Script Kit Guide

Running a Script

Press cmd+; (or ctrl+; on Windows) to open the Script Kit prompt. Search for the script you want to run and press enter to run it.

You can also open the prompt from the menu bar and select "Open Prompt."

Debugging a Script

With the prompt open, run a script with cmd+enter (ctrl+enter on Windows) to launch the script in debug mode. An inspector will appear alongside the script, allowing you to inspect current values and step through it line by line. Use the debugger statement anywhere in your script to create a breakpoint where your script will pause. (When running the script normally, the debugger statement is simply ignored.)

let response = await get("https://api.github.com/repos/johnlindquist/kit")

// The inspector will pause your script so you can examine the value of "response""
debugger

Create a Script

Keep your scripts in ~/.kenv/scripts ("kenv" stands for "Kit Environment").

With the Kit.app prompt open, start typing the name of the script you want to create, then hit `enter`` when prompted to create a script. Your editor will launch with the newly created script focused.

Kit.app continuously watches the ~/.kenv/scripts directory for changes. Creating, deleting, or modifying scripts will be automatically reflected in the Kit.app prompt.

Naming a Script

The file name of the script is lowercased and dashed like hello-world.js by convention. You can add an addionational //Name: Hello World to the top of your script for a more friendly name to appear when searching in the prompt.

//Name: Hello World

When creating a script with the prompt, you can type the Friendly Name of the script and Kit.app will automatically create the dashed file name for you.

// Shortcut Metadata

Use the // Shortcut metadata to add a global keyboard shortcut to any script

// Shortcut: cmd shift j

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

say(`You pressed command shift j`)

// Shortcut: opt i

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

say(`You pressed option i`)

Input Text with `await arg()`

The simplest form of input you can accept from a user is an arg()

// Name: Input Text

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

let name = await arg("Enter your name")

await div(md(`Hello, ${name}`))

Select From a List of Strings

// Name: Select From a List

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

let fruit = await arg("Pick a fruit", [
  "Apple",
  "Banana",
  "Cherry",
])

await div(md(`You selected ${fruit}`))

Select From a List of Objects

// Name: Select From a List of Objects

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

let { size, weight } = await arg("Select a Fruit", [
  {
    name: "Apple",
    description: "A shiny red fruit",
    // add any properties to "value"
    value: {
      size: "small",
      weight: 1,
    },
  },
  {
    name: "Banana",
    description: "A long yellow fruit",
    value: {
      size: "medium",
      weight: 2,
    },
  },
])

await div(
  md(
    `You selected a fruit with size: ${size} and weight: ${weight}`
  )
)

Select from a Dynamic List

// Name: Select From a Dynamic List

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

await arg("Select a Star Wars Character", async () => {
  // Get a list of people from the swapi api
  let response = await get("https://swapi.dev/api/people/")

  return response?.data?.results.map(p => p.name)
})

Display a Preview When Focusing a Choice

// Name: Display a Preview When Focusing a Choice

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

let heights = [320, 480, 640]
let choices = heights.map(h => {
  return {
    name: `Kitten height: ${h}`,
    preview: () =>
      `<img class="w-full" src="http://placekitten.com/640/${h}">`,
    value: h,
  }
})

let height = await arg("Select a Kitten", choices)

await div(md(`You selected ${height}`))

Display HTML Beneath the Input

If the second argument to arg() is a string, it will be displayed beneath the input as HTML.

// Just a string
await arg(
  "Select a fruit",
  md(`I recommend typing "Apple"`) // "md" converts strings to HTML
)

A function that returns a string will also be displayed beneath the input as HTML. You can use the input text in the function to create dynamic HTML.

// A function, takes typed "input", returns string
await arg("Select a fruit", input =>
  md(`You typed "${input}"`)
)

// An async function, takes typed "input", returns string
// `hightlight` requires "async" takes markdown, applies code highlighting

await arg(
  "Select a fruit",
  async input =>
    await highlight(` 
~~~js
await arg("${input}")
~~~
  `)
)

// Dynamic choices, static preview
await arg(
  {
    preview: async () =>
      await highlight(`
## This is just information

<!-- value: https://github.com/johnlindquist/kit/blob/main/GUIDE.md -->

Usually to help you make a choice
  
Just type some text to see the choices update
`),
  },
  async input => {
    return Array.from({ length: 10 }).map(
      (_, i) => `${input} ${i}`
    )
  }
)

Display Only HTML

Use await div('') to display HTML.

