03
Take the helm
Steer with both hands.
Trackpad is a glass surface for the cursor. Keyboard surfaces twenty-two of the most-needed shortcuts. Media, brightness, audio, screenshots — every glass tile maps to a single shell command, sent the instant you ask. No latency theatre: feedback is haptic and immediate, the work happens at the speed of your network.
§ 02 — The instruments

Fourteen brass tiles, all under glass.

Each instrument is a single dedicated screen — never a settings tree, never a hidden submenu. Touch it, the Mac responds. Some of the more advanced panels live behind Helm Pro; the foundations are free.

01
Trackpad
A glass pointer surface with sensitivity dial, ripple feedback, two-finger tap and momentum.
Free · cliclick
02
Keyboard
22 shortcuts in seven categories — Clipboard, Edit, Window, Navigation, System, Special, Arrows.
Free · 22 keys
03
Media
Now playing with artwork, transport, seek, shuffle and repeat — for Music and Spotify alike.
Pro · Music + Spotify
04
Audio
Volume slider, mute toggle, four quick presets and visual level feedback the moment you adjust it.
Free · osascript
05
Brightness
Display brightness from 0 to 100 in real time, via the Mac's own DisplayServices framework.
Free · DisplayServices
06
Screenshot
Preview, full-resolution capture, copy to clipboard or save straight to Photos. screencapture wrapped in glass.
Pro · Capture
07
Storage
Disk usage at a glance — volumes, user folders, external drives, with safe eject from the phone.
Pro · df
08
Bluetooth
Connected and available devices, battery levels, single-tap connect/disconnect via blueutil.
Pro · blueutil
09
Apps
Running app list with live search and confirmation before quit or force-quit. The polite way to housekeep.
Pro · AppleScript
10
Browser tabs
All your Safari and Chrome tabs in one searchable list. Close one. Reload another. From across the room.
Pro · Safari + Chrome
11
Appearance
Dark mode toggle and eight macOS accent colours, switched live with a single tap.
Pro · defaults
12
Power
Sleep, lock, restart, shut down — every halt-state with a confirmation dialogue. No accidents.
Free · osascript
§ 03 — Three watches

The full round: connect, steer, command.

Helm has thirteen tabs but only three feel like first principles. The rest unfurl from the dashboard once you've taken the helm.

Watch 01 · Discovery
Connect
9:41 5G · WiFi

Connect

§ Bonjour · 3 found
Altan's MacBook
192.168.1.42 · macOS 15.4
Saved
Studio iMac
192.168.1.18 · Bonjour
Tap
Mac mini · Living room
192.168.1.31 · Bonjour
Tap
Manual entry
Add by IP & user +
Watch 02 · Surface
Trackpad
Altan's MacBook 5G

Trackpad

§ Surface · cliclick
x,y 586,402
Sens
1.4×
Watch 03 · Bridge
Dashboard
Helm Pro 9:41

Bridge

§ 13 instruments · Helm Pro
Pad
Keys
Media
Audio
Bright
Capture
Disk
BT
Power
Lighthouse
Patrick Watson · 3:21
§ 04 — Logbook

Six tongues, one trade.

Two-hundred-thirty-five strings, hand-translated. Helm reads its labels and confirmations in your own voice — and switches the moment you tell it to.

EN English 235 keys
TR Türkçe 235 keys
FR Français 235 keys
IT Italiano 235 keys
DE Deutsch 235 keys
ES Español 235 keys
§ 05 — Private channel

Your network. Your machine. Nothing in between.

Helm is a quiet conversation between two devices that already trust each other. There is no relay server. There is no telemetry of your shell traffic. The captain talks to the ship — directly.

Every command Helm sends travels over a direct SSH session from the iPhone in your hand to the Mac on your local network. Your password lives in iOS Keychain, the host fingerprint is pinned on first contact, and we never see, log, or touch the line — not even once.
Keychain password, never plaintext
Saved once, then quietly retrieved by iOS Keychain when you reconnect — protected by the same enclave that guards Face ID on your phone.
Pinned host fingerprint
Helm remembers the SHA-256 fingerprint of your Mac's SSH key. If something on the network later poses as your Mac, the connection refuses.
No cloud relay
There is no Helm server. The iPhone speaks to the Mac directly over your Wi-Fi or wired LAN. If the network is gone, so is Helm — by design.
Confirmations for halt-states
Sleep, lock, restart, shut down, force-quit — every irreversible order is double-checked before the shell command goes out. No accidental power-off in your pocket.
§ 06 — Signal flags

Questions, plainly answered.

If something here doesn't fit your situation, write us: [email protected]. The captain reads every signal flag.

Do I need anything on the Mac?
Just Remote Login — System Settings → General → Sharing → Remote Login. That alone gets you keyboard, audio, brightness and power. For trackpad and bluetooth, install brew install cliclick blueutil — both are tiny, audited command-line tools used by Helm under the hood.
Does Helm work outside my local network?
Helm is built for the same Wi-Fi or wired LAN. There is no cloud relay. If you want to reach your Mac from a coffee shop, run a personal VPN (Tailscale, WireGuard) and Helm will speak through it transparently — but it will not try to phone home.
What about my password?
Stored in iOS Keychain — the same enclave that guards Face ID and Apple Pay. Helm reads it on demand to open the SSH session. It never leaves the device, and we don't see it.
What runs on my Mac, exactly?
Each instrument maps to a single shell line: cliclick m:X,Y for the cursor, osascript -e 'set volume...' for audio, screencapture for the camera, blueutil for bluetooth, defaults write for appearance. No daemon, no agent, no background service installed.
Does Helm support multiple Macs?
Yes — every Mac on the network is its own saved bridge. Switch between them from the Connect screen at any time. Each one has its own pinned host fingerprint and its own keychain entry, so you stay protected on each one independently.
Does Helm collect analytics?
Anonymised, aggregated event counts via Firebase — used to know which instruments are loved and which aren't yet. Your shell traffic, IP, hostname and password are never part of it. Opt out in Settings → Privacy.
All hands

Take the helm.
It's been waiting for you.

Helm is on the App Store now. Built for the iPhone in your pocket and the Mac across the room — six languages, private channel, no cloud, no subscription.

Download on the App Store Write the captain