Hammerspoon

Hammerspoon is an automation tool for macOS. It connects operating system APIs to a Lua scripting engine. Users write scripts to control windows, applications, hardware, and system events using keyboard shortcuts or specific triggers.

★★★★★

5.0(2 ratings)

• Window Automation. Precise control over the position, size, and arrangement of windows across multiple displays. Allows creating custom layouts, moving windows to defined workspaces, and adjusting dimensions with keyboard commands. Functions include searching by application, title, or specific filters.
• Custom Menu Creation. Implementation of menus in the system status bar with dynamic items. Menus can execute Lua functions, display system statuses, or contain nested submenus. Item updates are programmable in real-time.
• Input Event Capture. Monitoring and modification of keyboard presses, mouse clicks, and trackpad gestures. Allows redefining hardware behaviors, creating global shortcuts, or intercepting inputs before they reach applications. Includes filtering by specific application.
• Audio Control. Management of audio input and output devices. Allows changing volumes, balance, and muting devices via commands. Includes detection of USB/Bluetooth devices and actions based on headphone connections.
• WiFi Network Management. Detection of wireless network changes and execution of conditional scripts. Functions allow retrieving the SSID network name, BSSID address, and connection status. Used to adjust settings based on location.
• Clipboard Manipulation. Advanced reading and writing of the system clipboard content. Supports different data types such as text, images, and HTML. Includes clip history and content transformations using regular expressions.
• File System Interaction. Monitoring changes in specific directories with immediate reaction. Functions allow listing, copying, moving, and deleting files via scripts. Includes real-time notifications about modifications.
• Mouse Control. Absolute and relative positioning of the cursor on the screen. Simulation of clicks, drags, and movements with adjustable speed settings. Integration with screen coordinates and active windows.
• System Notifications. Creation and management of native macOS notifications. Allows displaying alerts with custom buttons that execute Lua functions. Includes monitoring of notifications from other applications.
• External Task Execution. Launching and controlling operating system processes from Lua. Real-time capture of standard output and error. Tasks run in the background with callbacks for completion.
• Battery and Power Management. Monitoring the charge state of the battery on laptops. Obtains information about capacity, cycles, and battery health. Triggers events when connecting or disconnecting from power.
• Application Control. Launching, closing, and switching between applications via commands. Retrieving information about running applications such as PID, executable path, and associated windows. Allows forcing focus on specific applications.
• Text Manipulation in Input Fields. Inserting and replacing text in active fields via keyboard emulation. Supports shortcuts for spell checking, formatting, and cursor movement. Works in most native macOS applications.
• HTTP/HTTPS Integration. Built-in web server to receive requests from browsers or other applications. HTTP client to make requests to external APIs. Supports WebSockets for real-time bidirectional communication.

Hammerspoon's development began in 2014 as an evolution of previous automation projects for macOS. The main developers maintain the project with contributions from the community. The program is written primarily in a combination of Objective-C and C, with the Lua 5.4 engine embedded for script execution.

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