I love the Touch Bar. That's why I was so upset that Apple just sat on its useless user interface. So, inspired by Vas3k's popular blog post on the subject, and determined to make good on the promise that Apple broke, I've spent a (ridiculous) amount of time reworking the foundations of the Touch Bar into GoldenChaos-BTT: a true general purpose Touch Bar UI with support for tons of apps that's intuitive enough to make you love your Touch Bar again - or, more likely, for the first time.
Want to buy me a coffee? You can donate here: https://paypal.me/GoldenChaos
Thinking about buying BetterTouchTool because of this preset? Use this link and I'll get 40%. 
Verified by the BetterTouchTool developer, thoroughly tested by the community.
(Sep 25 2018 - Release Notes) No longer requires High Sierra Media Key Enabler! Plus: Settings menu with customization options for esc key, Home Strip keys, Menu Bar icons, Dock badges, Date/Time formatting with 24-Hour Time, and default calendar app selection; Seamless upgrades with just a tap using the "Reapply Settings" button; Fully scriptable, with a simple preset format so you can have multiple GC-BTT's for different occasions; Native Now Playing widget with dramatic CPU usage improvements; Collapsible Menu Bar with three sizes; New Connectivity Actions menu; New Current Language and Language Picker widgets with flags for 47 different languages
Unverified, untested alpha builds. Proceed with caution, expect things to be broken, and read the release notes.
(May 18 2019 - Release Notes) Ridiculous performance and energy efficiency improvements; Near-total elimination of duplicate widgets; Settings menu is now a full window with an all-new interface; New settings to enable/disable individual modifier menus, make Finder/AirDrop Keys show just icons, and make Now Playing and Media Keys appear persistently; Improved Apple Music support; Full-height album artwork; Long-press Things widget for next 10 tasks; Window snapping grid with multi-monitor support (⌘⇧W); Battery widget with optional percentage display; Caffeinate, 1Password, Day One, HazeOver, ColorSnapper, and Connect to Bose menu bar items; Dock badges hide when Do Not Disturb is enabled; Bug fixes for Connect to AirPods, Connect to Beats, Now Playing widgets, and system Back/Forward keys; Updated Slack logo; New dock badges for News, Maps, Superhuman, MailMate, Abstract, Zeplin, and Bodo
How to install
- Make sure you're using the latest stable version of BetterTouchTool.
- Feeling brave? Install the latest alpha BetterTouchTool to use the experimental versions.
-
[One time only] Install icalBuddy so that the calendar and reminder widgets will work.
-
[One time only] Configure BTT's General Touch Bar settings properly.
-
Upgrading? Follow these steps.
- Follow one of the two release links at the top of this post and click "Direct import to BTT". BTT will automatically launch and ask to import the preset - say yes to everything.
- You're all set! Press ⌘⌥⇧P to access the GC-BTT settings menu where you can customize GC-BTT to your liking.
Need help? Head over to the GC-BTT Help and Feedback thread!
Screenshots
Home Strip
The default key set when nothing is open. Fullscreen doubles as escape key; tap for escape, long-press for fullscreen.
Open a browser, and browser controls appear in the Home Strip.
Open more apps to reveal a wide range of dynamic controls and widgets. Close apps to dismiss their controls.
Modifier Menus
Hold command, option, or control to access the app switcher, control strip, or window snapping controls.
Dynamic Menu Bar
Dynamic Menu Bar with three size options lets you dedicate as much or as little space to widgets as you like.
Widget Groups
Widget Groups like Emoji Picker, Browser Tabs, and Language Switcher replace the Home Strip, but not the Menu Bar.
Modal Widgets
Access expanded-view Modal Widgets by long-pressing on Weather, Now Playing, Reminders, Calendar, Volume, and more.
Dock Badges
Dock Badges appear on the left side of the Touch Bar and remain sticky.
Built-in Dock Badge support for all of your favorite third party apps; enable or disable them in the GC-BTT Settings menu.
Dock Badges also support handoff!
Settings with Seamless Upgrading
The straightforward GC-BTT Settings panel (⌘⌥⇧P) makes it easy to deeply customize your Touch Bar. Settings transfer seamlessly to new versions of GC-BTT with "Reapply All Settings".
General Touch Bar Settings
GoldenChaos-BTT is designed to completely take over the Touch Bar, escape key and all. Since BetterTouchTool isn't set up this way by default, make sure to match BetterTouchTool's General Touch Bar Settings to the configuration shown below before importing - if you don't, things probably won't look right.
Upgrading GoldenChaos-BTT
GoldenChaos-BTT has a seamless upgrade system that allows your customized settings to transfer from one version to the next by storing your settings inside BTT itself. Please note that these upgrade instructions only apply to the stable version - newer experimental versions streamline the process a bit.
To remove existing GC-BTT installations and safely upgrade to a new version, follow these steps:
- Click "Manage Presets" inside of BetterTouchTool
- Select and delete all installations of GoldenChaos-BTT. If you do not remove all GC-BTT installations before upgrading, the settings menu won’t work!
- Navigate to the one of the release links at the top of this post and click "Direct import to BTT" to automatically launch BetterTouchTool and import the latest preset.
- Open the GC-BTT Settings menu by pressing ⌘⌥⇧P.
- Tap “Reapply All Settings” and watch the pretty progress bar.
- After it's done running, your previous setup should be restored! I guess that's not really a step. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Previous Versions
Only install the latest version unless you have a specific troubleshooting reason. If you do need to install an older version for whatever reason, make sure the version of BetterTouchTool you're running is greater than or equal to the GoldenChaos-BTT version you're installing.
Notes:
- Versions 2.543 and earlier require the Python Requests module (
pip install requests) and Locateme (brew install locateme) for the weather widget to work.
- Versions 2.531 and earlier require the calendar widget to first be edited to include the names of the calendars that you wish to display.
- Versions 2.516 and earlier require Location Helper and JSON Helper for the weather widget to work. Not compatible with macOS Mojave.
Version History:
I make other cool stuff, too, like Zelda Maps for Breath of the Wild! Check out all my other projects at https://goldenchaos.net. And thank you for trying out GoldenChaos-BTT! 
