ControllerBridge
Use a game controller as a keyboard and mouse on macOS and Windows.
C++ · SDL3 · Rust · Tauri · React · TypeScript
The idea
I grew up playing Roblox with a controller. When I wanted to do the same thing on my Mac, almost every remapping tool I found was a Windows .exe, so I built my own.
ControllerBridge turns DualSense, DualShock 4, Xbox, Switch Pro, and other SDL-supported controllers into keystrokes, mouse movement, and timed macros. It has a mapping editor, a live input view, and JSON profiles you can import, export, and duplicate.
Highlights
- A small C++ engine does the actual input translation, sending real keyboard and mouse events through CGEvent on macOS and SendInput on Windows.
- Shows the right controller picture for DualSense, DualShock 4, Xbox, and Switch Pro, plus battery level and connection type when the controller reports them.
- Either stick can drive WASD or the mouse, with adjustable deadzone and sensitivity.
- Output starts paused, pauses again while you edit a mapping, and releases held keys if the controller disconnects.
How it works
- Controller
- SDL3
- C++ mapper
- CGEvent / SendInput
- The engine runs as a separate process and polls the controller at about 250 Hz. It sends state to the UI at about 30 Hz, so rendering never slows down input.
- A Tauri bridge written in Rust passes commands and state between the engine and the React UI as JSON lines over stdin and stdout.
- Limits for now: one controller drives output at a time, profiles are switched by hand, and there's no gyro, touchpad, or rumble yet.