Tinycast

A tiny, fully native macOS launcher. One hotkey, everything you reach for all day, under 100 MB of RAM.

SwiftUI and AppKit, zero third-party dependencies, no Electron and no telemetry. It also runs real Raycast extensions, rendered as native SwiftUI. Free, open source, and staying that way.

For anything private, email [email protected].

Features

• App launcher — fuzzy-search and launch anything, pin favorites, see what's running, quit an app or every app at once.
• Global hotkey — one shortcut summons the palette from anywhere.
• Per-app hotkeys — bind a key to an app; press it to toggle (focus/hide).
• Deeplinks — run any command, window action, quicklink, snippet, note or chat from a tinycast:// URL, for Karabiner-Elements, Shortcuts or scripts. A link can carry text and arguments, and a link from outside asks before it acts. Copy Deeplink (⇧⌘C) gives you the link.
• Search Files — find files and folders instantly from a private index of the folders you choose, kept on your Mac. Needs Full Disk Access; off by default.
• Dictionary — look a word up with the Define Word command, or define whatever you typed from the launcher's fallbacks, read from the Mac's own dictionaries.
• Clipboard history — text and images, searchable, pasted back into the app you were using.
• Calculator — do math, unit, live currency and crypto conversions inline, right in the palette.
• Quicklinks — turn a URL, search, file or deeplink into a command, with placeholders for typed input, the clipboard or the date.
• Apple Shortcuts — search and run the shortcuts you built in the Shortcuts app, with aliases and global hotkeys.
• Snippets — reusable Markdown templates with dynamic placeholders, arguments, nested references and optional keyword expansion.
• Custom commands — run named shell commands through fuzzy search or their own global hotkeys.
• Window management — 39 Rectangle-style actions: halves, quarters, thirds, sizing, nudging, edge moves, display moves, fullscreen and Spaces.
• System actions — lock, sleep, restart, empty trash, toggle appearance, Bluetooth, mute, hidden files, and more.
• Calendar and meetings — your next meeting on the empty palette and in the menu bar, one key to join it, or let it join itself.
• Notes — an unlimited collection of plain Markdown files in one floating editor, searchable from the palette and rendered as you write.
• Emoji picker — a searchable emoji grid, one keystroke away.
• AI chat — use your own key or an installed AI account: ask Quick AI from the palette, or keep longer conversations in the AI Chat window, with a searchable, pinnable history. Off out of the box, like every AI feature.
• Quick Actions — fix grammar, rewrite, translate or summarize the selected text in any app.
• Dictation — press a shortcut and speak, and the text lands in the app you're using. Speech is turned into text on your Mac. Off by default.
• Raycast extensions — run the ones you already have natively, rendered as SwiftUI.
• Backup and import — export your settings to a file, or import your setup from Raycast.

Install

First, add the tap:

brew trust --tap abue-ammar/tinycast   # required for third-party taps
brew tap abue-ammar/tinycast

Then run the one line that matches your Mac:

Your Mac	Install
Apple silicon, macOS 26 or newer	brew install --cask tinycast
Intel, macOS 26	brew install --cask tinycast-universal

Not sure which Mac you have? Apple menu → About This Mac.

• Early builds: brew install --cask tinycast@beta installs Tinycast Beta.app beside the stable app.
• DMG from Releases? Drag Tinycast to Applications. It's notarized by Apple, so it opens without a warning.

Building from source

See docs/development.md for the toolchain, build, packaging, release and website workflows. docs/ indexes everything else — architecture, engineering standards, the design system and one document per feature.

Support

Tinycast is free, and it stays that way. If it earns a place on your Mac, consider supporting its development. Thanks in advance.

_{Payments are handled securely by Polar.sh.}

You can also support Tinycast with crypto: scan a code with your wallet, or copy an address. Send only on the network named for that address. If yours isn't listed, email me.

Bitcoin

Ethereum, Base, BNB Smart Chain

Solana

Bitcoin

bc1qpfxtjpuhm2cm8kg4lqgu3ffjch7vcjf678arwn

Ethereum, Base and BNB Smart Chain (one address for all three)

0x22A00612bc0bf1Dc73AAC75e8De1BA4e81fF0810

Solana

4EH7JDXZxkJiahas1xgPyC1iBW9pfCVUXxVtpqvwAz6T

License

AGPL-3.0