Tinycast

v0.11.3 · macOS 26+ · Apple silicon & Intel

Everything on your Mac.One keystroke away

A tiny, native launcher. No Electron. No account. No telemetry. No bullshit.

brew trust --tap abue-ammar/tinycast
brew install --cask abue-ammar/tinycast/tinycast
  • Under 100 MB of memory
  • Zero dependencies
  • Free & open source

Trusted and used every day by people at

  • VoidZero
  • ByteDance
  • Apple
  • Google
  • Microsoft
  • OpenAI
  • Anthropic
  • Cloudflare
  • GitHub
  • Alibaba
  • Oracle
  • Red Hat

01Features

One palette for everything you do all day.

Almost everything ships off until you ask for it, so Tinycast is exactly as big as you make it.

03Privacy

Nothing turns on until you do.

A fresh install is a launcher, a calculator and your clipboard. Everything else waits for you to switch it on, and none of it needs an account.

accounts
0
telemetry
0
dependencies
0
of memory
<100 MB
Settings, on a fresh install4 of 5 off
  • Off by defaultAINo chat command and no history file until you turn it on.
  • Off by defaultExtensionsNo folder scanned, no JavaScript engine running.
  • Off by defaultSnippetsThe only feature that watches typing. Matching stays on your Mac.
  • Off by defaultCalendarExplains what it reads before macOS asks. Events never leave.
  • On by defaultClipboard historyKept on your Mac for 3 months. Skips Keychain Access and Passwords.

Permissions are asked for the moment a feature needs one, never at launch. A settings backup can never switch on extensions or snippets.

04Keyboard

Built for the keyboard.

Pick one shortcut to summon the palette. Everything after that is a key away, and keys follow their position, so any layout works.

⌥ Space
Summon the palette, with keys you pick
return
Run the main action
⌘ return
Run the second action
⌘ K
Open the actions menu
tab
Launcher, then AI Chat, then clipboard
⌘ 1…0
Open favorite 1 to 10
esc
Clear, go back, then close
⌘ esc
Back to the root search from anywhere

Every other key, one table per screen, is in Keyboard shortcuts.

05Moving over

Bring your Raycast setup with you.

Tinycast reads a Raycast export directly. Point it at your .rayconfig file, type the passphrase, and your shortcuts come with you.

  1. Export what you have

    In Raycast, export your settings and data. Note the passphrase you set.

  2. Open Settings → Backup

    Choose the file and type the passphrase. A wrong one is reported as exactly that.

  3. Pick what to bring

    Keep everything, or only the parts you want. That's the whole setup.

  4. Quit and reopen Tinycast

    Quit from the menu-bar icon, not just the Settings window. The import is fully live after that restart.

Tinycast's Backup settings pane with a Raycast export selected and a list of categories to import.

Raycast v2.0 and newer only. Tinycast reads the .rayconfig that Raycast v2.0 and later write. Raycast v1.x files are not supported — that format was dropped in Tinycast v0.10.5.

Comes across: Shortcuts · Favorites · Clipboard history · Snippets · Quicklinks · Aliases · Emoji skin tone · Compact mode · Pop to root · Launch at login · Menu-bar preference. Read the import guide

No account. No telemetry. No bullshit.

the whole privacy policy, more or less

Native, end to end

SwiftUI and AppKit, Swift 6, zero third-party dependencies. It launches before Electron has finished thinking about it.

Nothing leaves your Mac

No account, no telemetry, no update pings you didn't ask for. AI features are off until you turn them on.

Open source, AGPL-3.0

Read every line. Build it yourself. The feature set is deliberately closed so it stays small.

Free, and staying free

A one-off tip keeps it maintained. There's no Pro tier waiting behind a paywall.

Enjoying Tinycast?

Tinycast is free and open source, and it stays that way. If you would like to support its development, you can chip in. Entirely optional.