# asmvik/skhd

Simple hotkey daemon for macOS

Repository: https://github.com/asmvik/skhd
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/skhd
Language: C
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2025-12-09T23:24:45+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 57/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 56, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3313, "days_push": 267, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 8080, forks 240 (observed 2026-08-28T04:10:12.558850+00:00)

## What it is
skhd is a simple hotkey daemon for macOS that lets users define global keyboard shortcuts in a text config file using a simple DSL. It supports hot-reloading the config, modal hotkeys, application-specific bindings, and running as a launchd service.

## Use cases
- bind global keyboard shortcuts on macOS
- launch apps and commands with hotkeys
- define modal keybinding systems like vim-style prefixes
- set application-specific hotkeys
- reload hotkey config without restarting the daemon
- run hotkey daemon as a launchd service

## When to choose
- you want a lightweight, fast, native macOS hotkey daemon
- you prefer defining shortcuts in a plain text config file
- you want live config hot-reloading
- you pair it with a tiling window manager like yabai

## When to avoid
- you need active development or new features (repo is in maintenance mode)
- you need a cross-platform hotkey tool
- you want a GUI for configuring shortcuts
- you cannot disable Secure Keyboard Entry or grant accessibility permissions

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: maintenance
- function: cli, developer-tools, workflow-automation
- domain: operating-systems, developer-tools
- platform: cli
- tags: hotkeys, keyboard-shortcuts, hotkey-daemon, keybindings, launchd, window-management-companion, automation, command-line, macos

## Member repositories
- asmvik/skhd (main) score 57

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:12.558850+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:31:20.166655+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/asmvik/skhd (fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:12.558850+00:00, sha 9f990b8ff9fb)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.