// Name: Display HTML

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

await div(`<h1>Hello World</h1>`)

Style the Container

The second argument of div allows you to add tailwind classes to the container of your html. For example, p-5 will add a padding: 1.25rem; to the container.

await div(`<h1>Hi</h1>`, `p-5`)

Display HTML with CSS

Script Kit bundles Tailwind CSS.

// Name: Display HTML with CSS

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

await div(
  `<h1 class="p-10 text-4xl text-center">Hello World</h1>`
)

Display Markdown

The md() function will convert Markdown into HTML that you can pass into div. It will also add the default Tailwind styles so you won't have to think about formatting.

// Name: Display Markdown

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

let html = md(`# Hello World`)

await div(html)

Create a Widget

Use the widget method to spawn a new, persisting window that is disconnected from the script.

await widget(`
<div class="bg-black text-white h-screen p-5">
    Hello there!
<div>

`)

Set Options using Flags

To add an options menu to your choices, you must provide a flags object. If one of the keyboard shortcuts are hit, or the user selects the option, then the flag global will have the matching key from your flags set to true:

let urls = [
  "https://scriptkit.com",
  "https://egghead.io",
  "https://johnlindquist.com",
]

let flags = {
  open: {
    name: "Open",
    shortcut: "cmd+o",
  },
  copy: {
    name: "Copy",
    shortcut: "cmd+c",
  },
}

let url = await arg(
  { placeholder: `Press 'right' to see menu`, flags },
  urls
)

if (flag?.open) {
  $`open ${url}`
} else if (flag?.copy) {
  copy(url)
} else {
  console.log(url)
}

Using the same script above, In the terminal, you would pass an open flag like so:

my-sites --open

Store Simple JSON data with db

The db helpers reads/writes to json files in the ~/.kenv/db directory. It's meant as a simple wrapper around common json operations.

// Menu: Database Read/Write Example
// Description: Add/remove items from a list of fruit

let fruitDb = await db(["apple", "banana", "orange"])

// This will keep prompting until you hit Escape
while (true) {
  let fruitToAdd = await arg(
    {
      placeholder: "Add a fruit",
      //allows to submit input not in the list
      strict: false,
    },
    fruitDb.items
  )

  fruitDb.items.push(fruitToAdd)
  await fruitDb.write()

  let fruitToDelete = await arg(
    "Delete a fruit",
    fruitDb.items
  )

  fruitDb.items = fruitDb.items.filter(
    fruit => fruit !== fruitToDelete
  )

  await fruitDb.write()
}

This db helper can also be used as a simple Key/value Store like this:

// Menu: Database Read/Write Example 2
// Description: Use 'db' helper as Key/Value Store

// Open the json file with the same name as the script file, the data in the param is the default, 
// which will be used when the db file is opened the first time
const scriptDB = await db({hello: 'World'});

// Note: This db read here should only make sure the db object has the latest content from disk. 
// It may be unnecessary directly after opening the db object. 
await scriptDB.read();

if (scriptDB.data.hello === 'World') {
    // change value in your db
    scriptDB.data.hello = 'Bob';
} else {
    // change value back in your db
    scriptDB.data.hello = 'World';
}

await scriptDB.write();

Watch Files to Trigger Scripts

The // Watch metadata enables you to watch for changes to a file on your system.

Watch a Single File

// Name: Speak File
// Watch: ~/speak.txt

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

let speakPath = home("speak.txt")

try {
  let content = await readFile(speakPath, "utf-8")
  if (content.length < 60) {
    // We don't want `say` to run too long 😅
    say(content)
  }
} catch (error) {
  log(error)
}

Watch a Directory

The // Watch metadata uses Chokidar under the hood, so it supports the same glob patterns. Please use cautiously, as this can cause a lot of scripts to run at once.

// Name: Download Log
// Watch: ~/Downloads/*

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

// These are optional and automatically set by the watcher
let filePath = await arg()
let event = await arg()

if (event === "add") {
  await appendFile(home("download.log"), filePath + "\n")
}

Run Shell Commands

Use zx to Run Shell Commands

Script Kit bundles zx as the global $

Here's an example from their docs (make sure to cd to the proper dir)

await $`cat package.json | grep name`

let branch = await $`git branch --show-current`
await $`dep deploy --branch=${branch}`

await Promise.all([
  $`sleep 1; echo 1`,
  $`sleep 2; echo 2`,
  $`sleep 3; echo 3`,
])

let name = "foo bar"
await $`mkdir /tmp/${name}`

Make HTTP Requests with get, put, post, and del

The get, post, put, and del methods use the axios API

Make a Get Request

// Name: Get Example

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

let response = await get(
  "https://scriptkit.com/api/get-example"
)

await div(md(response.data.message))

