Blog
Notes from the launcher
Product updates, deep dives into keyboard-first workflows, and the occasional rant about Spotlight. Written by the CmdSpace team.
The macOS dictionary shortcut you've been missing
There is a shortcut built into macOS, present since at least Snow Leopard, that most users never discover. It works in nearly every app that renders text. It calls up a dictionary card, Wikipedia stub, and Siri Suggestion in one keystroke.…
A keyboard-only macOS dev setup that survives every Tahoe update
Every macOS update is a small earthquake for developer machines. Spotlight forgets your exclusions. Some shortcut you relied on stops working. A signed launcher you trusted needs a fresh permission grant. The setup you spent a weekend tuni…
macOS clipboard history options in 2026: Maccy, Paste, Clipy, and built-in
macOS has had a system clipboard since 1984. It still holds exactly one item. Copy something, copy something else, the first thing is gone. For everyone except the lightest users this is a problem they hit dozens of times a day — paste the…
macOS apps with zero telemetry: a verified 2026 list
Most macOS apps phone home in some way. App opens, button clicks, crash reports, "anonymous usage analytics," feature gates that check a license server — all of it shows up as network traffic that 99% of users will never notice. For the 1%…
The lsof port cheatsheet for macOS developers
lsof is the standard tool for answering "what is using this port" on macOS. It is also one of the most cryptic command-line tools you will use this week. The man page is 300 lines of options, most of which you will never touch. This post i…
Local LLM on a Mac vs cloud-powered launcher AI: a 2026 reality check
Two years ago, "AI in a launcher" meant a Raycast button that called OpenAI. Today it means: a panel that streams Claude or GPT-4-class output, a chat-with-your-files mode, voice dictation, image editing, a few dozen extension-specific AI…
The 2026 list of local-first macOS apps that respect your machine
"Local-first" went from a niche academic term to a buyer's filter in three short years. Inkandswitch published the original essay in 2019 laying out the seven properties (no spinners, multi-device, network-optional, longevity, privacy, use…
Kill a process by port on macOS: every method, ranked
Every developer on macOS hits this at least weekly: "port 3000 is already in use." Maybe it is a Next.js dev server from a tab you closed, maybe a Docker container, maybe yesterday's experiment whose process you forgot. The fix is always t…
A day in a keyboard-first macOS workflow
This post is a literal walk-through of one day at a keyboard-first Mac. Not a list of tools, not a configuration guide — a play-by-play of how a person who has internalized keyboard shortcuts and a launcher actually moves through a workday…
Is Raycast Pro worth $8/month in 2026? An honest math check
Raycast Pro is $8/month or $96/year (raycast.com/pricing). For a productivity tool you touch every hour, that is either obviously worth it or obviously not, and which side you fall on depends on three specific questions. This post is the h…
Inline calculator on macOS: every option from Spotlight to CmdSpace
Every macOS user needs an inline calculator. Quick math, unit conversion, currency conversion, percentage of a number — the question is not whether you want one but which surface is fastest. There are at least six credible options on macOS…
Hidden macOS keyboard shortcuts in 2026 that Apple doesn't advertise
macOS ships with hundreds of keyboard shortcuts. Apple documents maybe 60 of them. The rest live in source code, in obscure Apple Developer notes, and in long-tenured Mac users' muscle memory.