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Whats in my Raycast

🌱 This post is in the growth phase. It may still be useful as it grows up.

Context

I’ve only really been using Raycast for 2 weeks. But I used it as a calendar event launcher for years. lol

Calendar

As a launcher, I love that you can use it for launching web apps.

This is great for getting out of that cycle where you get used to typing part of a domain in a search bar. But then you visit another domain with a similar name, and that starts getting prioritized. Quicklink for anything I go to a lot.

And I can also set the exact page I want.

I launch all my electron apps into the web browser.

And when working with Arc (Browser), we can use Air Traffic Control to open the correct spaces and profiles:

  • Slack | personal
  • Slack | chromatic (opens in my chromatic space and profile)

Arc Air Traffic Control routes setup

Now something I love about Raycast is how easy and discoverable everything is to manage with keyboard shortcuts.

Like, Chromatic just laid off it’s OSS DX team. So, I can delete this one 😅

⌘ k ^ x

VS Code workspaces

  • .dotfiles

  • chan.dev

  • chan.dev/content

  • netlify/deploys

LOVE that it’s so easy to duplicate a command from the keyboard.

“Open with…” option

Snippets

I use snippets for structured text formats. I don’t have much going on but I use for expense reports a lot — where a specific format is required.

  • wellness stipend (uses new variables)

Auto-expanding snippets.

  • @@

Egghead snippet to add affiliate link.

Emoji

Other

  • Navigator/Menu Item Search.
  • Download video.
  • mdn + tab {search_term}
  • Change Display Mode. For changing my main display from 5k to 4k (recording).
  • clipboard history
  • open camera

Some ideas

  • Create a new extension for getting a VS Code url for a file path. Can this be a service? That would be dope. Maybe it’s a Shortcut or script.
  • Create extension for selecting an HTML hyperlinks. Then converting them to markdown (as a service).

Improvements

  • Magnet style window drag zones. I’d be able to stop using Magnet.
  • I’d love more markdown hints
  • There’s this app that I’ve always wanted to build for podcast or lecture notetaking that has a timer and commits comments to times. I’d love to see that as a floaty note variant.

Raw notes

(These are just notes. I’d like this to be a guide)

Commands

⌥ + Space - Open Raycast ⌘ + K - List options for command

Basics

  1. ESC navigate back one page
  2. ⌘ ESC navigate back to main page
  3. ⌘ W open preferences
  4. ⌘ , open preferences

Beginner features to adopt

Tip: alias

Typing the alias, followed by a space, directly opens a Command, saving you an extra step

Workflows to demo in “what’s in my Raycast”

Theme: reducing friction for every day things. #lube

  • Calendar
  • Quick link for most opened VS Code projects
    • Create
    • Duplicate
  • Using quick links in tandem with Arc Flight Control to launch in-browser apps (in different profiles even)
  • Ergonomic emoji selection (tab)
  • Expense formatting with snippets
  • multi-clipboard history

2024-01-20

  • Create a new extension for getting a VS Code url for a file path. Can this be a service? That would be dope. Maybe it’s a Shortcut or script.

2024-01-16

2024-01-28

Unregister these commands to utilize hyper + c

  • System Settings > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services > Text > - Convert Text to Simplified Chinese - Convert Text to Traditional Chinese Disable Convert Text to Simplified Chinese options

Deciding to use Raycast to track application opening/switching shortcuts.

(intereset that this also works as cmd if i’m alread in the app i intend to switch to)

  • a

  • b - browser, Arc

  • c - calendar, Calendar

  • d

  • e - editor, VS Code

  • f - finder, Finder

  • g

  • h

  • i

  • j

  • k

  • l

  • m - messenger, Messages

  • n - notes, Obsidian

  • o

  • p

  • q

  • r

  • s

  • t - terminal, Warp

  • u

  • v

  • w

  • x

  • y

  • z

  • ← - move window to left half of screen (rotates between 1/2, 2/3, 1/3 when repeated)

  • → - move window to right half of screen (rotates between 1/2, 2/3, 1/3 when repeated)

Found notes for snippet creation

Basics

To use snippets, you gotta create them first.

  • Call up the Create snippet command
  • Hit enter to open the command
  • Give it a unique name
    • Spaces are ok
  • Paste your snippet in
  • And that’s all that’s required.

Placeholders

  • In this box you can change rich text formatting, add links, whatever
    • I don’t personally care about that
  • But to the right you can add placeholders
    • Click this + button to make your snippets dynamic
  • Add a date, with one of the pre-selected options
    • Or use a custom date
  • We can then place the cursor too!
    • Hit + again, and place this where you’d like to place the cursore
  • You can also automatically include whatever’s in your pasteboard

Keyboard triggers

Keyboard triggers are great if you don’t want to touch Raycast at all…

Use Snippet

Import Snippet