VibePad is a free macOS menu bar app that maps your gamepad to keyboard shortcuts. Built for AI coding tools like Claude Code and Codex where the workflow is mostly Accept, Reject, Scroll, Navigate and Dictate. X - approve, O - reject, L2 trigger = hold-to-talk dictation, Right stick = scroll. Config is a JSON file if you want to remap anything. Native Swift. Open source. No account, no subscription, no catch. The idea started as a joke - then I built most of VibePad using VibePad itself.
hey PH! i'm Vova. I love to vibe code on a cozy evening from the couch.
My claude code sessions are 5 actions on repeat - accept, reject, scroll, navigate, dictate a prompt. a keyboard is overkill for that. a PS5 controller handles all of it.
VibePad sits in your menu bar, detects your gamepad, and injects keypresses via macOS Accessibility API. same mechanism as any key remapper, just with a controller.
The dogfooding part is my favorite - around commit 30 i switched to building VibePad with VibePad. the website too. it's way more fun than a keyboard. evening coding went from "more work at my desk" to something that feels like gaming.
Free, open source, works with Claude Code and Cursor out of the box.
happy to answer questions about the build or the workflow.
Go set it up, let me know when it's done or if PH asks for anything I didn't cover.
Turning AI coding into a couch-friendly, almost console-style workflow is lowkey genius. The Accept / Reject / Scroll / Dictate loop really is the core loop of AI coding right now mapping that to muscle memory just makes sense. Also building VibePad with VibePad?? That’s founder energy. This feels like the beginning of ambient coding where your keyboard isn’t the main character anymore 🎮💻
