Relay

The keystroke relay — chain shortcuts to any destination.

A macOS menu bar app that lets you define multi-key chord shortcuts that relay your intent to apps, shell commands, URLs, and more. Inspired by Vim's <leader> key and tmux prefix bindings.

Forked from mikker/LeaderKey — renamed per the author's request when distributing.

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How it works

Press your trigger key, then follow with a sequence of keys. Each key navigates a tree of shortcuts until you reach an action — which Relay fires off to its destination.

• triggerom → Open Messages
• triggermm → Mute audio
• triggerwm → Maximize window

No fuzzy search, no typing names — just muscle memory.

Install

Download the latest Relay.zip from Releases, unzip, and move Relay.app to /Applications.

First launch: macOS will block the app because it isn't notarized (requires a paid Apple developer account). To bypass Gatekeeper:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Relay.app

Then open normally.

Build from source:

git clone https://github.com/unstrike/Relay.git
cd Relay
open "Relay.xcodeproj"

Setup

1. Click the menu bar icon → Settings
2. Set your trigger key (Shortcut) — any key or combo, e.g. F12, ⌘⌥Space, or a hyper key via Karabiner
3. Add shortcuts in the Config tab

Trigger key recommendations

• F12
• ⌘ + Space
• ⌘⌥⌃⇧ + L (hyper key)
• Caps Lock → F12 via Karabiner (tap to trigger, hold for hyper)

Group shortcuts

Top-level groups can be assigned a global shortcut that fires them directly — skipping the trigger key entirely. Click the shortcut field on any top-level group row in the Config editor and record a key combo.

Useful for your most-reached groups when a single chord beats a two-step sequence.

URL Scheme

Relay supports URL scheme automation for integration with Alfred, Raycast, shell scripts, and more.

# Show the Relay window
open "relay://activate"

# Navigate and execute a shortcut sequence
open "relay://navigate?keys=o,m"

# Navigate without executing (preview)
open "relay://navigate?keys=o,m&execute=false"

# Reload config from disk
open "relay://config-reload"

# Reveal config.json in Finder
open "relay://config-reveal"

# Open settings
open "relay://settings"

# Reset navigation to root
open "relay://reset"

FAQ

Command action failing with "Command not found"?

Your shell's PATH must be exported in the non-interactive config file:

• zsh: ~/.zshenv
• bash: ~/.bash_profile

Disabled the menu bar icon and can't get back?

Activate Relay, then press ⌘,.

License

MIT