Getting started with Keyed
Keyed is a native macOS text expansion tool. It lives in your menu bar and watches for short abbreviations you type — when it sees one, it replaces it with the matching snippet in any app.
Requirements
- macOS 14.0 (Sonoma) or later
- Apple Silicon or Intel
- Accessibility permission — required for system-wide keystroke monitoring
Installation
Homebrew (recommended):
brew install mcclowes/keyed/keyed
Manual download: Grab the latest Keyed.zip from GitHub Releases, unzip, and drag Keyed to your Applications folder.
First launch
Launch Keyed from Applications. It appears as a keyboard icon in your menu bar — there is no Dock icon and no main window.
An onboarding wizard walks you through granting Accessibility permission. Keyed uses CGEventTap to watch for abbreviations system-wide and cannot function without it. No keystrokes leave your Mac and no data is logged — the tap is used only to match abbreviations against your snippet library.
Your library is seeded with a small set of starter snippets and a default list of excluded apps (password managers, terminals) on first run.
Your first snippet
- Click the menu bar icon and choose Open Keyed.
- Press + to add a snippet.
- Set an abbreviation (for example,
;addr) and an expansion (your address). - Save.
Now type ;addr in any app. The abbreviation disappears and your address takes its place.
Next steps
- Using Keyed — groups, placeholders, case-aware expansion, pinned snippets, importing.
- Keyboard shortcuts — what to press, where.
- Settings — launch at login, excluded apps, general preferences.
- FAQ — permissions, privacy, troubleshooting.