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).
- Search Files — open files and folders from the folders you choose, through Spotlight, with no
index of our own.
- 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 — 34 Rectangle-style actions: halves, quarters, thirds, sizing, nudging,
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.
- 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? It's self-signed, so run
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Tinycast.app" once.
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 you enjoy it, you can support it 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
bc1qpfxtjpuhm2cm8kg4lqgu3ffjch7vcjf678arwn
Ethereum, Base and BNB Smart Chain (one address for all three)
0x22A00612bc0bf1Dc73AAC75e8De1BA4e81fF0810
Solana
4EH7JDXZxkJiahas1xgPyC1iBW9pfCVUXxVtpqvwAz6T
Prefer a card? Buy the wallpaper pack and get a Discord role.
License
AGPL-3.0
