CleatThe Cleat handbook
Get to know
your shortcuts.
Set up Cleat, learn a few commands, and make it your own. Find instructions for the things you use on your Mac.
01
Basics
7 GUIDESGetting startedInstall Cleat on macOS, press Command Space, and learn the three keys that do most of the work, plus which permission each feature asks for and when.Read the guideYour first ten minutesA guided tour of Cleat in ten short steps: launch an app, paste from history, snap a window, run a sum, message someone, run a shell line, and learn the two keys that unlock everything else.Read the guideDashboardCards above Cleat's results on an empty field: the next event with a countdown, today's tasks with a tick to complete them, screen time, and a running timer.Read the guideInstant answersCleat answers sums, unit conversions, colours, time zones, timestamps and dictionary lookups in the first row of the palette, and Return copies the result.Read the guideLauncherHow Cleat finds apps, files and commands on a Mac, how frecency decides what comes first, and how aliases and per item hotkeys skip the search entirely.Read the guideActions, aliases and hotkeysPress Cmd K on any Cleat result for Quick Look, reveal in Finder, copy path or open with, and give it an alias or a global hotkey to skip searching.Read the guideFiles and file actionsWhat Cmd K does on a file in Cleat: rename, move, tag, compress, share, convert images, merge PDFs, set a wallpaper, open a folder in Terminal, and undo any of it.Read the guide
02
Tools
12 GUIDESClipboard historyCleat keeps every text, image and file you copy in a local database with its source app, and pastes back into the window you came from. Password managers are skipped.Read the guideWindow managementSnap the front window on macOS to halves, thirds and quarters with Cleat, maximize, centre, move it to the next display, or save whole window layouts by name.Read the guideSnippets and text expansionCleat keeps snippets in one Markdown file and expands them by keyword in any app. Type ;sig and it becomes your signature. Placeholders fill the date and clipboard.Read the guideEmoji and quicklinksType a colon and a name for emoji anywhere in Cleat, and use keyword quicklinks like g, yt, so and mdn to search the sites you use without opening a browser tab first.Read the guideImport from Alfred or RaycastMove to Cleat from Alfred or Raycast. Cleat imports snippets from both with their keywords, and Alfred's clipboard history, into its own files in your home folder.Read the guideBrowser bookmarksSearch bookmarks from Safari, Chrome, Arc, Brave, Edge, Vivaldi, Chromium, Opera and Firefox in Cleat, without installing a browser extension.Read the guideTimers and alarmsStart a timer by typing 25m anywhere in Cleat, set an alarm with weekday repeats, and get a panel over everything with snooze rather than a notification.Read the guideTasksA local to-do list inside Cleat. One line sets the task, its area, its flag and its due date, and everything stays in a file on your own Mac.Read the guideAll Apps, file shelf and cameraThree windows Cleat can put on screen: a grid of every app, a shelf to park files on while you find where they go, and a floating camera preview you can configure.Read the guideBrowser tabsSearch every open tab across Safari, Chrome, Brave, Edge, Vivaldi, Chromium, Opera and Arc from Cleat, switch to one with Return, copy its link or close it.Read the guideShell, paths and recent filesRun a shell line from the palette and read its output, browse folders by typing a path, complete file names, and list the files you opened recently.Read the guideFor developersCleat's developer toolkit: JSON, JWT, cron, HTTP status and regex answers in the field, ports, Xcode simulators, Docker containers and SSH hosts as commands, git actions on folders, and a shell one keystroke away.Read the guide
03
Intelligence
2 GUIDESAssistant and Apple IntelligenceAsk the Cleat assistant a question and follow up in chat, rewrite clipboard text, and pick Apple Intelligence, a built-in model, a local server or your API key.Read the guideTranslationCleat translates through Apple's on-device Translation framework. Type tr and the text, pick a language, paste the result back. 38 languages, offline once installed.Read the guide
04
Extensions
3 GUIDESExtensionsA Cleat extension is an executable that prints JSON lines to stdout. No SDK, no build step, any language. The full protocol: manifest, list and action mode.Read the guideBundled commands and system actionsThe five script commands Cleat installs on first run, the seventeen Mac actions that are built into the app itself, and where to read or edit each one.Read the guideCommand directory and installing from a URLBrowse shared Cleat commands inside the palette, or paste a link to any script to install it. How the directory works, and why to read what you install first.Read the guide
