A Beginner’s Guide to Raycast
Raycast is one of my favorite tools. It’s a versatile launcher that makes it easier to do various things and be more productive. But it wasn’t until I dug around and watched some videos that I understood its full power.
I still don’t use Raycast to its maximum capacity, but here are some tools & commands that have been helpful for me — and that I wish I would’ve known about when I started using it.
To find any of the below tools, simply type in the name of the command into the Raycast launcher. If you can’t find it, it’s an external extension that you’ll need to download.
- Clipboard History - Easily my favorite feature. Never lose something you copy-paste again. This would have saved me a lot of hassle before
- I have it aliased to
c - Raycast AI - Access the best LLMs with one hotkey
- Command + Space + Tab for Quick AI to ask questions
- Command + J (or any hotkey) to pull up the full Raycast AI window
- Window Management
- My hotkeys:
- Command + ← to resize a window to the left half of my screen
- Command + → to resize a window to the right half of my screen
- Instant split screen
- Command + M to make a window max size
- Color Picker Extension - grab the Hex code for any color from anywhere
- Emoji
- I use this way more than I thought I would
- I have it linked to Command + E
- Comes with dingbats too
- Floating Notes Window
- Quicklinks - open any webpage super fast
- I have quicklinks for pages that I visit frequently e.g. our homepage, core landing pages, Twitter, etc.
- Currency converter: Type ___ [currency] to ___ [currency]
- Time converter: Type “time in Tokyo” or “12pm UTC” to translate to your time
- Figma File Search Extension
- Create Issues in Linear
- Year in Progress Extension is nice
- Translate
- Confetti for fun 🎉
- TinyPNG image compressor extension is great
There’s definitely more that I haven’t listed but will at some point.
Have fun!
Other videos that were helpful
What's in my Raycast with Pedro Duarte
Ever wondered how Pedro uses Raycast? In this video, he shares his most used commands, extensions and workflows! Follow Pedro on Twitter / X → https://twitter.com/peduarte Download Raycast → https://raycast.com Raycast Pro → https://raycast.com/pro Follow Raycast → https://twitter.com/raycastapp Extensions used - GitHub → https://www.raycast.com/raycast/github - Spotify Player → https://www.raycast.com/mattisssa/spotify-player - Linear → https://www.raycast.com/linear/linear - Color Picker → https://www.raycast.com/thomas/color-picker - Zoom → https://www.raycast.com/raycast/zoom - Download YouTube Videos → https://www.raycast.com/vimtor/youtube-downloader You can find the "Fill in the blank" Custom AI Command in our Prompt Explorer → https://prompts.ray.so [00:00:00] Intro [00:00:14] Clipboard History [00:00:50] Annotate Image with CleanShot [00:01:29] Search Screenshots [00:02:04] Window Management [00:03:14] Floating Notes [00:04:08] Quicklinks [00:05:20] Raycast AI [00:05:20] Raycast AI [00:06:40] Emoji Picker [00:07:09] Extensions [00:09:26] Outro
www.youtube.com
How does the Raycast CEO use Raycast?
In today's What's In My Raycast, Thomas – the CEO – shares his setup, workflows and some tips and tricks. Follow Thomas on Twitter / X → https://twitter.com/thomaspaulmann Download Raycast → https://raycast.com Raycast Pro → https://raycast.com/pro Follow Raycast → https://twitter.com/raycastapp Extensions used - Spotify Player → https://www.raycast.com/mattisssa/spotify-player - Linear → https://www.raycast.com/linear/linear - Color Picker → https://www.raycast.com/thomas/color-picker You can find Custom AI Commands in our Prompt Explorer → https://prompts.ray.so
www.youtube.com
How Does a Designer at Vercel Use Raycast?
Today's What's In My Raycast brings our first external guest: Mariana Castilho, a designer at Vercel. She shares her setup and workflows, and teaches Pedro something new. Follow Mariana on Twitter / X → https://twitter.com/mrncst Download Raycast → https://raycast.com Raycast Pro → https://raycast.com/pro Follow Raycast → https://twitter.com/raycastapp Extensions mentioned - Spotify Player → https://www.raycast.com/mattisssa/spotify-player - Figma → https://www.raycast.com/michaelschultz/figma-files-raycast-extension - Color Picker → https://www.raycast.com/thomas/color-picker - Screenstudio → https://www.raycast.com/screen-studio/screen-studio - Emoji Search → https://www.raycast.com/FezVrasta/emoji [00:00] Intro [00:31] How she uses her Mac [01:40] How she uses Raycast [04:10] Hotkey Logic [06:27] Spicy Questions 🌶️ [08:25] AI Demo [09:18] Extensions Rapid Fire 🔥 [10:11] Outro and Socials
www.youtube.com
Cal.com Co-founder shows his Raycast setup
Today's What's In My Raycast features Peer Richelsen, the Co-founder of the Cal.com open source project. He shares his setup and learns some tips and tricks from Pedro. Follow Peer on Twitter / X → https://twitter.com/peer_rich Download Raycast → https://raycast.com Raycast Pro → https://raycast.com/pro Follow Raycast → https://twitter.com/raycastapp Extensions mentioned - Cal.com → https://www.raycast.com/cal/cal-com-share-meeting-links - Color Picker → https://www.raycast.com/thomas/color-picker [00:00] Intro [00:27] Cal.com and Raycast [01:41] Aliases and other workflows [03:14] Hotkey Logic [04:01] The ♟️ing Chess App [05:27] Color picker and The Little Things [06:22] What he'd change about Raycast [06:49] Extensions Rapid Fire 🔥 [07:58] Outro and Socials
www.youtube.com
More rough notes
Recently started using caps lock as my hyperkey to open different apps:
Caps lock + A = Open Arc
Caps lock + N = Open Notion
Caps lock + S = Open Slack
Huge hack. Recommend using.