flick - switch apps with keyboard shortcuts

Is Emacs the only app you use? Is it the only app installed on your Mac? Of course it is.

But if you're one of those few lost souls who instead use multiple apps, plural? Who don't use Emacs to call their mothers and change flat tires?

flick is for you.

flick switches macOS apps with global keyboard shortcuts. It makes switching apps really fast.

Press key. Focus app. That's it.

The cursor is also, optionally, warped to the center of the newly focused window. Reduces mouse travel. Handy. (pun intended)

Flicks wraps pyobjc. It's fast - sub 70ms per flick.

Installation

pip install flick

Requires macOS and Python3.

How to use it

Once installed, run the command flick. You can background it with:

flick &

Then click 🎯 in the macOS menu bar to create shortcuts.

To add a flick shortcut, click Add App Shortcut. Then enter the name of the app, like emacs. App names are case insensitive.

Add all your commonly used apps and voila: switch apps 10x faster.

How it works

flick listens for global keyboard shortcuts. When a keyboard shortcut fires, flick:

1. Finds the app that matches the app name string. Eg: chrome for Google Chrome, emacs Emacs (😉), slack for Slack, etc. App names are case-insensitive substrings; emacs matches Emacs, emacs, emacs-29, etc.

2. Picks the most recently used window. If the app has multiple windows, the window used most recently is focused. flick continuously tracks when windows are focused after startup with macOS's Accessibility API. If flick was just started and is thus without a history of focused windows, the app's main window is focused by default.

3. Centers the cursor in the (x,y) center of the focused window. That way you move the mouse less. You lazy bones.

Permissions

flick uses the macOS Accessibility API and requires permission on first run. To otherwise grant flick its needed permissions, go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility and enable the terminal (or whatever parent app) you used to run flick.

Usage

flick              # start the daemon
flick -h           # show help
flick --version    # show version

Configuration

flick saves your configuration in:

~/.config/flick/shortcuts.json

Changes are autosaved to this file.

Development

For local development:

• Check out this repo.
• Modify flick.py.
• Run flick.py.
• Have fun.