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osi.vibe.code

Heat Watch

Name: Heat Watch
Author: osi.vibe.code

Know why your Mac is running hot

Download for macOS

v1.0.2Updated Oct 9, 2026macOS 13+2.3 MB · Apple silicon

What's new in v1.0.2

Much lighter on the CPU: the Aurora glow no longer animates, which was costing about 10% of a core.
The window can be resized, remembers its size, and keeps its scroll bars visible.
Clearer clicks: tiles, the heat banner and the disk bar highlight on hover, and the banner and disk bar show a chevron.
Menu reordered: Show Overview first, then live stats, anything keeping the Mac awake, and busiest apps. Apps using under 1% are hidden.
Memory is one menu row with used, pressure and swap. Menu bar shows CPU and GPU together, then network.
Memory tile no longer truncates, sleep blockers get readable names, hovering a chart gap explains it, and the Overview shows when it last updated.

All release notes →

Trouble with Heat Watch? Get support

Your Mac is hot and the fans are loud — but why? Heat Watch sits in the menu bar, keeps an eye on every app, and taps you on the shoulder when one of them has been working the Mac hard for a while. The alert names the app and explains, in plain language, what it is and what to do about it.

Example: “Android Emulator is working your Mac hard — using 8.5 of 12 cores for 2+ min. A virtual Android device is busy. Close it, or give it fewer CPU cores in Device Manager.”

Both editions side by side, with what each one can do: the Heat Watch editions.

Screenshots

Heat Watch notification saying Android Emulator is working the Mac hard, with Quit and Don't Alert for 1 Hour buttons — An alert that names the app and says what to do

Heat Watch overview with chip temperature history and heat log, next to the floating desktop panel — Overview: chip temperature and heat log

Heat Watch CPU details with usage history, per-core bars and the busiest apps by CPU — CPU: per-core load and the busiest apps

Heat Watch GPU details with usage history, render and tiler stages, GPU memory and busiest apps by GPU — GPU: usage, memory and the busiest apps

Heat Watch memory details with memory pressure, swap, disk and the biggest memory users — Memory: pressure, swap and the biggest users

Heat Watch network details with download and upload speed history — Network: download and upload speed

Heat Watch battery details with battery health, charge cycles and apps keeping the Mac awake — Battery: health, cycles and what keeps the Mac awake

Heat Watch menu bar menu listing the busiest apps, with a submenu to quit Android Emulator or pause its alerts — Menu bar: the busiest apps, one click to quit

Heat Watch settings for display units, menu bar items and alert thresholds — Settings: menu bar and alert thresholds

Heat Watch settings for alerts, appearance and the desktop tiles — Settings: appearance and desktop tiles

Features

Menu bar meter Chip temperature, CPU and GPU use at a glance. The icon turns into an orange flame when something is hot.
Sustained-load alerts One app above 2, 4, 6 or 8 cores for two minutes — short spikes are ignored.
Thermal alerts When macOS starts slowing the Mac down to cool it, Heat Watch tells you the biggest cause.
Plain-language reasons Android Emulator, Spotlight indexing, compilers, Gradle, Docker, Time Machine, Photos analysis, browsers and more.
Busiest apps Helper processes are grouped under their app, so “Chrome” means all of Chrome.
Power and history Per-app power use and graphs, plus charts of how hot and busy the Mac has been.
Quiet when you want Pause alerts for an hour, choose your threshold, open at login.
Featherweight Uses close to 0% CPU itself. No accounts, no network, no tracking.

Prefer the Mac App Store? Heat Watch Lite is coming soon: the menu bar meter, alerts and charts in a sandboxed edition, without chip temperature or per-app figures.