Applications
Type a few letters of an app's name and press ↵ to open it, or browse every app in a grid.
Open an app
- Open the bar and type part of the app's name, such as
saffor Safari orvscfor Visual Studio Code. - The app you open most for those letters is selected at the top. Press ↵ to open it.
The more you open an app, the higher it ranks. See How search works for how matching and ranking work.
Which apps Saiki finds
Saiki lists every app in:
/Applicationsand~/Applications, including apps one folder down (suites like/Applications/Adobe Photoshop/)- The system's app folders, including Utilities, Safari and Finder
- Apps kept inside other apps, like Simulator and Instruments inside Xcode
- Apps anywhere else in your home folder, such as one you run from Downloads (this needs File Search on)
An app you install, move or delete appears in search or leaves it within about a second, whether the bar is open or not. If you have two copies of the same app, the newer version is the one listed.
A newly installed app also shows in the empty bar's suggestions for its first five minutes, until you open it. See Pins and suggestions.
The Applications grid
To browse instead of search, type apps and press ⇥, press ⌘1 on the empty bar, or run the Applications command.
- Your most-used apps fill the first row, under Frequently Used. Every app follows from A to Z under All Applications.
- Chips across the top filter by category: All, Utilities, Developer Tools, Productivity & Finance, Entertainment, Creativity, Games, Social, Information & Reading and Other. Only categories you have apps in are shown. Categories come from what each app says it is.
- Press ⇥ for the next chip and ⇧⇥ for the previous one, or click a chip.
- The arrow keys move through the grid in every direction. Typing filters it.
- Press ↵ to open the selected app, or esc to go back.
Actions on an app
Select an app and press ⌘K:
| Action | Key | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Open | ↵ | Opens the app |
| Show in Finder | ⌘↵ | Selects the app in a Finder window |
| Copy Path | ⇧⌘C | Copies where the app is |
| Quit | ⌘Q | Quits the app, shown only while it's running |
| Force Quit | ⌥⌘Q | Force quits the app, shown only while it's running |
| Auto Quit After… | Quits the app on its own after 1, 3, 5, 10 or 15 minutes in the background; Never turns that off again. Not offered for Finder, Saiki, Phone or background apps. See Auto Quit | |
| Don't Check for Updates | Leaves the app out of App Updates' checks. Shown while App Updates is on | |
| Uninstall… | Removes the app and what it left behind. See Uninstaller | |
| Pin to Empty Bar | ⇧⌘F | Keeps the app at the top of the empty bar. See Pins |
| Configure Command | Hotkey, alias, link and visibility, below |
Pin to Empty Bar and Configure Command are in the main search, not in the Applications grid.
Aliases, hotkeys and hiding
From the main search, select an app, press ⌘K and open Configure Command:
- Set Hotkey… asks you to press a shortcut. The hotkey opens the app from anywhere, or hides it when it's already in front. Remove Hotkey takes it off.
- Set Alias… asks for a word, such as
fffor Firefox. Typing the whole alias puts the app first, and ⇥ on it opens the app straight away. - Copy Deeplink copies a link that, opened from another app or a script, shows the bar with the app selected, ready for ↵.
- Open Settings opens Settings → Applications.
- Hide from Search takes the app out of search and the grid.
- Reset Ranking and Don't Show for “…” work as in How search works.
In Settings
Settings → Applications lists every app you've changed under Your Apps.
- Choose Customize an App…, or select an app already in the list and press ↵.
- For a new one, type the app's name in App. The line below shows which app it found.
- Fill in what you want: an Alias, Hide from search, and a Hotkey (click Record Shortcut, then press it).
- Press ↵ to save. To undo every change to an app, select it and press ⌘⌫, or choose Remove in its form.