CleatBrowse the handbook
Actions, aliases and hotkeys
Press 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.
The actions menu
Select any row and press ⌘ K. What you can do depends on the row:
| Action | Available on |
|---|---|
| Open | Everything |
| Reveal in Finder | Apps and files |
| Quick Look | Apps and files, also ⌘ Y |
| Copy Path, Copy File | Apps and files |
| Open With… | Files |
| Move to Trash | Files |
| Assign Hotkey… | Everything |
| Set Alias… | Everything |
| Hide, Quit | Apps that are running |
| Pin to Top of Results | Apps |
| Hide from Results | Apps |
| Uninstall… | Apps |
Quick actions on the row
The selected row shows up to two buttons: the ⌘⏎ alternative and the first extra action, so Reveal in Finder or Rename are one click without opening the menu. ⌘K still has everything.
Pinning, hiding and uninstalling
Pin to Top of Results lifts an app above the ranking, for the one you open twenty times a day. Hide from Results removes it from search entirely, for the helper apps that clutter every launcher. Both are reversible; hidden apps are listed in Settings › Extras with a button to restore them all.
Uninstall asks first, then moves the app and its preferences, caches, containers and saved state to the Trash. Only things inside your own Library are touched, and nothing is deleted outright, because uninstallers that roam are how data goes missing. Apps that macOS installed in /Applications need admin rights that Cleat does not ask for, and it says so rather than failing quietly.
Hotkeys on rows
Assign Hotkey records a key combination that runs the row from anywhere, palette closed. Give Xcode ⌃ ⌥ X, give a window layout ⌃ ⌥ L, give a script command whatever you like. They are listed and editable in Settings › Hotkeys, which also names any two bindings that share a key, since only one of them can fire.
Aliases
Set Alias attaches a short word. Typing it in the palette jumps straight to the row, ahead of every fuzzy match. sf for Safari, mail for the Mail app instead of a file named mail, cal if you would rather it opened Calendar than the agenda.
Both are stored in the local database and survive rebuilds and updates.
Search the selected text
Settings › Hotkeys has a recorder for Search the selected text. Press it in any app and the palette opens with the selection typed in, so translate, define, count, a web search or a message to someone are one key away. The selection is read through Accessibility; when an app does not expose it, Cleat copies it and puts the clipboard back, and the round trip never lands in the clipboard history.