Make a Post Request

// Name: Post Example

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

let response = await post(
  "https://scriptkit.com/api/post-example",
  {
    name: await arg("Enter your name"),
  }
)

await div(md(response.data.message))

Download Files

Use download to download a file from a url:

// Name: Download a File

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

let url = "https://www.scriptkit.com/assets/logo.png"
let buffer = await download(url)

let fileName = path.basename(url)
let filePath = home(fileName)

await writeFile(filePath, buffer)

Read a Text File

You can use readFile to read a text file from your system:

// Name: Read a Text File

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

// Download a readme for the sake of the example
let fileUrl = `https://raw.githubusercontent.com/johnlindquist/kit/main/README.md`
let filePath = home("README.md")
let buffer = await download(fileUrl)
await writeFile(filePath, buffer)

// Read the file
let contents = await readFile(filePath, "utf-8")
await editor(contents)

Create a Text File

// Name: Create a Text File

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

let filePath = await path() // Select a path that doesn't exist

let exists = await pathExists(filePath)

if (!exists) {
  await writeFile(filePath, "Hello world")
} else {
  await div(md(`${filePath} already exists...`))
}

Live Edit a Text File

// Name: Update a Text File

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

let filePath = home(`my-notes.md`)

// `ensureReadFile` will create the file with the content
// if it doesn't exist
let content = await ensureReadFile(filePath, "Hello world")

await editor({
  value: content,
  onInput: debounce(async input => {
    await writeFile(filePath, input)
  }, 200),
})

Run a Script on a Schedule

Use cron syntax to run scripts on a schedule. The following example will show a notification to stand up and stretch every 15 minutes.

// Name: Stand Up and Stretch
// Schedule: */15 * * * *

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

notify(`Stand up and stretch`)

Crontab.guru is a great utility to help generate and understand cron syntax.

Environment Variables

The env helper will read environment variables from ~/.kenv/.env. If the variable doesn't exist, it will prompt you to create it.

// Name: Env Example

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

let KEY = await env("MY_KEY")

await div(md(`You loaded ${KEY} from ~/.kenv/.env`))

Environment Variable Async Prompt

If you pass a function as the second argument to env, it will only be called if the variable doesn't exist. This allows you to set Enviroment Variables from a list, an API, or any other data source.

// Name: Choose an Environment Variable

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

let MY_API_USER = await env("MY_API_USER", async () => {
  return await arg("Select a user for your API", [
    "John",
    "Mindy",
    "Joy",
  ])
})

await div(
  md(
    `You selected ${MY_API_USER}. Running this script again will remember your choice`
  )
)

Share as a Gist, Link, URL, or Markdown

The Script Kit main window also includes many other share options:

Share as Gist cmd+g: Creates as Gist of the selected script, then copies the URL to the clipboard
Share as Link opt+s: Creates a private installable kit://link to the selected script, then copies the URL to the clipboard. These links are very long as they encode the entire script into the URL.
Share as URL opt+u: Creates a Gist of the selected script, then copies an installable public URL to the clipboard
Share as Markdown cmd+m: Copies the selected script as a Markdown snippet to the clipboard

Get Featured

Featured scripts are displayed in:

The Community tab of the Script Kit main window
On the Community Scripts page

To get featured, post your script to the Script Kit Github discussions Share page. With a script focused in the Script Kit main window, you can press right or cmd+k to bring up a share menu which will automatically walk you through creating a shareable post for the script.

As a shortcut, hit cmd+s with a script selected to automatically run the "Share as Discussion" process.

Experiment with Data in Chrome DevTools

// Name: Play with Data in Chrome DevTools

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

// Will open a standalone Chrome DevTools window
// The object passed in will be displayed
// You can access the object using `x`, e.g., `x.message` will be `Hello world`
dev({
  message: "Hello world",
})

// Shortcode Metadata

A shortcode allows you quickly run a script without needing to search for it.

To trigger a // Shortcode, type the string of characters from the main menu, then hit spacebar. In this example, you would type oi then spacebar to run this script:

// Shortcode: oi

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

say(`You pressed option i`)

Quick Submit from Hint

A common pattern from Terminal is to quickly submit a script from a hint. Using a bracket around a single character will submit that character when pressed.

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

let value = await arg({
  placeholder: "Continue?",
  hint: `Another [y]/[n]`,
})

if (value === "y") {
  say(`You pressed y`)
} else {
  say(`You pressed n`)
}

Quick Submit from Choice

If you need to provide a little more information to the user, use a choice instead of a hint. This allows you to provide a full value that will be submitted instead of just the single letter.

