Chatoly

A native macOS YouTube chat overlay application that displays YouTube live stream chat in a beautiful, always-on-top window. Features a clean SwiftUI interface with real-time message streaming directly from YouTube's API. Perfect for live-streamers who want to monitor chat without switching windows.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/ecc489bd-8649-4321-aa45-ccf3c0eb5415

Watch this thing get built from scratch in 2 hours

Installation

npm install -g @mariozechner/chatoly
chatoly

Features

• Native SwiftUI Interface - Beautiful, clean chat display with smooth animations
• Real-time Streaming - Direct connection to YouTube's chat API for instant message updates
• Smart Message Display - Avatar thumbnails, author names, badges, and special message types (memberships, super chats)
• Auto-scroll - Automatically scrolls to new messages with smooth animations
• Frosted Glass Background - Elegant translucent design that integrates with macOS
• Always on top - Chat window stays above all other applications
• Movable & Resizable - Position and size the chat window exactly where you need it
• Performance Optimized - Limits message history and efficiently handles high-volume chats
• Connection Status - Visual indicators showing connection state and message count

Development

Building

# Build debug mode (default)
./build.sh

# Build release mode
./build.sh release

# Clean and build
./build.sh clean

# Build and run the main app
./build.sh run

# Build release and run
./build.sh release run

# Build for distribution (signs and notarizes both executables)
./build.sh notarize

Executables

The project builds two executables:

1. chatoly - The main GUI application with the overlay window
2. chatoly-stream - A CLI tool for streaming YouTube chat to console (useful for debugging/testing)

After building, executables are located in:

• Debug: ./.build/debug/chatoly and ./.build/debug/chatoly-stream
• Release: ./.build/release/chatoly and ./.build/release/chatoly-stream

# Run the stream CLI tool after building
./build.sh
./.build/debug/chatoly-stream

# Or use Swift directly
swift build
swift run chatoly-stream

For notarization to work, you need an Apple Developer account with a valid Developer ID certificate. Set the NOTARY_TOOL_PASSWORD environment variable with an app-specific password generated from your Apple ID account. The build script expects your certificate to be named "Developer ID Application" in your keychain. You'll also need your Team ID from your Apple Developer account. Without these, use the regular build commands which produce unsigned binaries that work locally but may trigger Gatekeeper warnings when shared.

Requirements

• macOS 13.0+
• Swift 6.0+