A lightweight macOS menu bar app that brings X11-style compose key sequences system-wide. Type a prefix (default ::) followed by a short sequence to insert Unicode characters in any app.
::C= → € ::ss → ß ::*a → α
::+- → ± ::ae → æ ::12 → ½
:::a → ä ::co → © ::--- → —
Over 900 sequences are included by default, and they can be customized (see below).
- macOS 13 or later
- Accessibility permission (System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility)
Download the latest release from the releases page. macOS will prompt for Accessibility access — the app cannot intercept keystrokes without it.
The default trigger prefix is ::, this is customizable. After typing the prefix, the next characters are considered inputs for a compose sequence and the whole input is replaced when an exact match is found. Press Escape or click away to cancel.
A suggestions popup appears near the cursor while composing in apps that support the macOS Accessibility API (most native apps). The popup is not shown in terminal emulators or Electron-based apps. It can be turned off in the settings.
From the settings a Compose file can be created in ~/.compose/Compose which allows editing of the included Compose sequences as well as adding new ones.
Add entries in X11 format:
<Multi_key> <key_1> <key_2> : "result_character"
Click "Reload" in Settings after editing the file.
Requires Xcode 15 or later.
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/SnippetCompose
open SnippetCompose.xcodeproj