Remap Spotlight & Siri keys to control keyboard backlight on Macbook Air/Pro (MacOS Tahoe 26.0)

Why this is needed

On some MacBooks running macOS 26.0 (Tahoe), Apple removed the dedicated keys for controlling the keyboard backlight. Instead, you get keys for Spotlight and Siri, but no quick way to adjust the keyboard brightness.

We can fix this by creating a small configuration file that tells macOS to make those keys control the keyboard light again.

Step 1: Open the terminal

• Click the magnifying glass (Spotlight) in the top right corner of your screen or press ⌘+Space
• Type Terminal and press Enter
• A window with a black background will open, this is where you’ll copy and paste commands.

Step 2: Create the configuration file

In Terminal, copy and paste this command and press Enter:

mkdir -p ~/Library/LaunchAgents && cat << 'EOF' > ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.local.KeyRemapping.plist
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>Label</key><string>com.local.KeyRemapping</string>
  <key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
    <string>/usr/bin/hidutil</string>
    <string>property</string>
    <string>--set</string>
    <string>{"UserKeyMapping":[
      {"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc":0xC00000221,"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst":0xFF00000009},
      {"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingSrc":0xC000000CF,"HIDKeyboardModifierMappingDst":0xFF00000008}
    ]}</string>
  </array>
  <key>RunAtLoad</key><true/>
  <key>LimitLoadToSessionType</key><string>Aqua</string>
</dict>
</plist>
EOF

This will:

• Create the LaunchAgents folder if it doesn’t exist.
• Create the file com.local.KeyRemapping.plist with the right code already inside.

You don’t need to manually open TextEdit or Finder.

Step 3: Load the configuration

Back in Terminal, copy and paste this line and press Enter:

launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.local.KeyRemapping.plist 2>/dev/null
launchctl load   ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.local.KeyRemapping.plist

Now press your Spotlight or Siri keys → they should control your keyboard backlight!

Notes & troubleshooting

• If it doesn’t work, restart your Mac and try again.
• If the brightness changes but the on-screen bar stays empty, that’s normal with this method, the light still works, only the visual indicator doesn’t update.
• To remove this later:

launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.local.KeyRemapping.plist
rm ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.local.KeyRemapping.plist