This project's bindings have been migrated to a Hammerspoon config:

https://github.com/DepoXy/macOS-Hammyspoony#🥄

• The Hammerspoon config gives us better window and application control. E.g., when fronting a Chrome browser window, Hammerspoon lets us bring a single window (whether hidden, minimized, or just not the front window) to the front without also unhiding or fronting other Chrome windows.

  • I originally had such bindings in this project's skhdrc, but they used a simple AppleScript that would also unhide other Chrome windows, which I found annoying. E.g., if I have GVim active, I'd prefer that only one Chrome window is fronted, rather than multiple windows becoming visible and burying my GVim window. (I realize that macOS is application- and not window-centric, but I can still pine for Linux- or Windows- like behavior.)

• skhd, on the other hand, has its own strengths. E.g., it lets us easily change the keybinding action based on the active application, or to blocklist certain applications. (Hammerspoon supports this, too, but with more lines of Lua than lines of skhdrc config.)

  • skhd can also hook some bindings that Hammerspoon cannot (including, and possibly only including, <Cmd-Tab>, or at least that's the only binding I know of so far).

• You might also find the skhdrc config more concise than the Lua config that Hammerspoon uses.

• What's left of this project is a simple config loading mechanism (see Private config, below).

Read on for the original project and bindings description.

Opinionated skhd config, but also a few useful AppleScripts.

• You'll find a number of bindings to front or open specific apps by using a global binding.

• E.g., <Shift-Ctrl-Cmd-F> brings Slack to the front, or opens it.

  Or try <Cmd-T> to open a new browser window.

  And more.

• This project is not really designed to be used directly, except by the author:

  • It's intended instead for other devs to reference, copy, or to fork.

• Specifically, many of the keybindings are more Linux-y.

  • The author uses Karabiner-Elements and a number of modifications (published as Karabiner-Elephants) to swap most default Ctrl- and Cmd- key combos, so that their macOS behaves more like Linux Mint MATE (the author's other main development environment).

  • In that vein, most <Ctrl-key> bindings are mapped to application menu items, and most <Cmd-key> bindings are free for us to use.

Make a symlink under ~/.config to this project's config, and it'll be wired (see instructions below).

You can also edit your own skhdrc--client file to add your own bindings (or just fork this repo and make it your own, or copy-paste what you need for yourself).

But first, be aware this project uses absolute paths:

• Because skhd runs on its own, it won't have access to your local shell environment, and because this project doesn't "install" itself anywhere, it just assumes a particular path to the AppleScript files:

  ~/.kit/mOS/macOS-skhibidirc/lib
  

• Feel free to fork this repo and change the path prefix to match your own environment, otherwise you'll want to clone this project at the appropriate path:

  mkdir -p ~/.kit/mOS
  cd ~/.kit/mOS
  git clone https://github.com/DepoXy/macOS-skhibidirc.git
  

• (FYI, the ~/.kit directory is a DepoXy convention, which is the primary user of this project.)

Once cloned, you can wire this app very simply by symlinking the config file, .config/skhd/skhdrc, from ~/.config/skhd/skhdrc:

  mkdir -p ~/.config/skhd
  ln -sn ~/.kit/mOS/macOS-skhibidirc/.config/skhd/skhdrc \
    ~/.config/skhd/skhdrc

NOTE: All of these bindings have been ported to the Hammerspoon config.

• These bindings have been moved from the active skhdrc to an offline config:

  .config/skhd/skhdrc.OFF

• They're being preserved for reference, so you can compare how the same bindings and actions might be implemented in skhd vs. Hammerspoon.

While this project's active skhdrc now defines no bindings, it still loads the DepoXy and Client configs, should you want to add your own skhd bindings.

<Shift-Ctrl-Cmd-W>: Hide all windows

<Cmd-1>: Bring to front any window whose title starts with "1. "

<Cmd-2>: Bring to front any window whose title starts with "2. "

...

<Cmd-9>: Bring to front any window whose title starts with "9. "

• The sh-humble-prompt project includes a PS1 setup that numbers new terminal windows when they're opened. It works for Alacritty, mate-terminal, and iTerm2 terminal windows. See:

  https://github.com/DepoXy/sh-humble-prompt/blob/release/lib/show-command-name-in-window-title.sh

<Cmd-M>: Open a new Alacritty window

<Shift-Cmd-M>: Bring Alacritty to the front

<Ctrl-Cmd-M>: Open a new Terminal.app window

<Cmd-T>: Open a new Chrome window

<Shift-Cmd-T>: Bring Chrome to the front

<Shift-Ctrl-Cmd-A>: Bring the Email or Calendar browser window to the front, or open Gmail

<Shift-Ctrl-Cmd-S>: Bring the Messaging browser window to the front, or open Messenger

<Cmd-P>: Bring the Power Thesaurus browser window to the front, or open it

<Shift-Cmd-X>: Bring the Regex Dictionary by Lou Hevly browser window to the front, or open it

<Cmd-R>: Bring the browser DevTools window to the front

<Cmd-F>: Bring any Finder window to front, or open Finder

<Cmd-Grave>: Bring MacVim to the front

<Shift-Ctrl-Cmd-F>: Bring Slack to the front, or open it

<Shift-Ctrl-Cmd-X>: Bring Spotify to the front, or open it

<Cmd-Minus>: Put YYYY-MM-DD into clipboard, e.g., "2024-07-08"

<Ctrl-Cmd-Semicolon>: Put dashed date and normal time into clipboard, e.g., "2024-07-08 17:14"

<Ctrl-Cmd-Apostrophe(Quote)>: Put dashed date-plus-time into clipboard, e.g., "2024-07-08-17-14"

The config finishes by loading an optional "private" config that you can symlink alongside the main config:

  ln -sn /path/to/my/private/skhdrc \
    ~/.config/skhd/skhdrc--client

• The <Cmd-1> through <Cmd-9> bindings expect terminal window titles to be numbered.

  • See sh-humble-prompt for a PS1 prompt that titles window with sequential window numbers:

    https://github.com/DepoXy/sh-humble-prompt/blob/release/lib/set-shell-prompt-and-window-title.sh

    https://github.com/DepoXy/sh-humble-prompt/blob/release/lib/show-command-name-in-window-title.sh

• The Browser foregrounders call sensible-open from another project:

  • https://github.com/landonb/sh-sensible-open

  • But you could edit that AppleScript file, lib/raise--chrome--window-or-open.osa, and replace the last command with:

    open location (item 1 of argv)
    

This project complements a collection of Karabiner-Elements modifications that add bindings beyond the reach of skhd

https://github.com/DepoXy/Karabiner-Elephants#🐘

This project complements a collection of Hammerspoon bindings that rely upon the Hammerspoon API for more advanced features

https://github.com/DepoXy/macOS-Hammyspoony#🥄

This project is one part of a larger dev stack bound together by the DepoXy Development Environment Orchestrator

https://github.com/DepoXy/depoxy#🍯

Copyright (c) 2024 Landon Bouma <[email protected]>

This software is released under the MIT license (see LICENSE file for more)

<https://github.com/DepoXy/macOS-skhibidirc/issues>