05
System
11 GUIDESShortcuts and App ShortcutsRun your Shortcuts library from Cleat, plus the App Shortcuts other apps publish to Spotlight, and drive Cleat from Siri and Shortcuts with its eleven App Intents.Read the guideMenu bar searchSearch the menu bar of the app you came from and run any menu command by name from Cleat, with its keyboard shortcut shown, or give a menu item a hotkey it never had.Read the guideCalendar, Reminders, Contacts and NotesCleat reads Calendar, Reminders, Contacts and Apple Notes from one search field: seven days of events with a Join button, plain language reminders, people to email.Read the guideDictationHold a key, talk, release, and Cleat pastes the words where your cursor was. Recognition uses macOS 26's on-device SpeechAnalyzer, so the audio never leaves the Mac.Read the guideScreen toolsPick a colour from anywhere on screen and get hex, RGB, HSL and SwiftUI, or drag a region and Cleat runs text recognition on it and copies the words.Read the guideActivity MonitorSee what is using the CPU and memory from inside Cleat, inspect any process in the detail pane, and quit or force quit it without opening another app.Read the guidePrivacy modeTurn on privacy mode before you share a screen and Cleat hides file paths, clipboard contents and note titles, while leaving the palette usable.Read the guideScreen time and breaksCleat can count which apps have your day and remind you to take a break, all on this Mac and off by default. What it records, what it deliberately does not, and how breaks work.Read the guideMac actionsEverything Cleat can do to the Mac itself with no script: sleep, lock, screenshots, Mission Control, Show Desktop, quit or hide apps, Dock and Stage Manager toggles, AirDrop, Time Machine, and live cards for battery and the machine.Read the guideNow playing, media keys and brightnessSee 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.Read the guideKeyboard layoutsSwitch macOS input sources by name from Cleat, cycle to the next layout with one hotkey, and see which one is active, with no permission needed.Read the guide
06
Reference
11 GUIDESIntegrations and personalizationSet up places search, 1Password, new notes, reminders and events, cloud API models, themes, web search and usage statistics in Cleat, and what each needs.Read the guideKeyboard shortcutsCleat keyboard shortcuts: Command Space to open after setup, window snapping on Control Option, Cmd K for actions, Cmd 1 to 9 to pick a row directly. All rebindable.Read the guideURL schemeDrive Cleat from Shortcuts, scripts and other apps with cleat:// links. Every URL it answers, from opening the palette with a query to snapping a window by name.Read the guideSettingsWhat each tab of Cleat's settings holds, from appearance and launch at login through search sources, hotkeys and commands, and where every setting is written on disk.Read the guidePrivacy and dataWhere Cleat stores clipboard history, snippets and settings on your Mac, how local backups work, and exactly which features send data to external services.Read the guideSearch settingsChoose which sources the Cleat palette searches, whether it learns from what you open, how many results come back, and the two lists that decide what never shows up.Read the guideSettings referenceEvery control in Cleat's settings window, page by page, with the note that sits under it, generated from the app source.Read the guideRequirements and permissionsCleat needs macOS 15 or later on Apple silicon; translation and dictation need macOS 26. The assistant works on either. Every permission, and the feature behind it.Read the guideWindow gaps, Hyper key and typing soundsThe settings that change behaviour rather than appearance: gaps between snapped windows, snap cycling, Caps Lock as Hyper, typing sounds and the menu bar agenda.Read the guideChangelogWhat changed in each Cleat release, newest first, with the palette query that tries each feature.Read the guideEvery built-in rowEvery built-in command and Mac action Cleat ships, with the words that find it, generated from the app source.Read the guide
07
Compare
3 GUIDESCleat vs RaycastAn honest comparison of Cleat and Raycast for the Mac: what each does, how extensions and AI differ, what each costs, and who should pick which.Read the guideCleat vs AlfredHow Cleat compares with Alfred and its Powerpack: workflows against JSON extensions, clipboard history, sums, timers, the assistant, languages and price.Read the guideCleat vs SpotlightSpotlight is built in and got clipboard history and actions in macOS 26. What Cleat adds on top, what it does the same, and when the built-in one is enough.Read the guide
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