Padrail
Right edge
Volume
Up and down, with a tick at every step and an on-screen level.
Your trackpad has edges.
Put them to work.
Padrail turns the edges of your MacBook trackpad into controls. Volume and brightness on the sides, keyboard light at the bottom, and a top edge that does what fits the app you're in.
How it works
Four edges.
Four controls.
Put one finger right on the edge and slide along it. Everything else on your trackpad works exactly as before.
Left edge
Brightness
Fine control of the built-in display, without hunting for keys.
Top edge
Adapts to the app
Tabs in the browser, zoom in design apps, tracks in your music app.
Bottom edge
Keyboard light
Slide left or right to dim or brighten the keyboard backlight.
The adaptive edge
The top edge
reads the room.
Padrail looks at the app in front and gives the top edge the job that fits. Slide right to go forward, left to go back.
Safari, Chrome, Arc, Firefox, Edge, Braveand other browsers
Switch tabs
Finder, Terminal, iTerm2, Ghosttyapps with native tabs
Switch tabs
VS Code, Cursor, Windsurfcode editors
Switch editor tabs
Figma, Preview, Photoshop, Sketch, Mapsdesign and maps
Zoom
Spotify, Musicmusic
Skip tracks
IINAvideo
Seek
Every other appyou can change this too
Switch desktops
Change any of these, add your own apps, or give any edge a different job: undo and redo, tabs, zoom, tracks, volume, brightness or keyboard light.
Settings
Set it up
in seconds.
The settings window shows your finger on the trackpad in real time, so you can see exactly where each edge begins.
- Pick what every edge does, or turn it off
- Narrow, normal or wide edges
- Low, normal or high sensitivity
- Haptic ticks and a pointer that stays still
- Opens at login, lives in the menu bar
Feels like it came
with your Mac.
Feels physical
A haptic tick at every step on Force Touch trackpads, like a real slider.
The pointer stays put
While you slide along an edge, the cursor doesn't drift across the screen.
No accidental triggers
Only one finger that lands on the edge and moves along it. Scrolling, clicks and gestures work as always.
Private by design
No account and no analytics. Padrail never reads what you type, and only goes online to check for updates.
Lives in the menu bar
No Dock icon, under 1 MB, and no CPU while you're not touching an edge.
Any edge, any job
Volume, brightness, keyboard light, tabs, zoom, seek, tracks, undo, desktops, or off.
Free. Not a trial.
No license key, no subscription, no pro tier. Padrail is signed and notarized by Apple, opens like any other app and updates itself.
Download PadrailQuestions.
Which Macs does it work with?
Any MacBook on macOS 13 Ventura or later, Apple Silicon or Intel. Haptic ticks need a Force Touch trackpad, which every MacBook has had since 2015. The Magic Trackpad works too, in beta.
Why does it ask for Accessibility?
Only for the actions that press keyboard shortcuts for you: tabs, zoom, tracks, seek, undo and desktops. Volume, brightness and keyboard light work with no permission at all.
Will it get in the way of normal use?
A slide counts only when a single finger lands right on the edge and moves along it. Tap to click, scrolling, swipes and Notification Center keep working. You can make the edges narrower, or turn any of them off.
Does it collect any data?
No. Padrail has no analytics and no account, and your settings stay on your Mac. The only connection it makes is a daily check for a new version.
How do I install it?
Download the zip and open Padrail. It offers to move itself to Applications, then shows the settings window so you can try every edge right away.
How do I uninstall it?
Quit it from the menu bar icon, then drag Padrail from Applications to the Trash.