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

let value = await arg("Select a food", [
  {
    name: "[a]pple",
    value: "apple",
  },
  {
    name: "[b]anana",
    value: "banana",
  },
  {
    name: "[c]heese",
    value: "cheese",
  },
])

await div(md(value))

Run Scripts from Other Apps

Are you a fan of one of these amazing tools?

Keyboard Maestro
Better Touch Tool
Karabiner
Raycast
Alfred

We love all these tools! So we made sure the scripts you create in Script Kit can be invoked by them too:

If you have a script named center-app, then you can paste the following snippet into the "scripts" section of any of these tools.

~/.kit/kar center-app

kar is an executable that takes the script name and sends it to Kit.app to run.

It's named kar because we're HUGE fans of karabiner and using "kit kar" as a transport for scripts into the app makes us giggle 😇

Any arguments you pass to the script will also be sent along. So if you want to run center-app with a padding of 50:

~/.kit/kar center-app 50

Select a Path

// Name: Select a Path

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

let filePath = await path()

await div(md(`You selected ${filePath}`))

Select a Path with Options

// Name: Select a Path with Options

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

await path({
  hint: `Select a path containing JS files`,
  onlyDirs: true,
  onChoiceFocus: async (input, { focused }) => {
    let focusedPath = focused.value
    try {
      let files = await readdir(focusedPath)
      let hasJS = files.find(f => f.endsWith(".js"))

      setPreview(
        md(
          `${
            hasJS ? "✅ Found" : "🔴 Didn't find"
          } JS files`
        )
      )
    } catch (error) {
      log(error)
    }
  },
})

Select from Finder Prompts

// Name: Select from Finder Prompt

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

let filePath = await selectFile()

let folderPath = await selectFolder()

await div(md(`You selected ${filePath} and ${folderPath}`))

Built-in Terminal

// Name: Run Commands in the Terminal

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

await term({
  //defaults to home dir
  cwd: `~/.kenv/scripts`,
  command: `ls`,
})

The shell defaults to zsh. You can change your shell by setting the KIT_SHELL environment variable in the ~/kenv/.env, but most of the testing has been done with zsh.

Built-in Editor

Script Kit ships with a built-in version of the Monaco editor. Use await editor() to switch to the editor prompt.

// Name: Editor Example

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

let result = await editor()

await div(md(result))

Load Text in the Editor

// Name: Load Text Into the Editor

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

let { data } = await get(
  `https://raw.githubusercontent.com/johnlindquist/kit/main/README.md`
)

let result = await editor({
  value: data,
  // Supports "css", "js", "ts", "md", "properties". "md" is default. More language support coming in future releases.
  language: "md",
  footer: `Hit cmd+s to continue...`,
})

await div(md(result))

Add ~/.kit/bin to $PATH

This is similar to VS Code's "Add code to path"

You can run the kit CLI from your terminal with

~/.kit/bin/kit

but this option will allow you run the CLI with:

kit

If you're familiar with adding to your .zshrc, just add ~/.kit/bin to your PATH.

The kit CLI will allow you to run, edit, etc scripts from your terminal.

Required Permissions for Features

Kit.app requires accessibility permission for the following reasons:

Watch user input to trigger Snippets and Clipboard History
Send keystrokes to trigger for setSelectedText, getSelectedText, keyboard.type and others
In the future, recording Macros, mouse actions, and more

❗️ You must quit Kit.app and re-open it for changes to take effect.

Submit From Live Data

Some scenarios require setInterval or other "live data" utils. This means you can't use await on the arg/div/textarea/etc because await prevents the script from continuing on to start the setInterval.

Use the Promise then on arg/div/textarea/etc to allow the script to continue to run to the setInterval. Inside of the then callback, you will have to clear the interval for your script to continue/complete:

let intervalId = 0
div(md(`Click a value`)).then(async value => {
  clearInterval(intervalId)

  await div(md(value))
})

intervalId = setInterval(() => {
  let value = Math.random()

  setPanel(
    md(`
  [${value}](submit:${value})
  `)
  )
}, 1000)

Strict Mode

strict is enabled by default and it forces the user to pick an item from the list, preventing them from entering their own text.

When you disabled strict, if you type something that eliminates the entire list, then hit Enter, the string from the input will be passed back.

Note: If the list values are Objects and the user inputs a String, you will need to handle either type being returned

// If the list is completely filtered, hitting enter does nothing.
let fruit = await arg(`You can only pick one`, [
  `Apple`,
  `Banana`,
  `Orange`,
])

// If the list is completely filtered, hitting enter sends whatever
// is currently in the input.
let fruitOrInput = await arg(
  {
    placeholder: `Pick a fruit or type anything`,
    strict: false,
  },
  [`Apple`, `Banana`, `Orange`]
)

await textarea(`${fruit} and ${fruitOrInput}`)

Quick Keys

A quick key allows you to bind a single key to submit a prompt.

