Your first ten minutes

Ten things to try, in order, each one a minute or less. By the end you will know the two keys that unlock the rest of Cleat, and you will have seen most of what it can do without opening a settings window.

Press ⌘ Space (or ⌥ Space if you have not switched the hotkey yet) before each step. Esc takes you back to the start.

1. Open an app with three letters

Type saf and press Return. Safari opens. Cleat matches word starts and consecutive runs, so xco is Xcode and vsc is Visual Studio Code. Open the same app a few times and it climbs to the top for even one letter.

2. Do a sum, convert a unit

Type 12.5 * 8 + 3. The answer is the first row; Return copies it. Now type 12 km to mi, then 72f in c, then #ff8800. Every one of these is answered as you type, with nothing sent anywhere. See Instant answers for the full list.

3. Paste something you copied earlier

Copy two different things in any app. Press ⌘ ⇧ V. Both are there; Return pastes the selected one into the app you came from. Cleat asks for Accessibility the first time, because pasting means pressing ⌘V on your behalf. The clipboard history keeps text, images and files.

4. Snap a window

With any window in front, press ⌃ ⌥ ←. It fills the left half. ⌃ ⌥ → fills the right, ⌃ ⌥ ⏎ maximises, ⌃ ⌥ C centres. Or type left half in the palette. Window management has quarters, thirds and layouts.

5. Press ⌘ K on anything

Type saf again, but this time press ⌘ K instead of Return. This is the actions menu, and it exists on every row: Reveal in Finder, Quick Look, Copy Path, Hide, Quit, Pin to Top. Two rows matter most:

• Set Alias… lets you type s for Safari from now on.
• Assign Hotkey… runs the row from anywhere, palette closed.

Everything you can search can take an alias or a hotkey. See Actions, aliases and hotkeys.

6. Ask for help

Type ?. Every tool has a one-line entry with an example; select one and Return fills the field with it. help currency narrows the list. When you forget a keyword, this is where to look.

7. Reach a person

Type message and a first name. Return opens that person’s conversation in Messages. call anna, email anna and facetime anna do what they say, and ct anna shows every number and address with ⌘K. Contacts asks for its permission the first time. See Calendar, Reminders, Contacts and Notes.

8. Find a tab, a recent file, a folder

• tab and a word finds an open browser tab in Safari, Chrome, Arc and the rest. Return switches to it.
• recent lists the files you opened lately, newest first.
• ~/Downloads/ lists the folder; ~/Doc completes to Documents and Downloads.

All three are covered in Browser tabs and Shell, paths and recent files.

9. Run a shell line

Type > uptime and press Return. The output appears in the palette, where Return pastes it and ⌘⏎ copies it. ⌘ ⏎ on the row runs it in Terminal instead. Nothing runs until you press Return.

10. Control the Mac

Type sleep, lock, dark, screenshot, mission control, play or brightness. These are built in, so they rank like apps and never need a script. now playing shows the current track with play, pause and skip; battery and about this mac show live cards. The full list is in Mac actions.

Where to go next

• Give Caps Lock a job as a Hyper key, and bind your favourite rows to it.
• Write a snippet with a keyword, so ;sig expands in any app.
• Turn on the dashboard for your next event and today’s tasks above the empty field.
• If you want every keystroke, read Keyboard shortcuts.

The palette shows one tip at the bottom of the empty field. ⌘K on it turns them off once you have seen enough.