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Now playing, media keys and brightness
See and control the current track in Music or Spotify from Cleat, send play, pause and skip to whatever is playing, set the volume by number, and change display brightness.
The card
now playing (also media, playback, player) shows the current track in Music and Spotify when they are running, with the artist, whether it is playing, and Play, Pause, Previous and Next buttons. Press Tab to reach them. Apps that are not running are never launched by looking.
The same card has media keys, volume and display brightness that work regardless of the player.
Commands
Play / Pause, Next Track, Previous Track, Volume Up, Volume Down, Toggle Mute, Brightness Up, Brightness Down, Keyboard Backlight Up and Keyboard Backlight Down are rows in the palette. Each can take a hotkey from ⌘K, which is how to give a keyboard without media keys a play button. volume 30 sets the output level to a percentage.
How it reaches the player
Music and Spotify are asked through their own scripting interface, so the card shows the track and the buttons act on that app. macOS asks once whether Cleat may control each, under Privacy & Security › Automation.
The media keys, volume and brightness rows post the same system key events the keyboard does. macOS routes them to whichever app is playing, so they work for a browser tab, a video player or a podcast app, and brightness reaches built-in and Apple displays. Posting those events needs the Accessibility permission Cleat already uses to paste; other monitors keep their own buttons.
From elsewhere
cleat://media/playpause, next, previous, volumeup, volumedown, mute, brightnessup and brightnessdown do the same from a Shortcut, a script or a Stream Deck key.