You can add quick keys inside the "hint" if you don't want to bother with choices:

//Type "y" or "n"
let confirm = await arg({
  placeholder: "Eat a taco?",
  hint: `[y]es/[n]o`,
})

console.log(confirm) //"y" or "n"

Otherwise, add the quick keys in the name of the choices and it will return the quick key:

 // Type "a", "b", or "g"
let fruit = await arg(`Pick one`, [
  `An [a]pple`,
  `A [b]anana`,
  `a [g]rape`,
])

console.log(fruit) //"a", "b", or "g"

You can add a value, then typing the quick key will return the value:

// Type "c" or "a"
let vegetable = await arg("Pick a veggie", [
  { name: "[C]elery", value: "Celery" },
  { name: "C[a]rrot", value: "Carrot" },
])

console.log(vegetable) //"Celery" or "Carrot"

Position a Widget on Screen

You can control the size/position of each show window you create, but you'll need some info from the current screen (especially with a multi-monitor setup!) to be able to position the window where you want it:

let width = 480
let height = 320

let { workArea } = await getActiveScreen()
let { x, y, width: workAreaWidth } = workArea

await widget(
  md(`
# I'm in the top right of the current screen!

<div class="flex justify-center text-9xl">
😘
</div>
`),
  {
    width,
    height,
    x: x + workAreaWidth - width,
    y: y,
  }
)

Update on Input

When you pass a function as the second argument of arg, you can take the current input and return a string. Kit.app will then render the results as HTML. The simplest example looks like this:

await arg("Start typing", input => input)

If you want to make it look a bit nicer, you can wrap the output with some HTML:

await arg(
  "Type something",
  input =>
    `<div class="text-3xl flex justify-center items-center p-5">
${input || `Waiting for input`}
</div>`
)

Growing on the example above, here's a Celsius to Fahrenheit converter:

let cToF = celsius => {
  return (celsius * 9) / 5 + 32
}

await arg(
  "Enter degress in celsius",
  input =>
    `<div class="text-3xl flex justify-center items-center p-5">
${input ? cToF(input) + "f" : `Waiting for input`}
</div>`
)

Clone Git Repos with degit

We're developers. We clone project templates from github. degit is available on the global scope for exactly this scenario.

let projectName = await arg("Name your project")
let targetDir = home("projects", projectName)

await degit(`https://github.com/sveltejs/template`).clone(
  targetDir
)

edit(targetDir)

View Logs

When you use console.log() in a script, it writes the log out to a relative directory.

For example:

~/.kenv/scripts/my-script.js

will write logs to:

~/.kenv/logs/my-script.log

You can view the live output of a log in your terminal with:

tail -f ~/.kenv/logs/my-script.log

If you want to watch the main log, you can use:

tail -f ~/.kit/logs/kit.log

Save webpage as a PDF

You can save any webpage as a PDF.

// Name: Save news as PDF

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

const pdfResults = await getWebpageAsPdf('https://legiblenews.com');

await writeFile(home('news.pdf'), pdfResults);

Take screenshot of webpage

You can take a screenshot of any webpage.

// Name: Take screenshot of news webpage

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

const screenshotResults = await getScreenshotFromWebpage('https://legiblenews.com', {
  screenshotOptions: { fullPage: true },
});

await writeFile(home('news.png'), screenshotResults);

Scrape content from a webpage

You can scrape content from a webpage. The first time you run this, you will be prompted to install Playwright.

// Name: Scrape John's pinned Github repositories

import "@johnlindquist/kit"

const items = await scrapeSelector(
  'https://github.com/johnlindquist',
  // CSS Selector to target elements
  '.pinned-item-list-item-content > div > a',
  // [Optional] function to transform the elements, if omitted then `element.innerText` is returned
  (element) => ({
    title: element.innerText,
    link: element.href,
  }),
  // [Optional] options
  {
    headless: false,
    timeout: 60000,
  }
);

let filePath = home(`pinned-repos.md`)

// `ensureReadFile` will create the file with the content
// if it doesn't exist
let content = await ensureReadFile(filePath, items.map(({title, link}) => `- [${title}](${link})`).join('\n'))

Missing Something?

This Guide constantly evolving. If you're missing something, suggest an edit to the docs or open an issue on GitHub.

Hit Enter to download the latest docs.

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