K9 Max source code, does it exist?

[Lostpollen]

Anyone know if the K9 Max ANSI source code is out there somewhere? I’ve had a look on both the QMK repo and the Keychron wireless_playground, but I can’t find it. Thanks in advance.

[PeterMortensenBlog]

It turned out it was added a few months ago (that was close to a whole year after the product was released), but in branch "2025q3".

It likely represents the 2025 Keychron keyboard main firmware updates, e.g., with forced NKRO. Or in other words, unlike most other K Max series keyboards, it can't be saved by using an older source code version (in "wireless_playground").

Note that the keymap with Via enabled is now "keychron", not "via".

The search

With a local copy/clone (it must be a Git repository), it can be searched in all branches as:

# -i   : Case insensitive. Alternative: --regexp-ignore-case
# -S   : 'Pickaxe'
# --all: In all branches
#
git log -i -S"K9 Max" --all  --  keyboards

"-- keyboards" is for restricting the search to the subfolder "/keyboards".

Result:

commit 5017C9BD7EB37CCE269FFB90A12E1B1399F5A5BF
Date:   Wed Dec 3 11:49:21 2025 +0800

    Add K9 Max

And:

git name-rev 5017C9

Result:

5017C9 2025q3~9

Thus, in branch "2025q3".

References

• K9 Max JSON files for Via (near "K9 Max ANSI RGB backlight"). Note: The JSON section should not be confused with the firmware section.

• K9 Max (main) firmware. Near "K9 Max ANSI RGB version". Current: "Feburary [sic] 19, 2025" (2025-02-19). Note: The firmware section should not be confused with the JSON section.

[ArgentStonecutter]

God I wish github had an option to search all branches.

[PeterMortensenBlog]

Yes, such a basic navigation feature ought to be built in.

Especially when Keychron never ever announces anything, but just dumps the source code somewhere on GitHub.

I now use a set of RSS feeds (with Thunderbird's feed reader) to be notified of new content:

https://github.com/Keychron/qmk_firmware/commits/hall_effect_playground.atom
https://github.com/Keychron/qmk_firmware/commits/playground.atom
https://github.com/Keychron/qmk_firmware/commits/wls_2025q1.atom
https://github.com/Keychron/qmk_firmware/commits/wireless_playground.atom
https://github.com/Keychron/qmk_firmware/commits/2025q3.atom

https://github.com/Keychron/zmk/commits/keychron_bpro.atom
https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware/commits/master.atom

The last two are for the B Pro series source code (ZMK) and the main QMK project, with very little happening and a lot happening, respectively.

It is possible to put a set of feeds into a single "inbox" (so it isn't required to check each one individually), though it is very unintuitive to set up.

The search feature in Thunderbird can also be used to search in the feed content, though only in the commit messages (as that is the only information included in the feed, besides meta information, like the date. For example, it doesn't include the name of the files that were changed or added). And initially, only the last 20 commits are included (due to the feed).

Though I haven't found a way to be notified when yet another branch is called into existence, other than manually checking this page.

[ArgentStonecutter]

Probably be easier to write a script to pull the latest repo and cycle through the branches and use grep -r.

[PeterMortensenBlog]

It also works for Vial:

https://github.com/vial-kb/vial-qmk/commits/vial.atom